Local government

The fiancée of a man shot and killed by Spokane police officers may soon receive $500,000 to settle a wrongful death claim, according to briefing documents presented Monday to the Spokane City Council.

While some politicians, business groups and their supporters accuse the city of Spokane and the Spokane Police Department of not enforcing laws on the homeless, one patrol officer is spending his time in the area around Second Avenue and Division Street sometimes 10 times a day.

Congressmen-elect Michael Baumgartner has tapped longtime state Sen. Mike Padden to advise him in his new role.

A year after a controversial ordinance and power struggle between the Liberty Lake City Council and the city’s library board of trustees, city council on Tuesday decided not to reappoint a library trustee.

Two months ago, 29 Spokane city employees learned their jobs could be on the chopping block as the city tried to finish balancing the 2025-2026 budget. By the end of the year, three of them lost their jobs, though at least one was able to move to another position in the city.

Spokane’s nonprofit group to assist policing efforts got a three-month reprieve Monday night, as the City Council approved a $125,000 extension to its contract after weeks of volunteers, staff and advocates arguing the organization shouldn’t have to fight for city funding in the first place.

Spokane’s City Council will continue to meet on Mondays as it has for more than 112 years, after concerns were raised about major changes to the council’s rules that the conservative minority believed were intended to weaken their already nominal power.

Northeast Spokane’s conservative representatives on Monday got something they’ve been asking for all year: a voting seat on the Spokane Transit Authority, which operates the region’s transit system.

The Spokane County Commissioners adopted a 2025 budget last week that’s smaller than in years past, despite increased investments in the criminal justice system, mental health services and capital improvement projects.

Spokane city government has a reputation for change. Only one mayor in the last 45 years has served more than a term. But there has been at least one constant: Monday meetings.

Spokane residents with a food and yard waste bin can soon get them  picked up by the city during the winter with a limited service coming in January.

The Spokane City Council has asked for a delay to the transfer of a 160-acre woodland south of Thorpe Road amid traffic concerns that a developer’s plans to build 1,000 homes would further burden roadways.

Development fees will significantly increase across Spokane next year, the second phase in a three-year process of making those fees closer to the cost to the city to service new development.

Transportation safety activists are accusing Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown of hypocrisy after her budget proposal continues to recommend paying for traffic officers with a fund typically understood to pay for infrastructure, such as speed bumps.

The final tally of this year’s presidential election suggests Spokane County voters remain sharply divided, although the polarization may be shifting slightly rather than growing rapidly.

Six months after putting a second stop to development in the Latah Valley citing strained infrastructure and safety concerns, the city of Spokane has contracted for a study of what needs to be built in the area and how best to pay for those improvements.

A failure earlier this month in one of the largest parts of Spokane’s stormwater system initially set off some alarm bells, but city officials argue it highlights the major work done in the last year to keep pollution out of the Spokane River.

Conservation activists are gearing up for a final attempt to slow down or stop efforts to develop a wooded area into housing near Thorpe Road on the western end of Spokane. They argue the land contains increasingly rare geological, ecological and cultural features that could be lost beneath pavement.

Staying in a Spokane Valley park overnight could now result in jail time.