Parking Meter Account To Be Set Up

Tue., July 11, 2000

The Spokane City Council voted Monday to transfer the contents of the city’s parking meter revenue fund to an escrow account in order to receive a stay of action from the state Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s commissioner is expected to rule today on whether the escrow arrangement is acceptable.

If the commissioner agrees, the move will ensure that the city will not have to loan parking meter money from the fund to the agency that runs the River Park Square parking garage, as ordered by a Spokane County Superior Court judge, until the Supreme Court makes a decision.

After Judge Michael Donohue sided with the downtown mall’s developers and ordered the city to loan funds May 24, the city appealed the decision directly to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. On Thursday, the court’s commissioner agreed to stay the order to loan funds, provided the city and the mall’s developer reach an agreement over putting the funds in an escrow account.

If the city wins its case, it will retain its funds. If it loses, the Spokane Parking Public Development Agency will receive its loan out of the escrow account. A decision in the case, which will be argued this fall, is not expected until next year.

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