This Study Session Format meeting of the Spokane Valley City Council opened with a proclamation honoring National American Indian Heritage Month. The meeting started at 4:00pm to give Council members an opportunity to celebrate Halloween with their families.
The first action item was supposed to be a motion consideration to adopt a Homeless Action Plan (Plan), however, Councilmember Padden felt she hadn’t enough time to consider it thoroughly, so action was deferred.
The Plan is a high-level plan that provides a roadmap to address, reduce, and prevent homelessness in the City. Leading up to this action, Council has committed to operate its own homeless housing program and to meet all applicable legal and regulatory requirements set forth under state law.
The plan has three primary objectives:
• To prevent homelessness from occurring in the first place whenever possible
• To reduce existing levels of homelessness
• To improve the quality of life for all Spokane Valley residents
The Plan provides possible strategies for Council to achieve these objectives as funding becomes available. It also provides information on funding sources and crisis/response systems. In committing to its own homeless plan, Council will need to set up a five-year plan before the end of 2024. The motion to defer the Homeless Action Plan passed unanimously.
Last week Council adopted Ordinance 23-018 which creates a new chapter, 3.85 of the Spokane Valley Municipal Code, forming a Transportation Benefit District (TBD). That new chapter provides the following:
• Establishes a TBD with the same boundaries as the City.
• The TBD governing board would be City Council.
• Grants to the City all authority allowed under state law (RCW 36.73)
• May establish fees, taxes, and other revenue sources.
• May authorize annual vehicle fees.
• May submit fees, taxes, and other revenue sources to voters.
• Identifies allowable uses for TBD funds.
• Transportation improvements that construct, preserve, maintain, and operate the existing and future transportation infrastructure of the City.
• Identifies when the TBD is dissolved.
The newly created TBD is a separate legal entity. The law allows the City to assume the rights, powers, functions, and obligations of the TBD. However, in order to do so, Council must:
• Adopt a resolution declaring its intention to consider assumption of the powers of the TBD and to set a public hearing.
• Conduct a public hearing on the assumption of powers of the TBD.
• Adopt an ordinance assuming the rights, powers, functions, and obligations of the TBD.
Proposed Resolution 12-012 declares Council’s intention to consider assumption of powers of the Spokane Valley TBD which triggers the need for the required public hearing. The motion to adopt Resolution 23-012 passed 6-1 (Padden, no), setting the date for the public hearing as November 14, 2023. A copy of the ordinance can be found on the City website: www.spokanevalleywa.gov.
On September 20th, 2022, Council adopted Ordinance 22-016 establishing the Spokane Valley Tourism Promotion Area (TPA). Under the terms of the TPA, the Spokane Valley Hotel Commission (Commission) was formed. The Commission, with Council approval, hired 116 & West as consultants to develop a five-year destination marketing plan starting with an 18-month marketing service plan.
Year one of the five-year plan includes development of: a brand and identity package to include a total campaign, asset library, virtual visitor center, concepts, and a website. Also planned are social media properties, reputation management, local brand launch campaign, Spokane Sports support, paid media campaigns, earned media, and strategic account management.
“Discover THE VALLEY and Spokane Valley, WA” (tagline) for branding the City’s tourism initiatives were adopted. Progress checkpoints are outlined to monitor the progress and success of the program. For a complete presentation of the plan(s), please visit the City website: www.spokanevalleywa.gov.
On December 13th, 2022, the City agreed to join Spokane County in a Master Plan to improve the Plante’s Ferry Sports Complex. The County has dedicated $5 million of its American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to the project. The cost of a consultant to construct a master plan is estimated to be $100,000. An interlocal agreement defining the City’s participation in sharing funding for the project, at an approximate cost of $50,000, was agreed upon.
In February of this year, the consultant, after a detailed site visit, arrived at a phased plan for development. When completed, the Complex will include 13 rectangle fields (soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey), five triangle fields (softball and baseball), expanded parking, and amenities such as restrooms and concessions. The plans are extensive. For a detailed view of the presentation, please visit www.spokanevalleywa.gov.
In 2020, Monsanto Corporation was the defendant in a class action suit alleging PCB contamination of the class members’ stormwater, stormwater systems, waterbodies, and/or sediments. In a settlement agreement Monsanto paid to the City, as a member of the class action,$3,548,719. Neither the settlement agreement nor the court order restricts the City’s use of the funds.
City Council meetings are held in the Great Room at CenterPlace until further notice. City Hall, however, is open for business during normal business hours. The Public is invited to Council meetings to participate in action items or public comment periods in person or via ZOOM. Call 509-720-5000 or www.spokanevalley.org prior to 4:00 p.m. for access instructions. Council meetings are broadcast on Comcast channel 14.
