Spokane council approves another $650,000 to fight six lawsuits on Monday

Freedom of speech, expensive water, vaccine mandates and a death at the hands of police: These are a few of the things the city of Spokane is defending itself against in court.

The Spokane City Council on Monday approved an additional $650,000 to fight six active lawsuits against the city, raising the total cost of defending against these claims to north of $1.6 million.

Two cases stem from outstanding litigation regarding the Spokane City Council’s decision in 2023 to condemn then-Mayor Nadine Woodward for her attendance at a prayer concert hosted by self-described Christian nationalist Sean Feucht which also featured former state legislator Matt Shea.

Another two cases come from lawsuits filed by 25 Spokane firefighters fired under Woodward’s tenure for failing to comply with COVID-19 vaccination requirements mandated by the state and enforced by the city.

The city is also fighting a lawsuit filed by the family of a Spokane man shot and killed by police in late 2024.

Finally, an insurance company retained by the city decades ago is arguing it shouldn’t be on the hook for the tens of millions of dollars sought through two lawsuits slated for trial later this year, both of which claim the city unfairly set higher rates for water customers outside of city limits.

Free speech

As smoke from fires in Medical Lake and Elk shrouded Spokane in August 2023, Woodward joined Shea on stage at the Podium during a stop on the “Kingdom to the Capitol ” tour, a religious and political series organized by Feucht’s organization Let Us Worship. Shortly before introducing Woodward to the stage, Shea compared same-sex marriage and transgender rights to the fires that had devastated the nearby communities.

A month after the event, the Spokane City Council narrowly voted to formally denounce Woodward’s attendance.

In the following year, the three sued the city and the council members who voted to denounce them, arguing the denunciation infringed on their religious liberties and freedom of speech, among other damages.

A Superior Court judge dismissed Feucht’s lawsuit in September, though he filed an appeal weeks later.

On Monday, the City Council voted to spend an additional $50,000 fighting Feucht’s lawsuit, bringing total costs to $300,000. The Council also voted Monday to spend another $50,000 fighting Shea’s suit in federal court.

Meanwhile, Woodward in April upped her demand for damages from the city. Her initial tort claim in 2024 sought $1.4 million; in April, she amended that claim to $10 million.

Vaccine mandates

More than two dozen firefighters sued Spokane, Woodward and others in 2022 for wrongful termination after they were fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, arguing the mandate issued by then-Gov. Jay Inslee infringed on their freedom of religion.

The city, they claim, selectively enforced the mandate against firefighters who sought a religious exemption while filling the gaps caused by their firing with firefighters from neighboring departments that allowed religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate.

A federal judge dismissed the firefighters’ claims, but that decision was reversed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the city had undermined its case by bringing in firefighters from neighboring departments that allowed religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate. The case has been remanded for further proceedings.

On Monday, the City Council voted to approve an additional $300,000 to fight the federal case, bringing total costs to $685,000.

Andrea Kernkamp, a former lieutenant firefighter/paramedic with the Spokane Fire Department, is a party to the federal suit but also filed a separate suit in Superior Court in June. In that case, Kernkamp also alleges that she had a medical disability that should have allowed her to be exempted from the vaccine mandate.

The Council approved an additional $50,000 on Monday to fight Kernkamp’s suit, bringing total costs to $100,000. Councilman Michael Cathcart was the sole “no” vote for both contract amendments.

“My view at the time was that we could have made accommodation for these city employees, as other jurisdictions did,” Cathcart wrote in a text. “It was a difficult circumstance, but at some point we have to weigh the cost of this litigation, the public’s interest in moving forward, and the fact that these were our employees.”

Killed by police

The family of Joshua Musselman, a 29 -year -old shot and killed by police in December 2024, filed a lawsuit against the city in January.

Police had been called to Musselman’s North Hill apartment with reports that a man had fired several shots on the top floor of the apartment building.

Several officers responded and requested an armored vehicle to assist. One of the officers reported over the radio that Musselman was seen at one point with what appeared to be a rifle that was “possibly suppressed.” Officers reported “shots fired.”

Musselman died at the scene despite lifesaving efforts by officers, Spokane firefighters and other medical personnel.

Investigators recovered what appeared to be a realistic-looking rifle, later determined to be a “high-velocity retail -sale production air rifle,” near where Musselman died, the release said.

The lawsuit, which names Spokane, the Spokane Police Department and Washington state, alleges that the state’s behavioral health system failed to assist Musselman and that city police failed to de-escalate an apparent mental health crisis.

The Spokane City Council on Monday approved spending $100,000 to fight the lawsuit, bringing total costs to $150,000.

No duty to pay

An insurer is also taking Spokane to court, arguing it shouldn’t have to pay out if two lawsuits over water rates go south.

The bill the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania is trying to dodge is significant: one class -action lawsuit brought by water customers outside of city limits is seeking $30 million, while another brought by a golf course outside the city hasn’t specified the amount it’s seeking.

For city water, there are essentially two classes of customer: those inside the city and those outside the city. For residential customers, out-of-city rates are 50% higher. Commercial rates are more complex but are also about 50% higher.

Spokane continues to fight lawsuits that claim the city has for decades overcharged thousands of water customers who live outside city limits and cannot show how those higher costs are necessary or proportionate to the cost to deliver that water.

More than 92% of Spokane’s water customers are located within city limits, but the city has the right to sell its water to residential and commercial customers in an area stretching outside city limits. While Spokane legally can’t pick up the garbage of a county resident and charge for the service, the city can sell its water in an area outside of its borders. Customers – or, often, developers – can enter into an agreement with the city to purchase city water.

The ongoing fight over water rates for customers outside Spokane city limits started with a golf course south of the airport.

In 2017, right as spring turned to summer, the city of Spokane turned off the spigot for the Plains Golf Course, which at the time was called the Fairways, in the middle of a yearslong dispute regarding unpaid water bills.

At the time, the Fairways had a $40,740 outstanding bill for two months from the 2016 golf season and another two months from the 2015 season. City officials offered a payment plan, but club professional Kris Kallem said at the time the rates being charged would force the course to shut down. The Fairways decided to sue.

Within weeks, a $30 million class-action lawsuit representing thousands of out-of-city water customers was also filed.

Plaintiffs of both cases argue the city arbitrarily set water rates for out-of-city customers.

The lawsuits were both put on hold for years amid a fight over whether the city’s rates must be “just and reasonable;” the city lost that fight in 2024, opening the door for the lawsuits to continue.

The golf course’s case is currently scheduled for an August trial; the class-action suit also appears to be headed for trial later this year.

With trials looming, the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania is arguing it shouldn’t be on the hook to cover judgments against the city if the lawsuits go poorly for Spokane.

The insurer argues the city should solely repay unlawful profits if the court decides the city’s higher rates for customers outside its limits were illegal. It also argues its policy only covered monetary damages, but no other forms of relief, among other arguments.

The City Council approved $100,000 on Monday to fight the insurer, bringing total costs to $200,000.