The Spokane City Council signed a short-term deal Monday with Greater Spokane Inc. for business development services, following a monthlong delay on a contract extension. The contract requires GSI to solicit input from area companies about Spokane’s business climate and seeks to end conflicts of interest in joint federal lobbying efforts.

The City Council has room for improvement, in its approach to the Spokane area’s economy.

After only 15 months on the job, the leader of Greater Spokane Incorporated announced Tuesday that he is resigning his post. Steve Stevens announced his resignation, effective Oct. 16, in an email sent to GSI board members Tuesday evening.

Spokane Proposition 1, the Worker Bill of Rights, is a four-pronged proposition that would amend the city charter to require large employers to pay workers a “family wage,” ensure equal pay for equal work regardless of gender or race and add protections against termination.

From our archives, 100 years ago The Chamber of Commerce’s tourism committee recommended a plan to make Mount Spokane a top tourist attraction.

Requiring employers in Spokane to provide workers paid sick leave took another step forward this week. The Spokane City Council on Monday approved the formation of a committee comprising health, labor and business representatives to help craft a paid-leave law.

Pacing back and forth at the edge of the stage, far from the lectern but nearer his audience, Spokane Mayor David Condon gave a confident, upbeat appraisal of his first three years in office in his annual State of the City address, noting that much of his administration’s work at City Hall began with the premise: “What would happen if?” Condon pointed to changes at the city during his tenure, including a revamped plan to keep pollutants out of the river, the hiring of more police officers, and the success of the Riverfront Park bond and street levy.

Spokane City Councilwoman Candace Mumm is all too familiar with the conditions that have led women workers in Washington state to make 78 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts. As a young nightly TV news anchor in South Dakota, Mumm was tasked with writing scripts, producing shows and appearing in front of the camera. In spite of those tasks – above and beyond those of her male co-anchor – Mumm earned $10,000 less annually, she said.

The Inland Northwest economy in 2015 will roll on at a modest pace, two economists said Tuesday during the annual Greater Spokane Incorporated forecast breakfast. Just don’t expect it to pick up speed, said Avista Chief Economist Grant Forsyth and former US Bank economist John Mitchell.

A task force of business leaders met behind closed doors on Wednesday to talk about the future of the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza in the heart of downtown. The meeting comes after business interests persuaded the STA board in July to postpone until November a vote on moving ahead with a $5.8 million remodel of the plaza, the city’s central bus station.

A Utah company has repaid $150,000 in state incentives it received to start a call center in Liberty Lake, only to close the business within a year. The grant from the Washington Department of Commerce was provided to Vivint, a Provo, Utah, company that sells home automation, energy and security systems.

A Utah company that hoped to create 400 call-center jobs in Spokane County is shutting down, just shy of a year after moving into offices in Liberty Lake. Vivint Inc. said Tuesday it is closing the Liberty Lake location on June 27.