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6 p.m., when you're ready. Thank you.

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So the Spokane Valley City Council, regular meeting, formal A format of Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 is now called to order. We do have an indication with Pastor James Hosek. You can all stand.

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Father, we thank you for the freedoms that you've granted to us as a nation. It's our desire that these freedoms not only be retained but used in a God-owned

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one that promotes justice and peace and dignity for all.

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In that regards, Lord, we pray that you would grant wisdom to those who are in leadership,

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to those who have influence, and guiding the affairs of our land.

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When we pray for our peace officers, we pray, Lord, for our first responders,

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those who serve on the judiciary, and Lord, in particular, this evening for our elected officials

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who are gathered for tonight's meeting.

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Pray that you place a hedge of protection around them and around each of their family members.

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With regards to their official duties, help them with the various issues that they're

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going to deal with and wrestle with this evening.

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Pray especially that they will find their thinking to be in tune with the Spirit of God.

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For all of these things, sir, we pray in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Thank you, Pastor.

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They can join me in the pledge.

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I pledge allegiance,

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individual, with liberty and justice for all.

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So if the clerk will please call the roll.

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Certainly.

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Mayor Patten.

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Here.

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Council Member Haley.

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Council Member Yeager.

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Here.

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Council Member Kelly.

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Present.

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Council Member Wick.

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Here.

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Deputy Mayor Hattenberg.

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I have two excuse.

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Deputy Hattenberg.

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Second.

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All those in favor?

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Aye. Aye. Opposed?

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And Council Member Wick.

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Or excuse me, Council Member Merkel.

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Sorry.

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Move the excuse, Council Member Merkel.

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Thank you. All those in favour?

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Aye. Aye. Opposed?

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Both Council members are excused.

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We now have the approval of agenda.

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I move to approve the agenda.

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Second.

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All those in favour?

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Aye. Opposed?

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The agenda is approved.

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Approved.

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There's no special guest or presentations, no proclamations.

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And so we have the first general public comment opportunity.

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This is an opportunity for the public to speak on any subject except agenda action items.

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As public comments will be taken on those items were indicated.

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Please keep comments to matters within the jurisdiction of the city government.

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This is not an opportunity for questions or discussion.

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Diverse points of view are welcome, but please keep remarks civil.

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Remarks will be limited to three minutes per person.

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If a person engages in disruptive behavior or makes individual personal attacks regarding

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matters unrelated to city business, then the council and or mayor may end that person's

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comment time before the three minute mark.

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Is there anyone on Zoom?

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We don't have anyone via Zoom this evening, nor do I have anyone that has signed up.

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Anyone in the audience who would like to make here we don't?

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I live here in the valley.

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Three or four weeks ago, you did a state of the city address, I was really impressed.

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I thought that was the neatest thing that you guys do for our city, so much stuff.

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This is great. I didn't want anything down, so this is kind of off the wall, but I just wanted to say thank you for all you do.

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Debbie and I both feel the same way.

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And I also wanted to say thank you for these guys right here, these technicians. I could actually hear last week.

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It was great. One week or two ago. It was wonderful. They must have done something to the system, but it's great.

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So thank you so much. That's all I got.

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Thank you.

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Thank you. Anyone else for comment? Seeing none, we'll close the public comment.

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Not comes the consent agenda.

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This consists of items considered routine, which are approved as a group. Any member of council may ask that an item be removed from the consent agenda to be considered separately. Move to approve the consent agenda. Does anyone want anything removed?

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approved.

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Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, I opposed.

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It is approved.

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So action items.

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We have homeless and housing task force appointment with Eric Robison.

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Move to confirm the mayoral appointment of Jessica Lafferty to position three and Brynn

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Hexenberger to position nine on the homeless and housing task force.

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Thank you.

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Yeah.

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Go ahead.

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Oh.

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Try again.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Hello, Mayor Patron.

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Patron Council members.

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Good to be with you.

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Eric Robinson.

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Housing and homeless coordinator for the city.

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This item on the agenda, as was stated, we are trying to fill two open positions that are

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currently exist on the homeless housing task force.

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Just as a reminder, this is a task force that's required by state law in order for the city

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to manage and administer certain funds related to homelessness and housing.

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It's been operating for some time now.

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We have recently had a position open, position number three, the business sector representative

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when Lance Beck moved out of his position with the Valley Chamber.

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And so that would, the nominee for position three, as was stated, would be Jessica Lowry.

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In position nine for community health care, the nominee is Bryn Eichsenberger who currently

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works for CHAS, but also has a history and other related areas related to this work.

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And I know that Mayor had a chance to interview both of these candidates before bringing

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them, their nomination before the Council, happy to answer any questions I can about the

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process at this point if there are any.

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Are there any questions from Council?

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Comments?

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I will make the first comment.

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Both of these people are extremely familiar with vulnerable populations and how to deal

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with them.

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Jesse has worked with Joya, which is an organization that empowers families with children with

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special needs, and they have, you know, things like speech therapy and occupational physical

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therapy and special ed services.

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us. She also has a strong background and has worked with a hunting settlement, but again

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is working with vulnerable populations of youth and housing them. Obviously, they're, you

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know, they're not with their parents or maybe even don't have parents, but they're with

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the hunting settlement. So she's definitely worked with those kinds of populations and can

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We have the insights and she has the insights in the knowledge and the experience to hold this position plus her, her spot is for the business viewpoint, which has as the CEO of the Valley Chamber, she is very familiar then with also the business outlook.

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As we said, it works with Chaz and actually works for clients that overlap with the city's homeless outreach program, so there's a lot of overlap there.

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She has also worked with the community court downtown, which can declare that someone has to do community service and commit to getting help with either the drugs or health treatment.

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which is very important in the homeless community to try to get those kinds of things to

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take care of. And it's a big supporter of our co-deployed teams. So I think she has extensive

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experience in this exact area that she's going to be asked to have discussions with and make

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decisions about. So I think both of them are very good choices.

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Council Member Kelly.

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Yes, I'm sorry, I missed my opportunity to ask a question, but are you familiar with both these individuals?

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I don't have any words with them personally much, but I know who they are, and I've had some conversations with Brin from Chaz in particular.

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Okay. Well, I guess my only comment or perhaps, you know, would be that given that we as a city

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is taking a little bit more, I guess, a lower tolerance posture for homelessness. I'd like to know.

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The candidates on this task force are considering all options that are available for assistance, rather than maybe some of the opinions that I've heard expressed in some of the other circles where that any type of enforcement is not really a preferred option. So, I guess I just like a balanced approach to this, where all options are considered, and maybe that's not important at this particular level. But I guess that would be a comment that

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And I had that, you know, we should be mindful that we have people that are not married

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to a particular, I guess, agenda, if you will.

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Well, I certainly know Jesse personally, and I have no qualms there.

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And after talking to Brent, I didn't have any qualms there at all, but City Manager, you

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wanted to.

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She represents the Valley very well.

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I think she's very compatible with the philosophies and policy directions that the council has.

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And I look forward to continuing growing the relationship with the city and the chamber

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under her leadership. So I think she'll do a fine job on the task force.

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Thank you. Can I just add, in addition having a good mix on the task force, whatever

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recommendation recommendations they may come before this council and you ultimately approve or

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don't approve. So, you will have the ultimate say on how those dollars are distributed regardless

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of what recommendations the task force may make.

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Any other comments? Okay, all those in

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favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye, Tabit.

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And we get to stick with Eric and with an admin report

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on the point in time count. And I guess you'll introduce, I think, is it Amanda? It is.

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Yes.

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Awesome.

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Welcome.

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Thank you.

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Yes.

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This evening, as we go through the point and time count information on most of the presentation

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will be provided by Amanda Martinez, who is the lead for the Homeless Management Information

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Services or HMIS team at the City of Spokane.

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And just to step back a minute and then to explain that relationship, the City of Spokane

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acts as what's called the collaborative applicant for the continuum of care.

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The COC receives federal HUD dollars for our community, and all COCs have a collaborative

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applicant that's essentially the staff that helps get the work done.

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And in our COC, that role is filled by the City of Spokane.

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So while they are also City of Spokane staff, they're managed here with their COC hat on as

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a regional representative, and this data that's being presented is COC data for our region.

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And we happen to have a collaborative applicant that the city of Spokane.

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So just wanted to provide that kind of context.

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The point in time count happens every year.

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I'm sure you've heard of it before.

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We'll get into the data, but with that, is there any, I don't know if there's any other.

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You'll get into it after this unless there's any questions at the moment.

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We have a presentation from here.

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Please feel, I think you've flipped through as needed.

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Thank you, Eric.

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Thank you.

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So we will cover both the point in time count, which looks at those that experience sheltered

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and then sheltered homelessness on a single night in January, as well as the housing inventory

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count, which looks at all the beds available across several different programs, where experiencing

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homelessness is a requirement to access that bed.

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First, it's always very important to think all

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of the partners that participated all of the volunteers, the city of Spokane Valley, Spokane County,

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It really is a regional effort, and we could not do it without them.

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Thank you.

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We'll start off with some brief introductions and definitions to help contextualize the numbers

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that you'll see further down the line.

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As I mentioned, the point-and-time count looks at those that are experiencing homelessness.

