Proposition limiting Spokane City Council’s ability to draw its own districts likely headed for November ballot

Spokane voters will likely weigh in this November on whether City Council members should lose some of their ability to draw their own council district boundaries.

“Having witnessed what went on in the fall, it’s clear, whether by accident or intention, the process is not working,” City Councilman Michael Cathcart said when he first introduced the proposal in April. “This is about instilling confidence in the election system.”

Pointing to concerns that last year’s process was improperly influenced by politics, Cathcart is proposing an amendment to the city’s charter that would limit the council’s authority to override decisions by a volunteer redistricting advisory body. It would also limit the council’s authority over who served on that commission.

The council will vote Monday whether to put the measure on the November ballot. The proposition has received little pushback from Cathcart’s council colleagues.

While the city’s mayor and city council president are elected citywide, other council members are elected by voters in one of three districts. Every decade, after the U.S. Census is published, Spokane redraws the boundaries of those districts to ensure each has roughly the same number of residents.

In 2022, the city tasked three volunteers, appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council, with drawing possible new maps. But the City Council rejected the map the commission recommended, instead approving a map drawn by Councilman Zack Zappone that made his district more likely to elect liberals, though he argued the primary purpose was to unify neighborhoods that had previously been split between council districts.

That prompted Cathcart to propose the charter change.

“It should not have happened that a council member had the ability to provide their own map, and that a majority of the council opted to adopt those changes instead of the commission’s recommendation,” Cathcart said in April.

Proposition 1 has three key provisions.

First, it would expand the redistricting commission from three members to seven, and the Community Assembly, made up of neighborhood council appointees, would verify if applicants are qualified. The mayor would appoint three members, one from each existing district, and the City Council would appoint three. Those six members would vote to appoint a nonvoting seventh member who would act as chairperson; if no agreement is reached, the Community Assembly would choose the seventh member.

Cathcart originally proposed that the city Plan Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council, should be the body to verify qualified applicants. In the version now considered, that role would be filled by the Community Assembly.

Candidates for the commission must have been a resident of Spokane for a minimum of two consecutive years, and they must be registered voters. Candidates cannot have been a registered lobbyist in the state within two years prior to selection.

After serving, they are prohibited from becoming a lobbyist in the next year, or to seek election or appointment to a City Council position for two years. During their tenure on the commission, they cannot campaign for any elected office, except for precinct committee officer, a low-level hyperlocal party functionary, or raise funds for, contribute to or participate in the campaigns for any local, state or federal office.

The second key provision would bar the City Council from replacing the redistricting commission’s recommended map with one drafted by the council, as occurred last year. If a council majority votes against the recommendation, it would be sent back to the commission, which would have to draft a new map. If no map was approved, the preexisting maps would be adopted automatically, so long as they don’t violate state law.

Finally, Cathcart’s charter amendment would create a process for local residents to request a redistricting process in the middle of the decennial.

Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years, after the census is published. However, the City Council can redistrict in the fifth year of this 10-year cycle. The panel has not exercised that power in the two decades since the city charter was adopted.

As originally proposed, residents would have been able to demand a redistricting process with a petition containing signatures of 1% as many city residents as voted in the last city election. The proposal now being considered increases that threshold to 5%.

Citizens will still be able to challenge an adopted map in court on the grounds that it violates state law.