This meeting of the Spokane Valley City Council opened in its formal format designed to address business items. Since the last amendment to the City’s budget on May 30, 2023, a number of events have transpired necessitating a second 2023 Budget Amendment. Those changes resulted in revenue increases of $19,576,029 and expenditure increases of $15,483,699 for a net increase of $4,092,330 revenues over expenditures.
Following a public hearing on the Budget Amendment, Spokane Valley City Council moved into a series of action items starting with a First Reading of Ordinance 23-020 which addresses the latest amendments to the 2023 Budget. The public hearing was followed by a First Reading on Ordinance 23-020. A motion to advance Ordinance 23-020 to a Second Reading passed 5-2 (Wick, Peetz/no).
That action was followed by the First Reading of Ordinance 20-021, in the process of adopting the 2024 City Budget. The 2024 Budget’s recurring revenue estimate is $62,316,100 which is 10.45% greater than the 2023 budget. The recurring expenditure estimate of $57,976,579 is 7.99% more than the 2023 budget of $53,532,640. Estimated budgeted recurring revenues currently exceed recurring expenditures by $4,339,521 or 6.96% of recurring revenues.
The full-time employee count will rise to 116.25, an increase of four employees. Three of those employees will be utilized in administering the Stormwater commitments authorized by Council earlier this year. The fourth will assume additional duties in the accounting department and our recording fee administration program responsibilities.
Funding Challenges:
• The national economy continues to experience volatility, especially the effect of inflation on City projects.
• Revenue levels insufficient to directly cover street operations and maintenance requiring augmentation from the City’s General Fund.
• Pavement preservation and railroad crossing projects (overpasses and underpasses) and other large street projects require funding beyond the City’s capabilities to provide.
• Establishing a Homeless program and identifying dedicated funding for that program.
• As a financial objective, the City intends to increase its Service Level Stabilization Reserve Fund to $8 million from its current level of $5.5 million as funding becomes available.
The motion to advance Ordinance #23-021, adopting the 2024 Budget to a Second Reading passed unanimously.
The City, in order to collect its property tax, must pass legislation for it to do so. Ordinance 23-017 is the enabling legislation to accomplish that.
Property taxes are a major source of recurring City Revenue representing $13,824,900 (22.19%) of the City’s 2024 budgeted recurring revenue. However, the City actually receives less than 10% of the overall collected property taxes in its jurisdiction. Who then receives the largest portion of those revenues? Three taxing entities compete for that title, local school districts, fire districts, and the state education tax.
State law sets the maximum levy rates for property taxes in a jurisdiction. The County Assessor’s Office determines assessed valuation for the City. That value currently stands at $17,576,115,762, producing a levy rate of $0.786573 per $1,000 of assessed value. The City will collect, based on Spokane County estimated assessments, $13,745,771 in property tax revenues. The motion to advance Ordinance #23-017, adopting the levying of property taxes for 2024, passed 5-2 (Woodard and Higgins/no).
Continuing with agenda items from last week’s meeting, Council undertook consideration on the Second Reading of Ordinance 23-018 which creates a new chapter, 3.85 of the Spokane Valley Municipal Code, forming a Transportation Benefit District. That new chapter provides the following:
a. Establishes a TBD with the same boundaries as the City.
b. The TBD governing board would be City Council.
c. Grants all authority allowed under state law (RCW 36.73)
i. May establish fees, taxes, and other revenue sources.
ii. May authorize annual vehicle fees.
iii. May submit fees, taxes, and other revenue sources to voters.
d. Identifies allowable uses for TBD funds.
i. Transportation improvements that construct, preserve, maintain, and operate the existing and future transportation infrastructure of the City.
e. Identifies when the TBD is dissolved.
The motion to adopt Ordinance No. 23-018 creating a new chapter 3.85 of the SVMC forming the Spokane Valley Transportation Benefit District passed 6-1 (Padden/no).
Nuisance properties is an issue that has proved frustrating to Council as it works to deal with “junk vehicles” and parking on private property. The issue has prompted several discussions and is once again up for consideration. In prior Council discussions, action was deferred to address Council concerns about definitions used to determine actionable offenses. The question before Council this evening is defining the terms applying to the offensive action.
Ordinance 23-019 attempts to clarify what is a “chronic nuisance property,” “junk vehicle,” “nuisance/nuisance activities,” and “ongoing criminal activity.” The ordinance goes into much greater detail and can be found in its entirety at www.spokanevalleywa.gov. The motion to advance Ordinance 23-019 to a Second Reading passed 6-1 (Wick/no).