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In the sheltered count, that's specifically emergency shelter, so that's crisis intervention,

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night-by-night beds, transitional housing programs, which are about one to two year programs

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and pre-identified units with intensive case management and then safe havens, which we

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actually don't have any in-spoken, so it's really just emergency shelter and transit housing.

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And then sheltered looks at those in locations not meant for human habitation, a car, a parking

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abandoned building, an airport, anything like that.

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This year's count was January 27th, 2026.

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Every year that you're doing the point in time count, it has to happen within the last ten

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days of January.

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And we do what's called a service-based count.

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So, we count for several days and then we remove any duplicates that appear throughout

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the data.

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Now, the housing inventory.

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Council, as I mentioned, it's the same night as the point-and-time count. And it looks at

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emergency shelter, transitional housing, also rapid rehousing. So these are market rate units

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in the community that have intensive case management, usually goes for about two years and

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permanent supportive housing are pre-identified units like, think of Catholic charities,

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the colorful buildings, or even more of them that come through the book and housing authority,

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as well as other permanent housing units. Now, the point-and-time count methodology is defined

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and it is controlled by HUD, so we have specific guidelines as a continuum of care that we have to follow in order to submit this data to HUD.

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It's really important to note that also in 2021, we did not conduct on a sheltered count due to COVID-19.

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Now, these are just some more specific definitions of all of the project types.

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I'll take a moment to cover a couple of them.

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So, VASH is VA supportive housing that comes through the Veteran Affairs Office, and it's

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specifically permanent supportive housing for those for homeless vets.

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So, it's not just for anyone, there's that additional eligibility criteria that they have

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to be a homeless vet.

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The other area that I'll take a moment to focus on are the different breakdowns of our

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emergency shelter beds.

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So, we have year-round beds, that's really what they sound like.

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they're the whole year, inclement weather beds are only available during specific conditions,

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according to the Spokane Municipal Code, like 35 degrees windshield, if they're smoke,

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if they're successive heat, and then the surge beds are there just if there's an increase in

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demand, like a very large family will come into a shelter, for example, so they'll pull like surge

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beds out of the ground. And then emergency declaration beds are those that were made during the

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just what can's mayors, emergency declaration,

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in late October of last year.

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Now, the point in time count also includes

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several different household types.

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I apologize, this is a lot of definitions,

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but they will be used later on.

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So the main household categories are adult and child, right?

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So someone over the age of 18, someone under the age of 18,

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everyone is over the age of 18.

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It's an adult only household,

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and then the child only household

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is everyone is under the age of 18.

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00:17:17,130 --> 00:17:18,630
And when we look at parenting youth,

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That means that there is someone in the household ages 18 to 24 who has someone under the age

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of 18 in their care, or they themselves are under the age of 18 and have someone else

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under the age of 18 under their care.

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There's two categories for that, and then on a company's use is anyone 18 to 24 or under

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00:17:36,490 --> 00:17:38,170
the age of 18 that is by themselves.

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There's no one taking care of them or no one else in the family.

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00:17:42,970 --> 00:17:48,410
And then that adult child and adult only groupings also have specific breakouts for

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better in populations.

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00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,220
And chronically homeless is those that have been specifically unsheltered

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for at least 12 months or for occasions over the past three years, totaling 12 months.

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00:18:07,150 --> 00:18:14,310
January 27th, 2026, again was the date of the point in time count. We had 1,738 individuals

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00:18:14,890 --> 00:18:23,050
across the entire county in 1,500 households. The majority of these were adults only. We only had

250
00:18:23,050 --> 00:18:27,470
at 17 under the age of 18, so 17 children only, and they were all in sheltered.

251
00:18:27,710 --> 00:18:33,130
We did not have any unsheltered minors that were by themselves.

252
00:18:34,550 --> 00:18:39,130
Now we did have adult and children households, 92 of them, with about 302 individuals.

253
00:18:42,510 --> 00:18:47,810
When we look at the sleeping locations, the majority of the individuals that night were in

254
00:18:47,810 --> 00:18:54,550
shelter, either in emergency shelter or transitional housing, and actually most individuals were

255
00:18:54,550 --> 00:18:59,470
in shelter. Now, you'll notice at the bottom that we did have unoccupied beds in both emergency

256
00:18:59,470 --> 00:19:06,910
shelter and transitional housing. The unsheltered count was 643. With most people in the unsheltered

257
00:19:06,910 --> 00:19:10,810
count, either sleeping on the streets or in a sidewalk, it will take a moment to point out

258
00:19:10,810 --> 00:19:15,830
the vehicular homelessness at 121. That is not something that is often as visible,

259
00:19:16,210 --> 00:19:21,550
whereas easy to see and it is often incredibly difficult to count, because people will move their

260
00:19:21,550 --> 00:19:23,470
vehicles throughout and they're trying very hard not to be.

261
00:19:26,350 --> 00:19:28,670
We had 17 and outdoor encampments.

262
00:19:31,180 --> 00:19:35,200
We dive in a little bit further remember when I mentioned those two parenting use categories.

263
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:44,020
We had nine parenting use with nine children and then the unaccompanied use we only had 17 of those

264
00:19:44,900 --> 00:19:53,060
that were under the age of 18 and 119 that were 18 to 24. We had 640 adults with serious mental

265
00:19:53,060 --> 00:19:59,600
illness and 404 with substance use disorder, as was 139 with domestic violence.

266
00:20:00,370 --> 00:20:05,630
We had 590 chronically homeless individuals with a pretty even split between emergency shelter

267
00:20:06,270 --> 00:20:09,530
and un-sheltered, so we had a pretty even number of chronically homeless and those sheltered

268
00:20:09,530 --> 00:20:14,230
and un-sheltered. This is very similar to last year where the breakdown is pretty even

269
00:20:14,230 --> 00:20:20,870
across both of them. We had 84 veterans, and the veteran count this year continues the pattern

270
00:20:20,870 --> 00:20:25,030
that we've seen for the last several years of veteran homelessness on the point in time

271
00:20:25,030 --> 00:20:27,450
count decreasing consistently for several years.

272
00:20:31,620 --> 00:20:33,740
Now this is specifically we're looking at

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00:20:33,740 --> 00:20:40,780
everyone in the count and their demographics. So that top chart, the very first bar looks at

274
00:20:40,780 --> 00:20:48,840
the race that everyone identified as with the predominant category of being white and then that sort

275
00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:54,800
of sub-bar breaks down those that identified as Hispanic and Latino. What other race they also

276
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:55,500
selected.

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00:20:57,860 --> 00:21:03,640
Now when we look at sex, the predominant grouping that we see is male and then an age is

278
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:12,800
35 to 44. So the typical demographic combination that we see is a white male between the ages of

279
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:16,800
25 and 54. That's the majority of the population.

280
00:21:19,590 --> 00:21:28,850
If we're looking at the historical trends, we were

281
00:21:28,850 --> 00:21:33,870
390 and since then we have continued on a steady downward trend.

282
00:21:34,470 --> 00:21:39,650
This year was a 4% decrease compared to last year overall.

283
00:21:40,390 --> 00:21:45,010
I will point out that the trend is going down and it's slow and it's consistent as someone

284
00:21:45,010 --> 00:21:48,950
who works day-to-day in data that would be highly concerned of all of a sudden, but it was

285
00:21:48,950 --> 00:21:54,690
just like a huge cliff because that speaks to data quality and how well we actually surveyed.

286
00:21:54,910 --> 00:21:54,950
Right?

287
00:21:54,950 --> 00:22:00,530
of all of a sudden the count drops significantly, it more questions how we did the surveys and the

288
00:22:00,530 --> 00:22:05,550
data quality that we received. But a city consistent, that's more sustainable and points in a good

289
00:22:05,550 --> 00:22:05,970
direction.

290
00:22:09,470 --> 00:22:15,790
When we look at the whole county, all the little dots are everywhere that surveys happened.

291
00:22:16,790 --> 00:22:21,690
Over the past several years there has been a lot of effort from the entire continuum to expand

292
00:22:21,690 --> 00:22:26,930
the count area and make sure we have the entire county. You'll see we got as far north as deer park

293
00:22:26,930 --> 00:22:35,570
and even some close to the Cheney area, which is important because it is meant to be account for the entire county, right, not just the urban core.

294
00:22:37,210 --> 00:22:46,930
The call out bubble is all the surveys that happen at the Spokane Convention Center, the day of the Spokane Connect event. So this people could have been really anywhere else in the county,

295
00:22:47,090 --> 00:22:52,650
but just that day they were at the Convention Center, so we pulled that bubble out to make sure we didn't confuse them of the others.

296
00:22:52,650 --> 00:22:59,570
Okay, and this is a little bit more zoomed in of that main urban core of the Spokane County.

297
00:23:00,090 --> 00:23:06,010
As I mentioned past several years, if you look at prior trends geographically, we had continued

298
00:23:06,010 --> 00:23:12,070
to push and push further out and been able to capture those surveys. Thanks to all of the volunteers

299
00:23:12,070 --> 00:23:13,670
and the coordination of the partners.

300
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,320
In addition to all the normal questions that HUD requires that

301
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:27,900
we ask every COC has the ability to ask supplemental questions. This year we asked two of them.

302
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,720
which is, does someone have a photo ID or a social security card?

303
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:39,120
And we found that predominantly they do not have either a social security card or a photo ID.

