Comcast monthly fee to remain

After months of discussion, a motion to renegotiate the Comcast franchise agreement to take out a 35cent fee died an abrupt death Tuesday when no one seconded the motion. Council members Rose Dempsey and Bob McCaslin were absent.

The fee is called PEG funding and can only be used to purchase broadcasting equipment and to support educational channels. The money is given to the city by Comcast, but Comcast would recoup the money by charging a 35cent monthly fee to all Spokane Valley subscribers. The discussion dates back to February when Councilman Dean Grafos strongly objected to the fee, calling it a tax. Since then he has pushed hard to have the fee removed and in March he was joined by Mayor Tom Towey and council members Gary Schimmels and Brenda Grassel in asking staff to prepare a motion to cancel the fee.

But on Tuesday Grafos didn’t say a word after the motion was made by Schimmels, who has been reading all the proposed motions lately. During a break in the meeting he said he was swayed by a presentation last week by Assistant City Attorney Cary Driskell, who said if the city did not collect the fee then Comcast could black out the education channels in Spokane Valley. Some residents use those channels to take college courses for credit. “I wanted to see if we had a choice,” Grafos said. He also denied wanting to cancel the fee. “I wanted the council to look at it.”

The 35 cents will be collected from customers, and the money will be given to the city by Comcast.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to approve several code text amendments. The changes will incorporate the new FEMA flood plain maps, address developer’s responsibilities and provide a reasonable use exception for properties impacted by critical areas. They also voted unanimously to send several items from the review of the Gateway Commercial zones in the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan to the Planning Commission for reconsideration. The topics to be reconsidered include sign limitations, setbacks and allowed uses.

During the public comment period former Spokane Valley Mayor Rich Munson urged the council to not let the Sprague Avenue corridor fall into chaos. “You know you have to run your business according to the rules,” he said. “A city is no different. Without rules you have chaos. We don’t want the libertarian ‘no government is good government.’”

In two more unanimous votes the council also agreed to purchase a new snowplow/sander for $177,000 and a new backhoe for $99,000. The money for the purchases will come from the money left over in the snowplowing budget, said public works director Neil Kersten. Half the money for the backhoe will come from the storm water fund because the backhoe will be used for storm water work in the summer in addition to snow removal in the winter.

The council also heard a broad overview of the 2011 budget. All departments have already been asked to reduce their 2010 budgets by 3 percent. “Right now it looks good that we’ll achieve that,” said acting city manager Mike Jackson. The cuts will save the city approximately $1million this year.

There was unanimous support for applying for a law enforcement grant of $44,000 that the Spokane Valley police chief would like to spend on seven rugged notebook computers and ammunition for firearms training. The computers are installed in police cars and are designed to withstand the vibrations and temperature extremes, said Valley Precinct Commander Lt. Matt Lyons. Officers can use the computers to access everything from law enforcement databases to the Physicians Desk Reference so they can identify prescription medication in the field. Lyons called the computers a “critical tool.” “It’s become so important now we don’t allow our guys to go out in the field without one,” he said.

There was also support for drafting a new panhandling ordinance that would be slightly more restrictive than the one the city has now. It would allow a misdemeanor charge for interfering with traffic against people who step into the roadway of a major arterial to collect money. “They are creating a traffic hazard because of the volume of traffic,” Driskell said.

Lyons said he would support the new ordinance. “I believe it would help us,” he said. “It’s a tool that we can use.”