Spokane City Council will still be doing business virtually to start 2021, but the new year will bring the return of an old pillar of its meetings – open forum.

A new Spokane Municipal Community Court branch in the East Central Neighborhood is an evolution in the reformation of the city’s criminal justice system, but one Spokane City Council member has questioned whether a community center and neighborhood pillar is the right home for it.

The Spokane City Council agreed Monday to contribute $1.1 million toward a new facility that will, in lieu of jail, treat people with mental health and substance abuse disorders who are arrested for low-level crimes.

Spokane City Council members largely agreed Monday on what federal policy changes Congress should enact, but one stood out.

Mark Wiener vividly remembers the Great Portland Fluoride Battle of 2013.

The Spokane City Council is barreling toward an initial vote on fluoridating the city’s water supply this week, but before it does so, those for and against the plan will be given an opportunity to offer their input.

Although nonbinding, the resolution would lay out the city’s template for criminal justice reform, prioritizing efforts that reduce crime while emphasizing opportunities for diversion from jail and rehabilitation for defendants.

It just became a little bit easier to get a table at Perry Street Brewing.

The Spokane City Council has put on hold policies addressing the tenant/landlord relationship, instead shifting focus to providing resources for those facing housing challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But the work to establish new rules is continuing. 

The outline presented by Woodward to the Spokane City Council includes plans for regional collaboration with Spokane County and Spokane Valley. In addition to an emergency shelter, the city is looking to establish a "bridge shelter" that would require a referral and work to get people in their own housing. 

A new law will prevent the city of Spokane from closing a homeless shelter in which beds are occupied unless it has a replacement plan or shows there is vacancy elsewhere.

The Spokane City Council voted Monday to override Mayor Nadine Woodward's veto of a new law that bans the use of "Mosquito" devices – small speakers that emit a shrill, high-pitched noise meant to disperse the young and homeless from congregating or sleeping near a business. 

In their quest for police reform, elected officials in the city of Spokane may lean on their counterparts in the state Legislature for help.

The Spokane City Council resoundingly shot down a controversial new contract with the union that represents Spokane police officers on Monday.

"Let us be clear: Any contract that has that language related to the ombudsman or the ombudsman commission is absolutely unacceptable," Kurtis Robinson, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, told the crowd outside City Hall. "The matter of police accountability is a conversation between the city and the people – not the city and the guild."

In response to growing to public pressure and recent protests over police brutality, the Spokane City Council will consider a resolution calling for sweeping reforms to policing.

The city of Spokane received more than $6 million this spring from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. 

The four-pronged plan calls for defunding the Spokane Police Department and instead invest in addiction and mental health programs. Organizers also want greater civilian oversight of the department and to reduce the purchase of tactical equipment.