304
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:44,460
We do know that there is room for improvement in our continuum with helping those with document readiness

305
00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:47,240
for when units do become available for them.

306
00:23:49,570 --> 00:23:54,570
The second question that we asked was if someone lived in Spokane County before they became homeless,

307
00:23:55,170 --> 00:23:57,230
specifically this episode of homelessness.

308
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,400
across the board, the majority of them said yes, that they are actually from

309
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:09,340
Spokane County. We had a small percentage of them about 13% of that said that

310
00:24:09,340 --> 00:24:16,060
they were from outside of Washington and then of that small percentage, 35 of

311
00:24:16,060 --> 00:24:21,540
them said that they were from Idaho. And we had about another 10% of that said

312
00:24:21,540 --> 00:24:24,920
they were from Washington, but they were outside of Spokane County. So

313
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:29,580
predominantly everybody said that they were from Spokane. Now this is actually

314
00:24:29,580 --> 00:24:33,820
the first year where we asked this question in both the sheltered survey and the unsheltered

315
00:24:33,820 --> 00:24:39,100
survey. In prior years, we had only asked it on the unsheltered. So this trend, this next chart

316
00:24:39,100 --> 00:24:44,880
is actually the trend of the unsheltered responses that we have seen going back to 2019 in this question.

317
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:51,420
And as you can see, we've had a fairly consistent, especially with the past three years response rate

318
00:24:51,420 --> 00:24:55,100
up to 90% this year and 99% in 2024.

319
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,160
So that gives us a high degree of confidence

320
00:24:58,160 --> 00:24:59,580
and fidelity of the data.

321
00:25:00,050 --> 00:25:03,830
For consistently, most people respond that they are from Spokane County.

322
00:25:08,300 --> 00:25:09,900
Now we're moving into the housing

323
00:25:09,900 --> 00:25:15,600
inventory count, and this looks at the trend of the different beds available in each project type year

324
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:23,820
after year. One of the biggest changes that we saw from 24 to 25 was the increase in the number of

325
00:25:23,820 --> 00:25:30,120
bash vouchers that the Spokane Housing Authority had available to them.

326
00:25:38,090 --> 00:25:39,170
And this is looking at the trend

327
00:25:39,170 --> 00:25:44,130
of all the emergency shelter beds that we've had year over year and in the past couple

328
00:25:44,130 --> 00:25:50,670
of years broken down between inclement weather as well as scattered site beds and the 23 emergency

329
00:25:50,670 --> 00:25:53,190
declaration beds that were available in 2020.

330
00:25:56,290 --> 00:25:59,130
The next couple of charts will look at utilization

331
00:25:59,130 --> 00:26:04,650
and then inverse the vacancy that was available per project type. So when we look at emergency

332
00:26:04,650 --> 00:26:09,730
shelter we have had a utilization that has had quite a bit of ups and downs over the past couple of

333
00:26:09,730 --> 00:26:12,330
years, but it's hovered at around 80.

334
00:26:13,110 --> 00:26:18,650
This year for emergency shelter and transitional housing, an 80% utilization is not a bad

335
00:26:18,650 --> 00:26:18,910
thing.

336
00:26:19,110 --> 00:26:22,790
It's actually a really good place to be, because it means you're using most of your beds,

337
00:26:23,230 --> 00:26:25,290
but those that are outside have space to come in.

338
00:26:25,910 --> 00:26:30,710
If you're at 100% utilization, well, there's no place for anyone who is outside to actually

339
00:26:30,710 --> 00:26:36,550
come in to the beds, and a virtualization is significantly below 80, then that's not

340
00:26:36,550 --> 00:26:40,070
not good either because then you're not utilizing the resources available to your community.

341
00:26:43,140 --> 00:26:47,920
Now this looks at all the permanent housing projects, so permanent supportive housing, the

342
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:54,020
VASH and the Rapid. You'll notice that Rapid Rehousing is always at 100%. Over the past

343
00:26:54,020 --> 00:26:59,820
couple of years, that's because per the HUD methodology, the only way you can count the unit

344
00:26:59,820 --> 00:27:04,960
as if someone currently lives in it since their market rate units. So the unit doesn't exist

345
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:09,100
unless someone's in it, and because units only exist, if someone's in it, it's 100%.

346
00:27:10,380 --> 00:27:14,860
So that causes a little bit of an up and down year-over-year in the number of units that

347
00:27:14,860 --> 00:27:17,120
we have, but the utilization will stay consistent out of 100.

348
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,060
Now this looks at the inverse vacancies.

349
00:27:23,100 --> 00:27:28,300
You can see we have last year, 17, and 18% immersed in shelter and transitional housing,

350
00:27:28,780 --> 00:27:33,740
so around that 20% of vacancy is good because we have space to move people in two services

351
00:27:33,740 --> 00:27:39,880
and programs from the streets and children and then the same thing again for the

352
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,140
permanent housing projects.

353
00:27:45,340 --> 00:27:47,840
We take away that we're noticed from this point in time count

354
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:53,320
and that's really important to remember that this was one night, eight months ago, almost nine

355
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:58,980
months ago now. So this is not the entire year, this is not everyone that experiences homelessness

356
00:27:58,980 --> 00:28:03,200
throughout the whole year. There are several other reports available for that, the longitudinal

357
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:08,880
system's analysis that the HMIS team also publishes, the snapshot of homelessness that's

358
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:13,420
provided by the Washington State Department of Commerce, so there are many other reports

359
00:28:13,420 --> 00:28:13,900
available.

360
00:28:14,020 --> 00:28:16,580
This is just one night in January, eight months ago.

361
00:28:17,940 --> 00:28:23,440
We do continue to see that there is a disproportionate number of BIPOC populations, so black indigenous

362
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:28,620
people of color, over-represented when you compare it to the proportion of those populations

363
00:28:28,620 --> 00:28:32,080
in our census data, those that are appearing on the pit.

364
00:28:33,140 --> 00:28:38,000
As I mentioned the document readiness, we saw over 40% of the individuals that we surveyed

365
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:42,540
did not have their documents, so that is an opportunity for our COC to continue to work

366
00:28:42,540 --> 00:28:45,680
on those programs to make sure people have their documents when they're needed.

367
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:51,020
And of course, we had almost 200 emergency shelter beds that were available, so we need to

368
00:28:51,020 --> 00:28:54,180
increase that utilization as well as, you know, there were people on sheltered, but we had

369
00:28:54,180 --> 00:28:56,200
beds available they could have used on the night of the pit.

370
00:28:57,420 --> 00:29:01,440
And consistently across all the reports that are being published, the point in time count

371
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:06,020
the longitudinal systems analysis, even the system performance report, we are seeing progress

372
00:29:07,500 --> 00:29:12,560
and consistent progress and manageable progress and sustainable progress being the most

373
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:19,820
important towards main goals of our vibrant plan, really. Now, of course, there's room for improvement

374
00:29:19,820 --> 00:29:23,320
and there are further things that we need to do in sustained these improvements, but we are seeing

375
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:24,000
a positive change.

376
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:33,720
Thank you very much, Amanda. Before we get into questions, I also wanted to

377
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:35,380
to talk a little bit about those trends.

378
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:37,260
Of course, their positive trends were seen,

379
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:39,660
but there's also larger context.

380
00:29:39,900 --> 00:29:41,060
Again, this was eight months ago.

381
00:29:41,380 --> 00:29:43,240
So since we've taken this count,

382
00:29:43,900 --> 00:29:45,460
we've had inflation really take off.

383
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:47,740
Gas, $5 a gallon was not the case

384
00:29:47,740 --> 00:29:48,960
when we had this pick count.

385
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,880
So groceries, things that families are struggling with.

386
00:29:54,380 --> 00:29:57,400
2025 saw a record number of evictions in Washington state.

387
00:29:58,140 --> 00:29:59,820
A lot of that was driven by the West side.

388
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:27,300
We've had a lot of evictions here on this side of the state as well, so that's a lot of families are struggling that regard. And since this pit, perhaps the biggest, most significant differences is that we just lost six, seven, or 800 housing units overnight with the fires a few weeks ago. So whatever vacancies we had shrunk by several hundreds throughout our community, and I expect we will see some knock on effects from that as time goes, although none of us quite know what that will be.

389
00:30:27,300 --> 00:30:34,340
but supply and demand there's going to be some sort of impact on these households especially those that were on the margins to begin with.

390
00:30:35,260 --> 00:30:41,480
So while we are headed in a positive direction, we know there's a lot of family struggling out there and that also remains true.

391
00:30:45,530 --> 00:30:48,150
Other questions from Council? Council Member Yeager?

392
00:30:50,420 --> 00:31:02,780
Thank you. So on the availability of the bed inventory trend, we've roughly lost 600, let's say.

393
00:31:02,780 --> 00:31:10,380
in 400 ish in Rapid Rehousing and then 200 in the Vash, you remind me like maybe

394
00:31:10,380 --> 00:31:15,840
why that happened or what happened there to reduce the availability of the

395
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:24,540
bed inventory. So for Rapid, the units only counts if someone's actively living in

396
00:31:24,540 --> 00:31:29,280
them. That's per the definition that we have that requirement of HUD. So in a

397
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:34,080
The rapid rehousing program, someone gets selected through coordinated entry and an organization

398
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,700
begins to work with them to find them a unit in the community.

