Spokane City Charter Amendments

Thu., Nov. 2, 2000

By Oliver Staley olivers@spokesman.com

City of Spokane voters will have a chance to vote on five amendments to the City Charter.

Most are housekeeping measures required by the change to the strong mayor form of government or are efforts to remove sexist and antiquated language from the charter.

Amendment 1

Would remove a section of the charter that gives hiring preferences to married men and men with children. The section, which dates to 1910, is unconstitutional and has been ignored for years.

Amendment 2

Would establish the Neighborhood Council program as a permanent part of the City Charter. The amendment, brought forward by members of neighborhood councils, would give more permanence to the program, which currently could be abolished by a simple 4-3 council vote.

Amendment 3

Would replace masculine nouns and pronouns with gender-neutral terms. The amendment would add “or her” to references to ”him” and change “chairman” to “chair.”

Amendment 4

Would clean up and clarify language referring to the Civil Service Commission. The current language makes reference to the old city commission form of government, which has not been in place since 1960, and would clarify that the civil service commission’s budget allocation is to be based on the previous year’s payroll.

Amendment 5

Would clean up language that resulted from conflicts in the districting and strong mayor initiatives that both passed last year. It would also establish one-year residency requirements for candidates for city government and restore the right of the council to require reports from the mayor and hire its own staff.

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