Selection process wrapping up

Spokane Valley Mayor Tom Towey announced Tuesday that the City Council will select a new city manager at the next meeting on Aug. 10. There is no meeting on Aug. 3 because of National Night Out festivities.

“I want to thank everyone for being so patient with us,” Towey said at the regular council meeting.

Councilwoman Rose Dempsey said the council has good candidates to consider. “I’m just glad we’re near the end of this,” she said.

The finalists are current acting City Manager Mike Jackson; Paul Schmidt of Cheney, currently city administrator of Oak Harbor, Wash.; and Michael Wilson of Gig Harbor, Wash., who owns the consulting company Municipal Management Services.

There was no discussion Tuesday on having a meeting where the public could meet the three candidates, as was done when the city picked its first city manager. In an interview Monday, Towey didn’t seem to be in favor of having such a meeting.

Towey said there is no procedure in place to allow public input on the candidates. There might be backlash if the council picks a candidate the public did not like and the council has information on the candidates that the public would not have, he said. “I don’t know what the purpose would be.”

In other business, the council voted to continue a month-to-month contract with Community Minded Television to continue recording the council meetings for later rebroadcast on Comcast Channel 14. The council voted in June to pay to televise meetings until the end of July so the council could get more information on next year’s budget at the budget retreat held in mid-July.

The month-to-month agreement is more of a short-term option, said Jackson. He recommended adding broadcasting to the 2011 budget. “If you’d like to we can put a number in the budget,” he said. “We certainly have the funds. It’s certainly something we could do.”

Businessman Carlos Landa called the broadcasting a “really positive thing” but questioned the pay as you go method. “It seems like it should be an annualized situation,” he said.

Councilman Bob McCaslin was the lone no vote on the month-to-month contract with Councilwoman Brenda Grassel absent.

With the temporary fix in place, discussion turned to when and how to consider a more permanent solution. Councilman Bill Gothmann recommended going with the option that would allow real time production and recording for later broadcast so the city could use PEG funds from Comcast to pay one time equipment costs. “It would seem to be the right thing to do,” he said.

“I’m on Mr. Gothmann’s bandwagon here,” said Dempsey.

Councilman Dean Grafos recommended putting a line item in the 2011 budget for broadcasting before deciding on what to pay for. “I think we have some options to reduce that cost,” he said.

“There are certainly other options out there that we can explore more fully,” Jackson said.

The council also considered a text amendment that would allow the community development director to grant administrative exceptions to minor design changes to the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan, add full service restaurants as an allowed use in the Mixed Use Avenue zone and allow restricted access to “other streets” in the Mixed Use Avenue Zone. The Planning Commission recommended approval of all three provisions.

Grafos said he would like to change the proposed amendment to add vehicle sales as a permitted use. Towey said that provision was already under consideration. “I believe the Planning Commission set that aside,” he said. “That will come to us from the Planning Commission at a later date.”

The vote to advance the proposed amendments to a second reading was unanimous.