399
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,560
And then there's a point that they move into the unit.

400
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,520
The inventory for that is only counted when the movement happens.

401
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:45,660
That whole time of the client is not moved in.

402
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,780
The unit does not exist for the purposes of the housing inventory account, right?

403
00:31:50,860 --> 00:31:54,440
Because that unit is a market rate unit, so it's just available for anybody.

404
00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:02,660
With that, that is through SHA and allocations that come from the federal government to

405
00:32:02,660 --> 00:32:03,920
SHA for vouchers.

406
00:32:05,100 --> 00:32:05,860
Thank you.

407
00:32:06,620 --> 00:32:11,480
Yeah, and to add to that, the rapid rehousing, when funding goes out, funding isn't provided

408
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:12,960
to say, help 100 families.

409
00:32:13,500 --> 00:32:16,900
You're given an X amount of funding, and you help have for many families you can, and as

410
00:32:16,900 --> 00:32:20,040
things get more expensive, you can help fewer families with the same dollars.

411
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:25,740
So I think partly what we're seeing here too is, you know, as COVID funds went away,

412
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,560
some of these funding that helped produce extra beds went away too.

413
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:34,280
You can see the number of emergency shelter beds significantly dropped after 2024 when

414
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:35,820
the trend shelter closed.

415
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:40,580
And you know, it was often, it was a lot of us funded by COVID dollars that didn't exist

416
00:32:40,580 --> 00:32:41,080
anymore.

417
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:46,140
So some of these have to do with federal funding sources that were available, that no longer

418
00:32:46,140 --> 00:32:46,780
are available.

419
00:32:47,220 --> 00:32:47,880
Thank you.

420
00:32:49,860 --> 00:32:53,580
It's just going to go along the same lines of just looking at the county dollars.

421
00:32:53,580 --> 00:32:56,000
And I know you're on the HCDC with us.

422
00:32:56,460 --> 00:33:00,200
How do you see that that impact, because I know that the county prioritized emergency

423
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:05,200
shelter beds trying to stabilize that one, but didn't really have a goal for trying to

424
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:06,420
stabilize rapid rehousing.

425
00:33:06,820 --> 00:33:09,120
Do you think that kind of played into some of these numbers too?

426
00:33:10,380 --> 00:33:11,180
It has to.

427
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:12,580
I mean, there's a tradeoff, right?

428
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:16,200
When you prioritize one, you can't prioritize the other and that's the truth.

429
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:21,500
We also our system had a challenge with rapid rehousing beds for a while when vacancies

430
00:33:21,500 --> 00:33:22,300
were really low.

431
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,860
So we had some funds, but had a hard time placing people.

432
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:29,140
So then we decided, well, maybe as a community, we'll put a little less there and try some

433
00:33:29,140 --> 00:33:29,840
of these other areas.

434
00:33:30,620 --> 00:33:33,020
But emergency shelters are also very, very expensive.

435
00:33:33,300 --> 00:33:36,500
So you might put money into it, but still don't see a growth in beds.

436
00:33:36,500 --> 00:33:41,000
You might just maintain the status quo because the cost of running a shelter bed is quite high.

437
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:47,160
So it has to have an impact when we're trading off where our area of focus is, yeah.

438
00:33:49,810 --> 00:33:57,390
So when the track site closed, and I don't remember how many beds there was at 300 or 400,

439
00:33:57,690 --> 00:34:07,970
well, it fluctuated. Well, officially the number was 250, but it did fluctuate significantly up to,

440
00:34:07,970 --> 00:34:13,790
I did see the 400 through 150, but the official number of their typical euro meds was supposed

441
00:34:13,790 --> 00:34:14,350
to be 250.

442
00:34:14,950 --> 00:34:15,270
Thank you.

443
00:34:15,430 --> 00:34:19,870
Okay, and so if I recall correctly, Spokane went to a different paradigm where they had

444
00:34:19,870 --> 00:34:25,750
smaller sites around this or outside the city, maybe you're in the city, whatever.

445
00:34:26,610 --> 00:34:31,650
So how many of the smaller sites that sprung up, how many beds was that total?

446
00:34:31,790 --> 00:34:34,670
Did it not balance the track number?

447
00:34:35,470 --> 00:34:36,450
That's a great question.

448
00:34:36,450 --> 00:34:42,330
So, on that on this slide right here, we have 182 of those scattered sites, which is what they called.

449
00:34:42,550 --> 00:34:47,350
And that switch in models was actually something, a lot of feedback that we heard from the providers,

450
00:34:47,890 --> 00:34:54,590
which is it's a lot harder to wrap your arms around 300 people than it is to case manage 30,

451
00:34:55,170 --> 00:34:58,930
right, in a single location. So, that was a lot of feedback that we had received,

452
00:34:58,930 --> 00:34:59,970
and that was part of the push.

453
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:26,800
Let's move to this model, but we added 182 beds in 2025 with the scattered site. In the scattered sites that are being run by jewels, helping hands are 30 clients per site. And I believe that four sites, maybe five, and there's a couple. So it's going to take a lot of scattered sites to equal 300 at the track. And also some of these sites, shelter sites have converted now.

454
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:32,200
So, volunteers of America converted HOPE House to a respite program that's reimbursed through

455
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:36,940
Medicaid rather than being an emergency shelter. Now, I understand from Amanda that those numbers

456
00:35:36,940 --> 00:35:42,960
are included in the emergency shelter count, but those aren't walk-in shelters. Not anyone can

457
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:49,080
just walk in those and access those. So, while they still appear in the count, in terms of how many

458
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:53,340
beds are accessible for someone to walk into that they need, well, it's even actually smaller than

459
00:35:53,340 --> 00:35:55,260
and the emergency shelter count number tells us.

460
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:00,680
So do any of the service providers,

461
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:03,180
at least like at track,

462
00:36:03,740 --> 00:36:06,560
they are all together in one place,

463
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:08,660
and service providers can come in,

464
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:11,320
I don't know how many or what kinds did,

465
00:36:11,460 --> 00:36:14,420
but when you're scattered throughout the city,

466
00:36:14,620 --> 00:36:16,260
then service providers are going to,

467
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:19,120
like maybe a counselor or something,

468
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:20,360
going from place to place,

469
00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:23,420
is there any feedback on that kind of thing?

470
00:36:27,070 --> 00:36:32,090
Okay. Yes, there is a lot of coordination, and I'm not sure if you've heard of the housing

471
00:36:32,090 --> 00:36:36,470
navigation center, you've probably seen it in the news, but that is also a location

472
00:36:36,470 --> 00:36:42,030
where a lot of service provider comes. I know Jules Helping-Hans have a rotating list

473
00:36:42,030 --> 00:36:47,770
of every service provider and what day they're going to come in. Jules partners with Cat

474
00:36:47,770 --> 00:36:53,190
with Providence at their Medical Response Center, so that collaboration is still happening constantly.

475
00:36:54,010 --> 00:36:56,890
house of charities collaborating with the Housing and Navigation Center.

476
00:36:57,290 --> 00:37:01,290
So all of those connections do exist in the community and they are being utilized.

477
00:37:02,010 --> 00:37:02,930
I'll add to that.

478
00:37:03,450 --> 00:37:09,230
The city's Spokane recently put out a call for proposals for the inclement weather beds and receive a couple responses,

479
00:37:09,230 --> 00:37:15,150
one from Catholic charities, which is house of charity in St. Margaret's and one from jewels that has four different scattered sites.

480
00:37:15,830 --> 00:37:22,190
And in both of their applications, they talked quite a bit about the partnerships they have to serve the people in their scattered site locations.

481
00:37:22,190 --> 00:37:30,870
So, they have partnerships with health care providers, mental health care providers, substance use providers, that is absolutely baked into what they're offering those clients.

482
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:34,980
Any other questions?

483
00:37:37,220 --> 00:37:37,720
Comments?

484
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:41,600
I guess that's it. Thank you.

485
00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:41,980
Thank you.

486
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:54,060
We now have an admin report, a budget estimated review revenues and expenditures with Chelsea.

487
00:38:04,310 --> 00:38:08,070
Good evening, Mayor and members of Council. Chelsea Walls Finance Director.

488
00:38:08,070 --> 00:38:14,630
here. This is the second occasion where Council will review the draft 2027 budget numbers.

489
00:38:15,410 --> 00:38:20,830
The first occurred back at the June 9th budget workshop where you reserve reviewed the

490
00:38:20,830 --> 00:38:25,850
work sheets that were prepared by staff in detail. By the time Council is scheduled to adopt

491
00:38:25,850 --> 00:38:32,030
the 2027 budget on November 17th, you will have an opportunity to discuss the budget on eight

492
00:38:32,030 --> 00:38:37,730
separate occasions including three public hearings. Each year staff prepares estimates

493
00:38:37,730 --> 00:38:41,710
proposed revenues and expenditures for the next budget cycle and we will review these

494
00:38:41,710 --> 00:38:46,910
this evening and then again on September 15th when a public hearing will be held for the revenues.

