SPOKANE, Wash. – Monday night was supposed to be Spokane City Council’s final legislative session for 2023. They canceled all upcoming December Monday meetings with a plan to come back for a new session in January. Instead, a couple of hang-ups forced one final meeting.
Spokane City Council will turn its study session on Thursday, Dec. 14, into a legislative session. In the session, they will talk about funding for the Trent Resource and Assistance Center (TRAC), the city’s biggest homeless shelter. The Salvation Army currently operates the shelter, although the future of TRAC remains uncertain, with Mayor-elect Lisa Brown taking office at the start of January.
The city’s contract with the Salvation Army to operate TRAC expires at the end of the year. Monday’s consent agenda – a list of projects the city needs to fund, which is typically voted on in one block – had a brief contract extension with the Salvation Army to operate TRAC through the end of April. The contract would’ve cost the city $3,930,000 for the four-month extension, although, at the council’s briefing session, they decided to remove the agenda item to discuss it at more length on Dec. 14.
Also to be discussed on Dec. 14 will be a ballot measure, currently slated to appear on February’s ballot. The measure asks Spokane residents to amend city charter and create a seven-member redistricting committee for future city council district maps.
The measure was placed on the ballot during their July 24 meeting, mainly in response to the lawsuit levied against Zack Zappone’s redistricting map, which opponents accused of being gerrymandered.
While Zappone won the case, and the appeal has since been dropped, Judge Tony Hazel reprimanded the council member for his actions, saying council members should not have a say on redistricting in the future.
At Monday’s meeting, Zappone attempted to convince the council to move the ballot initiative to the November election, and set up a full city charter review committee in the meantime. After a lengthy discussion, the decision was made to continue discussing this issue on Dec. 14, which happens to be the same day Zappone has a hearing for an ethics complaint levied against him for the map.
