Spokane Valley City Council floats using $1 million originally slated for mental health on public safety

The City of Spokane Valley set out at Tuesday’s council meeting to allocate $1 million for behavioral health and human trafficking programs, then said it would rather use the money to hire more police officers after two social service providers’ pitches for the funds didn’t convince them .

In 2022, the council allocated $1 million toward mental health, then in 2023 switched that to behavioral health and human trafficking. A request for proposals was put out to providers, and two organizations, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and The Jonah Project, submitted requests for funding for their programs assisting human trafficking victims.

Lutheran Community Services requested $539,606 and The Jonah Project requested $534,348.

Each organization made a short presentation about their programs and how they intended to use the money.

Council members questioned why each organization planned to use the money, which will not be available again, to fund new and expanding programs that would then require funding from another source to be maintained.

Councilwoman Laura Padden noted that The Jonah Project’s annual budget is about $188,000, which would be dwarfed by the funding the organization was requesting from the city.

“That takes some ramping up, number one,” she said. “Number two, it doesn’t seem like it’s really quite sustainable for you once the money runs out.”

“This would be more than doubling your operations in the first year,” councilman Ben Wick said.

At the end of the presentations, each council member had to write down how much money they wanted to allocate to each of the organizations. An organization had to receive at least four votes to receive funding, and neither garnered the four votes required. Wick voted to give The Jonah Project $125,000 and councilman Tim Hattenburg voted to give $250,000 each to Lutheran Social Services and The Jonah Project. No other council members voted to allocate funding.

Then the discussion of law enforcement funding came up.

“I think both of you do great community advocacy work,” Councilwoman Brandi Peetz said. “When we put this money aside, it was supposed to be for mental health, and we really wanted it to go toward teens. We couldn’t do that, and we pivoted. There was a great suggestion about us putting that into police and public safety and I just really feel strongly that that’s something we need to invest in.”

Peetz said she believes the city needs to hire more police officers.

“I really feel that would be the best use of our money. There are plenty of funds left in Spokane County, and I would hope that you guys would go that avenue.”

Mayor Pam Haley said she appreciated the work of the two organizations but echoed Peetz’s sentiment.

“When we originally put this out, it was for capital expenses,” she said. “It’s one-time money, so we wanted it to be put in for a one-time use. As you can hear, we have a huge need in our public safety department. In order to hire more officers, we need more space for officers. My thoughts are that this money should go to the police campus in opening up some more space.”

Haley said no decisions have been made about what the funding would be spent on if it is used for public safety.

“I’m just one vote,” she said. “That may not be what we use it for.”

In other business, the council voted to approve lodging tax funding allocations. The city collects a 2% tax on hotel rooms to promote tourism and a 1.3% tax on hotel rooms for capital expenditures related to sporting venues or tourism-related facilities.

The council voted to award Spokane Sports $4.4 million to help pay the estimated $7 million cost to build a cross country course on 46 acres the city owns along the Spokane River near Flora Road. It also awarded $1.2 million in funding to 14 community organizations that host tourism events.

Lodging Tax awards include $147,000 to the Spokane Valley HUB; $20,750 to the Spokane Conservation District; $36,250 to Northwest Winterfest; $8,250 to Cody Productions for the Spokane Motorcycle Show and Sale; $7,000 to CNC Productions for the annual RV show; $12,000 to Family Guide; $55,250 to the Spokane County Fair & Expo Center; $26,125 for the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum; $25,000 to the Spokane Valley Summer Theatre; $38,750 to Victory Media for its “Shop, Eat, Stay” event; $17,500 to the Spokane Chapter of the Washington State Quilters for the 2024 Quilt Show; and $3,750 to the WinterGlow Spectacular.

In addition, JAKT received $48,750 for Crave! and $12,250 for the Spokane Valley Farmers Market.