Exhibitors exempted from licenses

The Spokane City Council spent its first meeting night of 2005 finishing up on some controversy left over from 2004.

The council voted 5-1 in favor of an ordinance that exempts exhibitors at arts and crafts shows, trade shows and consumer shows from having to pay for city business licenses.

Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers voted against the ordinance because she said she preferred an earlier proposal to charge vendors $5 a day in lieu of city business licenses.

The controversy began in 2003 when city licensing staff started showing up at some of the area’s largest holiday craft shows seeking to enforce the city’s business license requirement. Licenses are $60 for a full year, or $35 for a 90-day permit.

An outcry led to an effort to find a compromise. Last summer, the council considered charging a $5 daily fee instead, but organizers of shows were against that.

Don Walsdorf, organizer of the annual Spokane Western and Wildlife Art Show, told the council Monday that charging artists and exhibitors for business licenses would discourage shows and exhibitors from coming to Spokane.

He said the ordinance approved on Monday “is certainly a step in the right direction, from my perspective.”

Councilman Bob Apple said other communities do not charge business license fees to exhibitors, so the city should not, either.

Council President Dennis Hession said collecting license fees from exhibitors allows the city to apply its license requirement more fairly. He said business owners in the city are required to pay for annual licenses, but not all exhibitors at shows have them. That creates an inequity, said Hession.

Hession supported the ordinance anyway, saying the little money the city would earn is not worth the negative publicity. The city estimates that exhibitor licenses would bring in about $40,000 a year.

Hession said Monday’s ordinance, creating the exemption for exhibitors, was supported by Mayor Jim West. The city had talked about requiring show organizers and promoters to submit lists with names of exhibitors, plus other identifying information. That idea was abandoned.

In other business, the council learned that a former city councilman has sued the city seeking to invalidate a council-approved settlement in the River Park Square parking garage dispute.

Steve Eugster filed his lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court on Monday, seeking a declaratory judgment against the settlement. He contends that state law does not allow the city to transfer the parking garage to the mall owner while there remains a need for off-street parking downtown.

The settlement transfers title to the mall garage to the owners River Park Square in exchange for a guarantee by Cowles Publishing Co. to make payments on a separate loan obtained through the city and federal government in 1998 for construction of the mall. The mall is owned by real estate affiliates of Cowles Publishing, which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

A federal judge is expected to review the reasonableness of the settlement during a court hearing in Richland today.

City Attorney Mike Connelly declined to comment on Eugster’s lawsuit. He said he was reviewing it.

Eugster’s complaint also contends the settlement violated state accounting law. He contends the council’s action on the settlement during a special meeting on Dec. 27 violated the state open meetings act. Also, he said the city charter prohibits ordinances involving more than one subject.