495
00:38:48,190 --> 00:38:52,950
Please keep in mind that these worksheets that are included in your RCA this evening are still

496
00:38:52,950 --> 00:38:58,490
work in progress and they could change as we go forward although I don't anticipate anything material

497
00:38:58,490 --> 00:39:05,070
changing. The budget continues to involve. I'm working particularly on the capital project

498
00:39:05,070 --> 00:39:08,870
budgets with engineering and I want to review those with them again to make sure that those

499
00:39:08,870 --> 00:39:13,970
are accurate. So that's a place that I could see some ships happening, but again, I don't anticipate

500
00:39:13,970 --> 00:39:21,630
anything large besides what we know are unknowns right now. I wanted to highlight a few changes that

501
00:39:21,630 --> 00:39:26,950
have occurred since the June 9th workshop and those are indicated in blue font throughout your packet.

502
00:39:26,950 --> 00:39:32,730
First, the general fund recurring revenues were revised downward due to new estimates

503
00:39:32,730 --> 00:39:34,670
on state shared revenues that came out.

504
00:39:36,170 --> 00:39:42,090
Also, staff is proposing adding that transfer to fund 503 for the future replacement of

505
00:39:42,090 --> 00:39:44,230
police vehicles acquired in prior years.

506
00:39:44,750 --> 00:39:51,430
That's $653,000 transfer from the general fund to fund 503 in the non-recurring section.

507
00:39:51,430 --> 00:39:58,170
And also included are the supplemental budget requests from the June 9th workshop that had

508
00:39:58,170 --> 00:39:59,770
that council consensus at that time.

509
00:40:01,420 --> 00:40:31,400
All right, so jumping into the presentation, this presentation is at a much higher level than we went through at the budget workshop on June 9th, so I'll keep it kind of at a higher place. Total appropriations for all funds are currently unknown because we don't know what our total general fund expenditures are at this point. We're still working through the law enforcement contract costs and I'll have a little bit more to say on that in a bit. Total estimated revenues across all funds are about 148 million.

510
00:40:32,500 --> 00:40:47,600
We have 31 total funds, so not including the general fund, the 30 other funds, have expenditures of about $91.8 million, and included in that amount is an estimated $51.6 million in capital costs.

511
00:40:48,380 --> 00:40:58,620
Partially offsetting those capital costs are $29.6 million in estimated grant revenues, which represents about 57% of capital expenditures being paid for through grants.

512
00:41:00,300 --> 00:41:06,300
Looking at our full-time equivalent employee count, that is increasing the funded FTE amount

513
00:41:06,300 --> 00:41:14,160
is increasing by one to bring it to 120.25. That is the addition of the public safety director

514
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:19,920
position, which has been included as an unfunded position in the last several years. But on

515
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:25,800
the June 16 council meeting, council gave consensus to bring that in and fund it in the

516
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:28,280
in the 2027 budget, so that is now included

517
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:29,260
as a funded position.

518
00:41:31,940 --> 00:41:33,660
Looking specifically at the general fund,

519
00:41:33,820 --> 00:41:36,860
recurring revenues are estimated at 71.8 million.

520
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:40,860
That's an increase of 3.5 million or 5.14%.

521
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,560
These estimates are developed through historical trends

522
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:45,740
and projections of future economic conditions.

523
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,980
The two largest revenue sources in the general fund

524
00:41:48,980 --> 00:41:50,940
are property taxes and sales taxes.

525
00:41:51,260 --> 00:41:53,720
Those collectively account for about 82%

526
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:55,400
of our general fund recurring revenues.

527
00:41:57,740 --> 00:42:03,640
So looking a little bit at those two revenue sources, property taxes are estimated at 14.5 million

528
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:10,200
in order to develop that estimate. I take the 2026 actual levy and then add an estimated new

529
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:16,140
construction of 200,000. I will watch that number as we progress throughout the year. I expect to get

530
00:42:16,140 --> 00:42:22,760
an update from Spokane County Assessor's Office in the next week or so with some new information on that.

531
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:27,880
Just to say, this estimate does not include the 1% that is allowed by state law.

532
00:42:28,180 --> 00:42:34,520
It also does not include the 1.4 million of available bank capacity, excuse me.

533
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:40,960
And I will be coming forward in September for reports specifically on property taxes.

534
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:45,980
So looking at our general sales tax amount, that's estimated at 37 million.

535
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:50,660
That's an increase of 9.6% over the 2026 budget.

536
00:42:52,240 --> 00:42:57,300
2026 sales taxes are currently expected to come in over our budgeted amount of $33 million

537
00:42:58,460 --> 00:43:03,420
with the data I have right now through June. If that trend continues, I'll be including

538
00:43:03,420 --> 00:43:08,780
an increase in sales tax revenues in the future, 26 budget amendments. However, like I said,

539
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,420
it's only through June. I'd like a few more months of data to see if that trend is holding.

540
00:43:12,820 --> 00:43:19,080
So I'll keep watching that. In projecting the 2027 budgeted sales tax, staff started with

541
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:28,040
the actual 2025 collections and then added increases of 5% in 2026 and 4% in 2027 to bring

542
00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:35,400
us to the 37 million. Sales tax revenues for 2026 are currently about 6.5% higher than

543
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:37,400
they were for the same period in 2025.

544
00:43:41,530 --> 00:43:43,890
All right, so general fund expenditures and recurring

545
00:43:43,890 --> 00:43:49,830
expenditures, we currently do not know these because of unknown law enforcement contract costs.

546
00:43:49,830 --> 00:43:54,810
City staff is continuing to work with Spokane County to determine reasonable estimates.

547
00:43:55,570 --> 00:44:03,050
And I do believe that Deputy City Manager Eric Klam has a little bit extra information about where that's sitting right now if he wants to come up.

548
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:07,240
Thank you, Mayor.

549
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:11,380
Councilor, I do have an update.

550
00:44:19,210 --> 00:44:22,230
We've had multiple meetings with County staff.

551
00:44:22,770 --> 00:44:28,570
We actually had a meeting with Sheriff, with commissioners, Brooks and

552
00:44:28,570 --> 00:44:38,110
with Mayor Padden, Deputy Mayor Hattenberg, and Council Member Haley, working through some of the issues that were identified at the June Budget Workshop.

553
00:44:38,950 --> 00:44:43,410
There's been extensive work with the Budget Office and the Sheriff's Office.

554
00:44:44,270 --> 00:44:52,750
And so I do want to acknowledge there's been a lot of work done on several reconciliations that are either in process or have been processed.

555
00:44:52,750 --> 00:44:56,730
That includes the 2024 Law Enforcement Settling Adjust.

556
00:44:57,690 --> 00:44:59,750
We also understand that the

557
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:28,240
2025 lead cap is currently on schedule. It is per the contract required to be provided at the end of September. And by there were some questions earlier this year about the implementation of the financial software. We do understand that the budget office believes that will be coming in on time. So that's great news. We also have worked to come to an agreement on the 2026 estimate payments for law enforcement.

558
00:45:28,240 --> 00:45:35,260
That is a significant move because that bumps us up from where we were previously paying at 2023 rates.

559
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:47,860
So a lot of work, we still have not come to, I think what I would call a full understanding of where we might be for a budget for 2027, so we continue to work on that.

560
00:45:48,720 --> 00:45:54,940
I was, I was at a meeting last Friday and was provided a budget estimate.

561
00:45:55,900 --> 00:45:58,540
My understanding is this does come from the Sheriff's Office.

562
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:00,580
Again, it was just provided this on Friday.

563
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:07,680
And so we're still trying to work through what this, what it, what, what goes into this and

564
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:11,020
understand there's anything we have questions about.

565
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:17,580
The amount that was provided has a Sheriff's Office budget of 20 for 2027 of approximately $82

566
00:46:17,580 --> 00:46:26,180
million dollars working through everything and they just provided basically a rough 50% estimate,

567
00:46:26,180 --> 00:46:32,240
based on the FTEs. That would leave Spokane Valley with approximately a $41 million amount for

568
00:46:32,240 --> 00:46:41,500
2027. I think, as I said, that we have questions about this. One thing is that this budget amount,

569
00:46:41,500 --> 00:46:50,200
We understand our current understanding is this doesn't represent increase in any service levels, so this is really just cost escalation.

570
00:46:51,420 --> 00:46:57,200
That would be approximately 6.6% over our current 2026 budget.

571
00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:03,700
Like I said, there are still some pieces we're working through and so we're trying to understand what all goes into that.

572
00:47:03,700 --> 00:47:08,720
I think it is significantly higher than the county's adopted budget for

573
00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:10,440
2026 for the Sheriff's Office.

574
00:47:11,240 --> 00:47:15,980
And so I think understanding what plays into that beyond the collective bargaining amounts,

575
00:47:15,980 --> 00:47:20,320
which are not that much relative to what's been provided by the sheriff.

576
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:24,460
So at least we're getting some numbers and we continue to work through that.

577
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:31,260
Like I said, it does show an increase over the 2026 budget and we continue to work forward.

578
00:47:31,260 --> 00:47:37,820
and I do want to highlight I think since our June workshop there's been an increased level

579
00:47:37,820 --> 00:47:42,580
of communication and participation between all three parties trying to work towards resolving

580
00:47:42,580 --> 00:47:49,820
many of the issues that we talked about in June. So any questions specifically on public safety

581
00:47:49,820 --> 00:47:50,560
or law enforcement?

582
00:47:58,610 --> 00:48:03,150
Actually, I guess I have one. So you said the 2024 was settled?

583
00:48:06,010 --> 00:48:16,850
And wasn't an outstanding issue, the depreciation or the capital cost of the training center on that one and how did that get resolved?

