Spokane County Commission implements Jordan’s transparency proposal

The Spokane County Commission has decided to make it far easier for the public to keep an eye on them.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, Republican and Democratic commissioners decided that their agendas – the itineraries of local government meetings – will soon be more detailed. Each agenda will now include background information on discussion topics, cost estimates for proposals and supporting documents, such as slideshows and spreadsheets.

The change will make the county’s agendas more like Spokane’s and allow the public to better understand what the commissioners plan to talk about at upcoming meetings.

In the past, Spokane County’s agendas made it difficult for the general public to know precisely what the commissioners were working on until a proposal came up for a final vote. Item descriptions were often short and vague, and it was sometimes impossible to know what the commissioners were doing without watching their meetings.

Commissioner Chris Jordan, a Democrat who represents most of west Spokane, lobbied for the agenda changes.

“I think this is a positive step for the county to take to improve accessibility of information, transparency of our decision making,” he said.