Spokane Council bucks tradition, moves meetings to Wednesdays

The Spokane City Council will start holding its legislative meetings on Wednesdays, ending a 114-year streak of Monday meetings, effective July 9.

Changing the meeting day has been a hotly debated topic for the past two years, but a 6-1 vote Monday finally put the issue to bed – at least for now.

“It can always be rolled back,” said Councilman Michael Cathcart, the sole “no” vote, during Monday’s debate.

According to archived copies of the Official Gazette of the city of Spokane, where the city publishes minutes from council meetings, the council has typically held its regularly scheduled legislative sessions on Mondays since Oct. 7, 1912.

The council’s schedule has changed profoundly over the past century, primarily as the administrative powers of its members, who once simultaneously served as commissioners for various city agencies, were gradually handed over to a city manager and to the mayor’s office. At one point, the council met every day of the work week, and occasionally on Saturdays, to perform administrative duties.

When the debate began in late 2024, council President Betsy Wilkerson argued a shift to Tuesday meetings was motivated by the high number of Monday holidays, and that these canceled meetings created challenges for the council, residents and city staff.

However, few cancellations actually land on holidays. Of the 13 cancellations scheduled for 2026 – subject to change now that the meeting day has been moved – only four land on major holidays: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day. Other than the City Council, City Hall doesn’t close on Presidents Day.

But in the most recent iteration of debate that got rolling late last year, the change could also give the council and the public more time to digest what’s being voted on.

Currently, Mondays are packed with council meetings: Committees start at noon when legislation is first introduced; briefing sessions are later in the afternoon where the evening’s agenda is finalized, last -minute amendments are approved and items may get tabled for another week or longer; and finally, votes happen at the evening meeting.

If those afternoon meetings go long, the agenda can be approved just minutes before the legislative meeting in the evening, meaning the public may arrive in council chambers at 6 prepared to testify on an item that has been heavily amended or pulled off the agenda altogether.

A slate of changes to council rules anticipated for a vote next week would move the committee and briefing meetings to Tuesdays, giving the public a full day to understand – and the council some time to eat.

“Last Monday, when we had less than a five-minute break between our agenda review and the legislative session, council member Telis was kind enough to hand me a Snickers bar for dinner,” Councilman Paul Dillon said. “You’re not getting the best version of me, you’re not getting the best representative democracy.”

Councilwoman Sarah Dixit argued that holding their prevote meetings on Mondays was difficult for city staff to accommodate.

“Mondays are really tight turnarounds for them, coming from the weekend and then having to get all their materials ready to present to us,” Dixit said.

With an appeal to tradition, Cathcart argued there was little convincing reason to change the council’s meeting days after 114 years.

“Upending 114 years of history on the day we meet, I don’t know – I’m just not sure that’s something I need to do,” Cathcart said. “If there’s a really strong argument for the move, perhaps I would consider it.”

But traditions don’t necessarily hold value, argued Dillon and Councilwoman Kate Telis.

“For those keeping track at home, next month, it’ll have been 114 years since the Titanic sank,” Dillon quipped Monday. “That is not a metaphor for City Council, but I just want to put that out there.”

Cathcart also questioned whether the change would interfere with the city’s relatively unique form of neighborhood governance, where each city neighborhood has an advisory council, some of which meet on Wednesdays.

“I would hate to see any of my constituents, even one constituent, unable to come because they’re torn between a neighborhood meeting and an important issue on our agenda,” Cathcart said.

Telis, Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke and Wilkerson argued that they and City Hall had been actively working with neighborhood councils to inform them of the change.

“The Wednesday neighborhood councils in our district were not concerned,” Klitzke said.