584
00:48:17,410 --> 00:48:19,030
That you are correct, Mayor.

585
00:48:19,330 --> 00:48:26,350
So we did settle the 2024, settle and adjust payments for everything but the training center, so I apologize.

586
00:48:26,350 --> 00:48:28,770
We are continuing to work through that.

587
00:48:29,370 --> 00:48:45,870
Again, as we talked about, the city's position is that the sheriff, at the time that the training center was being developed and identified and discussed, indicated that Spokane Valley would not be responsible for any capital class to build and construct the building.

588
00:48:45,870 --> 00:48:49,150
It's an approximate $40 plus million building.

589
00:48:50,150 --> 00:48:57,290
The county's position has been that it is under the contract subject to depreciation

590
00:48:57,290 --> 00:48:59,550
and we should pay that component.

591
00:49:02,030 --> 00:49:05,830
We've made some headway, but we continue to work on that.

592
00:49:06,570 --> 00:49:07,630
City manager?

593
00:49:08,330 --> 00:49:14,250
Yes, I would ask Eric to provide maybe a little bit more context on the actual dollar numbers.

594
00:49:14,250 --> 00:49:43,590
So, can you remind the council and the community what the settle and adjust was for 2024, and then I think in addition it would be helpful to understand what the current estimate that we received for 2026 is from the county because then I think it puts it into context from a dollar standpoint the level of increase because there was some question that maybe we were.

595
00:49:43,590 --> 00:49:53,490
over estimating our budget amount, so I think it's important to at least have, have some context for the council.

596
00:49:53,490 --> 00:49:59,730
Yeah, so 2024, excuse me, sorry to interrupt you.

597
00:50:00,660 --> 00:50:29,960
Can you also indicate whether these numbers are coming from the county's accounting office or the shares? Because part of the problem all along is that they haven't, well not all along. Part of recent issues is that they have not matched. And so like this, this 41 million or the 82 million. I mean, that's from the sheriff's office, right? That's not from the county's budget office. And could you tell us what

598
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:31,820
that the county's budget office says?

599
00:50:33,020 --> 00:50:38,380
Yes, so let me start with a city manager,

600
00:50:38,580 --> 00:50:41,800
Holman asked, so our settlement adjust

601
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:44,700
is an agreed upon amount for actual expenses.

602
00:50:45,260 --> 00:50:49,720
And by both sides, I mean the county and Spokane Valley

603
00:50:49,720 --> 00:50:52,940
agree to this, this is the agreed upon amount

604
00:50:52,940 --> 00:50:56,100
for the services we received, what we actually owe.

605
00:50:56,920 --> 00:50:59,260
So it is a resolution of everybody.

606
00:50:59,260 --> 00:51:23,700
based on actual costs. So for 2024, excluding the training center which is still being discussed and our goal is to handle that outside of the settle and adjust the amount that that we ultimately owed was approximately $28 million and I can send around the final amount but it's approximately $28 million.

607
00:51:23,700 --> 00:51:40,720
Now, remember in 2025 and 2026 we added approximately 10 officers each year, so significant increases just from the additional officers, but the 2025, let's see, I don't know that I have the 25 budget.

608
00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:47,400
The 2026 estimate, so this is after we've added all 20 positions.

609
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:49,800
I guess let me step back.

610
00:51:50,020 --> 00:51:52,760
Our budget for 2026 is $38 million.

611
00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:59,780
So over two years, we estimated approximately $10 million more for budgeting purposes.

612
00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:11,000
The 2026 estimate, which again is just an estimate, that is an amount that was originally derived

613
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:17,820
On the county side, but ultimately agreed to by both sides is approximately 33 and a half million dollars.

614
00:52:18,660 --> 00:52:26,960
So you can see a big jump from 24 to 26, even just between the actual and the estimate and the actual in our budget.

615
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:32,240
Now, the amount then that we're talking about, so our budget is $38 million.

616
00:52:32,240 --> 00:52:34,840
dollars, the estimate is $33 million.

617
00:52:36,940 --> 00:52:41,000
What we're talking about this amount of $41 million.

618
00:52:41,340 --> 00:52:48,920
My understanding merit to your question is that they come from the Sheriff's Office. I do not know

619
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:56,720
exactly how much involvement the budget office had. I know they are looking at that.

620
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:00,660
And we will continue to look at that as well.

621
00:53:01,340 --> 00:53:25,020
So I don't know that, and the budget office has not provided anything separate from that, but I know they rely on the sheriff to identify and develop a proposed budget and the county commissioners will ultimately prove that my understanding is the commissioners will be hearing from the budget office and all departments next week for a holistic presentation of the budget, I believe on Tuesday.

622
00:53:26,720 --> 00:53:27,640
Council Member Yeager.

623
00:53:28,820 --> 00:53:32,460
All right, I missed what you said the 2026 budget number was.

624
00:53:32,860 --> 00:53:36,100
So our 2026 budget number is $38.5 million.

625
00:53:37,340 --> 00:53:43,540
So you can see that at least as the sheriff's office is estimating for or budgeting

626
00:53:43,540 --> 00:53:46,220
with this initial budget amount, which again we're not.

627
00:53:46,860 --> 00:53:50,080
We haven't worked and really gotten into it because we just received this.

628
00:53:50,720 --> 00:53:55,920
You know at $41 million that's about a six and a half percent increase over our

629
00:53:57,120 --> 00:54:04,380
2026 budget amount. So the sheriff's office at least is in range and higher than where we're at.

630
00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:06,320
Council member Wood.

631
00:54:07,500 --> 00:54:13,160
So your so their estimate was 41 million but the 26 you're comparing that to our budget amount but

632
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:19,200
their 26 estimate was 33 and a half. Yeah. So I don't know that we would want to base the

633
00:54:19,200 --> 00:54:22,920
different based on our budget, more so than their estimate.

634
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:29,780
Well, and I would say that the estimate is something that we've just worked out.

635
00:54:30,540 --> 00:54:35,900
The goal under the contract and historically has been to get the estimate provided early in the year.

636
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:38,140
So we're making more accurate payments.

637
00:54:38,900 --> 00:54:42,280
Under the contract, the estimate is to be derived from the lead cap.

638
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:44,340
That was not possible.

639
00:54:44,340 --> 00:54:54,440
And so the estimate this year, I think, is much more of a generalized escalation using certain assumptions than based on the lead cap.

640
00:54:54,700 --> 00:54:58,680
So well, I think it gets us closer to a more realistic number.

641
00:55:00,270 --> 00:55:20,450
I think we, we still would like to get more information overall about where things are tracking. So we've been, that's where we've been trying to work with the budget office on where the actuals for 2026, so we can see how that aligns with the county's budget and with that estimated amount.

642
00:55:24,030 --> 00:55:30,130
I just wanted to make sure I fully understood that this was clear as possible to the public.

643
00:55:32,030 --> 00:55:38,790
So 2024, the actual expenditures from by the city was 28 million.

644
00:55:39,610 --> 00:55:44,250
And if we want to assume that we're approximately 50% of the county's budget, then we can extrapolate

645
00:55:44,250 --> 00:55:59,870
that the sheriff's office spend approximately 56 million excluding the training facility and he expenses there in the indirect costs are cost or 28 million includes indirect costs and the sheriff's budget doesn't necessarily include all of those.

646
00:55:59,870 --> 00:56:08,730
Okay. And then for 2026, the estimate of $33 million is what the Sheriff's Office expected

647
00:56:08,730 --> 00:56:15,470
as to make payments against, but we were being prudent and budgeted about $38.5 million,

648
00:56:15,550 --> 00:56:23,330
about $5 million more. Correct. And I would say that it is the estimate was simply an agreement

649
00:56:23,330 --> 00:56:30,610
by the parties to try to catch our payments up, I think it is based on a couple of years,

650
00:56:31,530 --> 00:56:37,090
prior actuals and then escalations that are based on assumptions. And so, again,

651
00:56:37,930 --> 00:56:44,490
I think our goal for the 27 budget development is to continue to get more information, both,

652
00:56:45,290 --> 00:56:50,810
for example, from the sheriff's budget projection and understand what's going into that,

653
00:56:50,810 --> 00:57:06,050
As well as the actual cost to date in 2026, I think that is something that had been missing earlier and we do understand more information is becoming available and should be getting a report soon about that.

654
00:57:06,450 --> 00:57:10,630
So I guess I would say we continue to work on this.

655
00:57:10,730 --> 00:57:18,450
Our hope is in the next couple of weeks we could come forward and have a much more clear discussion about public safety costs because I know right now.

656
00:57:18,450 --> 00:57:21,170
there's a lot of numbers being thrown around for a lot of different years.

657
00:57:22,150 --> 00:57:29,510
But I think the takeaway is at least right now, we've budgeted conservatively from the standpoint of

658
00:57:29,510 --> 00:57:35,870
making sure we are setting aside enough money to pay for all the costs that we believe if all

659
00:57:35,870 --> 00:57:43,830
the positions are filled, we will incur. And that includes all the new positions where we see

660
00:57:43,830 --> 00:57:50,190
the sheriff's office going is certainly, you know, around or higher than those numbers as well.

