Supporters of Spokane Police Chief pack crowded City Council chambers Monday

Dozens of supporters of Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl packed into City Council chambers Monday evening, following a rally outside City Hall protesting a possible investigation of Meidl’s communications with local business leaders.

After increased public interest in the Spokane police chief’s communications with local business leaders, which some activists say amounted to a shadow effort to undermine police reforms and hurt political opponents, council members asked Mayor Nadine Woodward to launch an investigation.

Woodward refused, calling the request politically motivated and dismissing the concerns of activists. In response, the City Council’s left-leaning supermajority floated a nonbinding resolution calling on the mayor to abide by city law.

Carrying signs of “Investigate City Council” and “Support Spokane Police,” residents spoke during open forum at Monday’s meeting to criticize what they saw as a lack of support for local law enforcement from the Council supermajority.

One local resident, Earl Moore, carried a heavy stack of papers to the podium, a petition in support of Meidl and local law enforcement.

As of Monday’s meeting, the petition in support of Meidl had garnered over 2,300 signatures, the lion’s share of which declared themselves as residents of the city of Spokane.

So many attendees signed up to speak that Council President Breean Beggs took the unusual step of cutting off public comment after 15 speakers, which, while a part of the Council’s rules, has not been previously enforced, according to the memory of council members and legislative aids. In previous meetings, however, the limit was surpassed by only a handful of speakers, while 26 signed up for Monday’s meeting.

There was another rare invocation of a different council meeting rule Monday: order in the council chambers. As Beggs laid out long-standing rules that speakers during open forum only address topics not on the upcoming legislative agendas, protesters shouted their displeasure. Beggs threatened to clear the chamber.

Protesters mostly complied, though occasional outbursts continued when Beggs enforced various rules, including whether speakers had to provide their full names.