On July 25th, Council adopted a resolution to assume control over its document recording fees and establish a homeless housing program. In order to put the resolution into effect, the City must create a homeless task force and develop a five-year homeless housing plan and guidelines for emergency shelters, short-term housing needs, temporary encampments, and supportive housing for long term homeless housing.
The region’s current five-year plan is built around the five required objectives included in Department of Commerce’s guidelines. Those are:
1. Identify and engage homeless people and all unaccompanied youth.
2. Prioritize homeless housing according to highest need.
3. Operate an effective and efficient homeless crisis response system to swiftly move people into stable permanent housing.
4. Assuming existing resources and state policies, consider the impact of fully implemented local plans on the number of housed and unhoused.
5. Address racial disparities among homeless people.
The task force has been formed and has recommended Council adopt the current 5-year plan. The motion to adopt the region’s current 5-year plan passed unanimously.
On July 25th, 2023, Council adopted Resolution 23-009 declaring its intention and commitment to operate a local homeless housing program, partially funded by available document recording fees. Adoption of Resolution 23-009 enabled the City to access its portion of document recording fees that accompany other funds.
New state legislation has imposed a single surcharge of $183 per recorded document (deeds, notices, etc.), collected and distributed by county auditors per the schedule below.
• 1% for county auditor’s fee for collection
• 30% retained by the County.
• 69% to the State
- 54.1% to be used for the state home security fund account.
- 13.1% to be used through its affordable housing account.
- 1.8% to be used through its landlord mitigation account.
The state portion of recording fees is not directly available to the City. By electing to operate its own homeless housing program, the City can receive a percentage of what the County charges, equal to the percentage it collects on real estate taxes. The City can then use those funds for its homeless program when it establishes one.
In addition, the previously created interim task force recommends that the City earmark $100,000 be dedicated for outreach services and $65,000 for shelter beds from its portion of Spokane County’s 2024 HHAA (Homeless Housing and Assistance Act) fund. The motion to earmark $100,000 for outreach services and $65,000 for shelter beds from the 2024 HHAA fee fund passed 6-1 (Wick/no).
The City provides in its annual budget funding in support of outside agencies who provide services the City might not otherwise provide. The available funding is $200,000. That amount was split into two categories with separate consideration: $100,000 for Economic Development and $100,000 for Social Services.
The City received proposals from 19 agencies for a total funding request of $557,864. These include eight Economic Development applications which total $235,000, and eleven Social Services applications totaling $322,864. Clearly not all grants can be awarded, and, in most cases, requests cannot be awarded in full.
After hearing presentations from applicants, Council members individually consider the amount to award each applicant. If an agency does not get four or more votes, it will not get further consideration for funds.
The applicants’ requests in their categories are:
Economic Development ($)
APPLICANT; REQUEST; GRANT
• Idaho Central Spokane Valley Performing Arts; 10,000; 8,886
• JAKT Foundation—CRAVE; 40,000; 7,857
• JAKT Foundation—Farmers Market; 30,000; 13,600
• SNAP Financial Access; 75,000; 19,171
• Spokane Valley Arts Council; 26,000; 11,000
• Spokane Valley Heritage Museum; 19,000; 18,457
• Spokane Valley Summer Theatre; 20,000; 13,886
• Spokane Workforce Council; 15,000 ; 7,143
Total Economic Development Funding Granted; 235,000; 100.000
Social Services ($)
• Christ Kitchen; 10,000; 5,571
• Elevations Childrens Therapy Resource Foundation; 20,000; 15,238
• Greater Spokane Meals on Wheels; 32,850; -0-
• Inland Chess Academy; 2,500; 1,857
• Joya Child & Family Development; 14,300; 5,757
• NAOMI; 20,000; 9,810
• Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners (SNAP); 49,914; -0-
• Spokane Valley Partners; 100,000; 30,982
• Teen & Kid Closet; 12,000; 12,000
• Widows Might; 52,500; 15,714
• YMCA of the Inland Northwest; 8,800; 3,071
Total Social Services Funding Granted; 322,864; 100,000
The motions to award the grants as listed passed unanimously.
City Council meetings are held in the Great Room at CenterPlace until further notice. City Hall, however, is open for business during normal business hours. The Public is invited to Council meetings to participate in action items or public comment periods in person or via ZOOM. Call 509-720-5000 or www.spokanevalley.org prior to 4:00 p.m. for access instructions. Council meetings are broadcast on Comcast channel 14.
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