661
00:57:50,670 --> 00:57:57,710
City manager? Yeah, I think I just wanted to add that when we spoke about this in June during

662
00:57:57,710 --> 00:58:06,330
our workshop, there might have been an impression that we had been overly conservative or overestimating

663
00:58:06,330 --> 00:58:13,350
our budget for the last several years. We have been working through this since that time but

664
00:58:13,830 --> 00:58:20,110
This is a little troubling in the sense of maybe we've been underestimating, or we might be in a point where we have not

665
00:58:20,670 --> 00:58:26,550
had our budget high enough to cover any expenditures that we might see in 2027.

666
00:58:26,810 --> 00:58:30,530
So there's a lot of uncertainty, we're going to continue to work through that.

667
00:58:30,710 --> 00:58:36,810
But that's kind of where we're at right now is trying to determine if we're overestimating or underestimating.

668
00:58:36,810 --> 00:58:40,310
And some of the data shows that we might have been overestimating.

669
00:58:40,310 --> 00:58:47,490
but now this new data point that we have we're underestimating and so we'll try to get this

670
00:58:47,490 --> 00:58:54,850
clear because again we need to provide you with a final draft budget by the first week of October.

671
00:58:55,230 --> 00:59:02,610
So there's not a lot of time for us to work with entities at the county to resolve this issue but

672
00:59:02,610 --> 00:59:09,610
we are doing our best to try to get you an actual complete budget by the first week in October.

673
00:59:11,560 --> 00:59:13,560
So is this a follow-up on your initial?

674
00:59:13,700 --> 00:59:13,960
Yes.

675
00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:14,620
Okay.

676
00:59:15,720 --> 00:59:19,760
So with regard to this $33 million estimate,

677
00:59:20,320 --> 00:59:22,880
is this based on your-to-date numbers,

678
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:24,320
or do we have your-to-date numbers

679
00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:26,260
to give us some idea if that's realistic,

680
00:59:26,260 --> 00:59:28,720
if it's trending more to their number or our number?

681
00:59:29,780 --> 00:59:32,560
We are working to get your-to-date from the county

682
00:59:32,560 --> 00:59:33,320
at this point.

683
00:59:33,820 --> 00:59:35,880
The estimate was not based on your-to-date.

684
00:59:36,060 --> 00:59:40,320
It was based on the 24 actual and then escalated

685
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:45,020
and adding additional officers based on certain assumptions of how much to

686
00:59:45,020 --> 00:59:47,720
escalate. Thank you. Council moved away.

687
00:59:48,540 --> 00:59:53,160
Just want to clarify, the 26 was last time we added officers, right, so that was

688
00:59:53,160 --> 00:59:55,780
already our second set of 10 that we added. Correct.

689
00:59:56,160 --> 00:59:59,660
In the 26, so there's no additional officers between 26 and 27.

690
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:29,980
Not for Spokane Valley, no, and we don't understand at least preliminary. I do not have any understanding that there's additional officers in the sheriff's office. But like I said, we just received this and I've been speaking to Chief Ellis and we have a meeting set up to try to get at what goes into the 82 million dollars so we can understand that it is quite a bit higher than the counties adopted 26 budget. And so even higher than the collective

691
01:00:29,980 --> 01:00:36,520
bargain and agreement increases in escalation. So I think a fair number of pieces we need

692
01:00:36,520 --> 01:00:39,740
to understand why they're driving that cost up so much.

693
01:00:41,760 --> 01:00:44,320
Councilmember Kelly, wait, did you have?

694
01:00:45,020 --> 01:00:51,560
I was just going to add Eric, maybe you can provide the sheriff's 2026 budget number.

695
01:00:51,860 --> 01:00:53,920
I think it was in the 66 million range.

696
01:00:54,260 --> 01:00:59,900
Yeah, what I was told is approximately 66.3 million dollars for the 2026 sheriff's office

697
01:00:59,900 --> 01:01:00,300
budget.

698
01:01:00,300 --> 01:01:06,160
And how much of an increase is that getting you to the projected 2027?

699
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:12,540
It's about 15.9.

700
01:01:13,140 --> 01:01:19,360
If I'm doing the math right, it's if 82 minus 66, what's that?

701
01:01:23,880 --> 01:01:29,280
16 million, but percentage wise, it's about a 23% increase.

702
01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:30,320
So

703
01:01:33,140 --> 01:01:39,060
you answered my question. I was going to ask what number of the county had adopted in their 2026 budget and you said 66 million.

704
01:01:45,750 --> 01:01:57,110
Sorry, I was sitting here thinking, this is probably a rhetorical question, but what happens if we can't afford to pay that much more?

705
01:01:58,930 --> 01:02:08,250
We will have to have discussions about with both internally and council level and probably with the sheriff about what that looks like going forward.

706
01:02:10,610 --> 01:02:11,410
City manager.

707
01:02:12,350 --> 01:02:28,270
Well council member Haley if you recall from our meeting the finance committee meeting had with the two county commissioners and the sheriff we did entertain the idea of having a fixed cost contract with the sheriff's department.

708
01:02:28,270 --> 01:02:35,890
Mr. Sheriff was amenable to that. However, part of his, I guess, request that we would have

709
01:02:35,890 --> 01:02:41,870
to discuss further would be that he would be the determining factor of level of service.

710
01:02:42,630 --> 01:02:51,250
So that, to me, would mean that staffing would be solely his responsibility as opposed to input

711
01:02:51,250 --> 01:02:56,590
from the council. So I think there's a lot to discuss on that yet, but that could be an

712
01:02:56,590 --> 01:03:03,630
option because I have grave concerns that we'd be able to accommodate a $41 million

713
01:03:05,990 --> 01:03:13,650
budget for 2027. That's a pretty big increase. Even though we seem to be doing well on sales

714
01:03:13,650 --> 01:03:20,990
tax collections, there's other costs that have escalated as everybody has experienced over

715
01:03:20,990 --> 01:03:27,450
the last many years and so that's something that we will definitely have to talk about and move

716
01:03:27,450 --> 01:03:34,810
forward with potentially. Can it's member Wick? So I know this is kind of outside of our

717
01:03:34,810 --> 01:03:38,590
purview but the county budget request from the sheriff's office of 82 million is that

718
01:03:39,230 --> 01:03:44,550
was that made after they identified that they had a $30 million whole or was that before?

719
01:03:50,310 --> 01:03:50,970
So is

720
01:03:50,970 --> 01:03:54,390
increase after they were already at $30 million in a hole.

721
01:03:55,290 --> 01:03:56,370
I don't want to mispeak.

722
01:03:56,770 --> 01:04:02,910
My understanding is this was what was provided just recently to, from the Sheriff's Office to the budget office.

723
01:04:04,130 --> 01:04:11,350
My understanding is there are discussions going on at the county in advance of the presentation of the budget to the commissioners next week.

724
01:04:11,590 --> 01:04:20,510
So I would guess that the original 30 million deficit discussions did not include this addition.

725
01:04:21,330 --> 01:04:23,330
but I don't want to misspeak on that.

726
01:04:26,570 --> 01:04:27,850
Any other questions?

727
01:04:30,420 --> 01:04:30,840
Comments?

728
01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:33,720
All right.

729
01:04:34,460 --> 01:04:35,500
Well, I've got one.

730
01:04:35,720 --> 01:04:36,200
Yes, continue.

731
01:04:36,560 --> 01:04:37,680
If you keep on going.

732
01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:38,240
All right.

733
01:04:39,020 --> 01:04:40,480
Still looking at the general fund.

734
01:04:40,720 --> 01:04:42,000
Now non-recurring activity.

735
01:04:42,780 --> 01:04:48,500
We have non-recurring revenues of 75,000 as a transfer in from 501 for some IT scheduled

736
01:04:48,500 --> 01:04:53,120
capital expenditures and non-recurring expenditures of 1.6 million.

737
01:04:53,120 --> 01:04:57,100
Those are primarily related to the supplemental budget requests,

738
01:04:57,400 --> 01:04:59,880
except for those items that are related to the police.

739
01:05:13,700 --> 01:05:29,880
So that brings me here general fund ending fund balance. We don't know right now. So as you're aware, we have two main financial objectives for the general fund.

740
01:05:29,880 --> 01:05:33,540
And one is that recurring revenues exceed recurring expenditures.

741
01:05:34,220 --> 01:05:39,140
And the other is that our general fund ending fund balance is at least 50% of recurring expenditures.

742
01:05:39,840 --> 01:05:45,420
We do not know whether we may either of those at this point, so we will keep looking and

743
01:05:45,420 --> 01:05:49,500
keep evaluating, and as we get more information, we will find out.

744
01:05:51,100 --> 01:05:57,060
So looking at our other funds and revenues in those funds, motor vehicle fuel taxes,

745
01:05:57,060 --> 01:06:04,320
is the gas tax in Street Fund 101 is estimated about 1.9 million, those projections are based off

746
01:06:04,320 --> 01:06:11,840
of a per capita rate that MRSC puts out. Those are currently at 13.7% more than the same

747
01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:20,400
period in 2025. Telephone taxes have stabilized and they're currently 13.6% more than the same

748
01:06:20,400 --> 01:06:28,080
period in 25. Those are expected to come in at about 980,000 in 2027. Real estate excise

749
01:06:28,080 --> 01:06:35,360
taxes are reed or estimated at 3 million. Those are currently down by 13.2% as compared

750
01:06:35,360 --> 01:06:48,380
to the same period in 2025. Hotel tax revenues are 900,000 that includes the 2% tax or 1.5 million

751
01:06:48,380 --> 01:06:55,100
excuse me, I'm mixing up my lines here. 900,000 in the 2% tax and 600,000 in the 1.3% tax.

