Youth Commission May Become Joint Venture City Council To Consider Including County Members On Chase Panel
Spokane’s Chase Youth Commission plans to give the county a bigger say in the organization’s future.
City Council members will consider a proposal tonight to convert the commission that encourages teen leadership into a joint city-county venture.
“This will be a conduit for greater youth involvement, to add that voice to the commission,” said Joanne Benham, director of the city’s Youth Department. “Maybe, this way, we’ll get more rural and suburban involvement than in the past.”
Former Mayor Jim Chase created the commission in 1985 to get teenagers involved in government and other community activities.
The commission’s annual Chase Youth Awards and Kids Week activities always have been available to city and county residents alike, Benham said. But membership on the commission has been restricted to city residents.
Under the proposal, the 11-member commission would be expanded to 15. The four new members - including three teenagers and one adult - would be appointed by county commissioners and would come from the county’s small towns and unincorporated areas.
As the terms of city members expire, they would be replaced by county residents until the board has seven county and seven city members. The 15th person would be jointly appointed by the council and county commissioners.
The final composition would include seven teenagers and eight adults.
Under the proposal, the county would contribute $30,000 toward the Youth Department’s $144,000 budget.
Convincing county commissioners to get involved wasn’t hard, said Kasey Kramer, the county’s director of community services.
Linking with the city keeps the county from starting something similar on its own, he said.
“Youths and adults who are interested can have a voice on this very solid, already-established commission,” Kramer said. “We don’t have to duplicate anything.”
Benham agreed.
“This is really forward-thinking,” she said. “We’ve talked a lot about combining city and county services. We already have the commission … “Why reinvent all that?”
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CITY COUNCIL MEETING A briefing for the council starts at 3:30 p.m. today in the lower-level conference room of City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. The meeting begins at 6 p.m.