752
01:06:55,880 --> 01:07:01,600
The 2% tax is currently about 2.5% as compared to the same period in 2025.

753
01:07:02,500 --> 01:07:09,280
Tourism promotion area fees is the 1.3 million TPA fees. Those are of 6.3% as compared to

754
01:07:09,280 --> 01:07:17,140
the same period in 2025. For the vehicle license fees, the tab fees are anticipated to be about 1.8 million.

755
01:07:17,140 --> 01:07:22,200
And I finally have some data so I can tell you that those are pretty much even to the

756
01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:26,880
same period as 2025 they are holding steady as what we have been collecting.

757
01:07:27,980 --> 01:07:32,540
And then stormwater management fees are estimated at 6.2 million in fund 402.

758
01:07:34,560 --> 01:07:40,520
Looking at budget challenges, we've had some structural deficits in a few of our city operating

759
01:07:40,520 --> 01:07:41,040
funds.

760
01:07:41,380 --> 01:07:45,080
And currently as we've just discussed we don't know if our general fund right now has

761
01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:47,040
an operating deficit or not.

762
01:07:47,040 --> 01:07:52,640
So we will continue to evaluate that, but our street fund deficit is estimated to be about $1 million.

763
01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:57,840
The draft budget does include REIT transfers to cover that deficit.

764
01:07:58,500 --> 01:08:07,400
However, the continued use of a REIT fund to subsidize maintenance operations will start affecting the city's ability to match grant funds in the future, potentially.

765
01:08:09,000 --> 01:08:15,100
Other challenges are, as we've been talking about, lack of timely information for public safety contracts.

766
01:08:15,100 --> 01:08:20,340
I think we beat that one to death at this point, balancing public safety with other priorities.

767
01:08:20,340 --> 01:08:27,900
This is a continuing challenge, so rising costs in public safety operations has caused other departments to have to cut costs in prior years.

768
01:08:28,480 --> 01:08:33,760
But inflationary pressures are affecting all of our city departments, so trying to balance those priorities.

769
01:08:34,460 --> 01:08:39,060
And then transportation funding, so balancing the needs of arterials and local access streets.

770
01:08:39,060 --> 01:08:44,560
rates. We've had some shifting around of subsidies in the last several years in order to try

771
01:08:44,560 --> 01:08:49,640
and cover those costs and cover the costs of public safety and the new officers, so just

772
01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:55,940
trying to make those numbers work out in the city's favor and continue to get those grant

773
01:08:55,940 --> 01:09:01,580
funds and have the match for them. And then accumulating funding for large capital projects,

774
01:09:01,820 --> 01:09:05,480
such as our grade separation project. So Sullivan Trent is coming up next.

775
01:09:05,480 --> 01:09:21,280
And then here is our current calendar for the 2027 budget, as you'll see in the yellow circle, we're on the admin report on the 25th, and then we are anticipated to have adoption on November 17th.

776
01:09:24,530 --> 01:09:25,770
And then are there any questions?

777
01:09:27,130 --> 01:09:28,350
Questions from council.

778
01:09:28,350 --> 01:09:28,550
Council

779
01:09:31,330 --> 01:09:32,510
member would.

780
01:09:32,910 --> 01:09:37,990
So in the street fund, just a quick question, you had two lines in there.

781
01:09:38,030 --> 01:09:44,890
One is the traffic safety camera program where we added the expenses.

782
01:09:45,430 --> 01:09:52,010
It looks like it kind of matches or barely matches the revenue then this is the anticipation.

783
01:09:52,530 --> 01:09:59,970
And those are still very much estimated and I am needing to check in on where that project is.

784
01:10:00,620 --> 01:10:06,760
So that I believe would come forward potentially with more information next time. What's the traffic

785
01:10:06,760 --> 01:10:11,620
program increases, like a half a million dollars for the traffic program? Is that similar

786
01:10:11,620 --> 01:10:17,960
to the cameras or? No, that is the like the traffic operation. So the signals that all

787
01:10:17,960 --> 01:10:22,860
of that that has to do with. So we think that's going to go by half a million

788
01:10:22,860 --> 01:10:28,720
dollars more next year. Those are the numbers that I received and that

789
01:10:28,720 --> 01:10:30,280
that we're presented at the budget workshop.

790
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:34,500
Just in there, I know it might be curious to know a little bit more about that.

791
01:10:35,360 --> 01:10:40,600
I believe some of that, if I'm remembering correctly, is, I know we've added.

792
01:10:40,820 --> 01:10:43,380
There have been a number of street lights that have been added over the years.

793
01:10:43,780 --> 01:10:45,580
And truly not the actual cost.

794
01:10:45,840 --> 01:10:48,260
That's a component of that, I believe.

795
01:10:49,780 --> 01:10:53,540
And I do know I'm getting her thumbs up from the public, not trying to put you on that.

796
01:10:53,540 --> 01:10:55,220
So we can provide additional information.

797
01:10:55,620 --> 01:10:59,100
Yeah, electric costs in particular are like $400,000 or more.

798
01:10:59,460 --> 01:11:01,640
So those have been rising.

799
01:11:07,630 --> 01:11:11,250
Robert Blagan, Public Works Director, so about half of that was the street light cost.

800
01:11:12,030 --> 01:11:15,750
And then we had the full staff in the signal shop.

801
01:11:16,250 --> 01:11:19,410
And then the cost escalation in our service contracts,

802
01:11:20,250 --> 01:11:25,550
signing, striping, that comes from the county as their costs have gone up and they pass through

803
01:11:25,550 --> 01:11:32,130
those costs. So just the accumulation, and we have one of our staff members that was

804
01:11:32,130 --> 01:11:36,810
charged partially to traffic this now full time, the third member, the other traffic

805
01:11:36,810 --> 01:11:41,210
counts, they're in my vision. So I'll accumulate those operations cost increased.

806
01:11:42,470 --> 01:11:43,130
Thanks.

807
01:11:46,650 --> 01:11:47,970
Any other questions?

808
01:11:47,970 --> 01:11:53,290
comments, comments, seeing that?

809
01:11:53,850 --> 01:11:54,790
Thank you.

810
01:11:54,850 --> 01:11:57,230
Be back for a public hearing and about a month.

811
01:11:57,610 --> 01:11:57,750
Yeah.

812
01:12:06,400 --> 01:12:06,920
Okay.

813
01:12:07,060 --> 01:12:09,980
We're now at our second general public comment opportunity.

814
01:12:10,340 --> 01:12:11,600
The rules are the same.

815
01:12:12,180 --> 01:12:13,780
Is there anyone on Zoom?

816
01:12:14,880 --> 01:12:15,420
No, Mayor.

817
01:12:16,020 --> 01:12:17,560
And is anyone signed up?

818
01:12:19,740 --> 01:12:20,300
Unlikely.

819
01:12:27,680 --> 01:12:28,240
Okay.

820
01:12:28,440 --> 01:12:31,160
Anyone in the audience wish to make a public comment?

821
01:12:35,440 --> 01:12:43,400
Okay. We're done with general public comment. Advanced agenda. Any items for the advanced agenda?

822
01:12:44,680 --> 01:12:46,000
Council member Wick.

823
01:12:46,820 --> 01:12:53,000
I know that we have ended our agreement with Flock and with the county, but the cameras

824
01:12:53,430 --> 01:12:58,580
are still there, and the community is still out crying because they don't realize that

825
01:12:58,580 --> 01:13:03,000
they're off. I just wonder if there was a way that we could collect them so that they're

826
01:13:03,000 --> 01:13:04,260
not still out on the streets.

827
01:13:08,980 --> 01:13:13,440
Is it it's the responsibility of flock right to to take them down?

828
01:13:14,000 --> 01:13:20,900
Yes, but I think we could look at if staff collects them and puts them in a place that could be picked

829
01:13:20,900 --> 01:13:27,760
up so we could look at that. Okay, an alternative might be just a bag them or something to that effect

830
01:13:27,760 --> 01:13:29,680
might be cheaper but put

831
01:13:31,950 --> 01:13:36,330
banks over them basically yeah yeah I would just take them down myself

832
01:13:36,330 --> 01:13:44,940
versus begging them but yeah okay well I guess fine oh do we have consensus to do that oh yes

833
01:13:44,940 --> 01:13:54,560
is that consensus consensus thank you sorry okay anybody else are we okay okay we'll look at it

834
01:13:56,160 --> 01:13:57,260
Anything else?

835
01:13:59,610 --> 01:13:59,970
Okay.

836
01:14:03,470 --> 01:14:04,810
Council member reports.

837
01:14:07,650 --> 01:14:10,750
These are brief three-minute maximum verbal

838
01:14:10,750 --> 01:14:16,230
reports by council members, specifically regarding meetings or events, committee, commission,

839
01:14:16,470 --> 01:14:22,370
task force, board members or board meetings or community events. They have recently attended

840
01:14:22,370 --> 01:14:26,630
while representing the city. This is not an opportunity for general

841
01:14:26,630 --> 01:14:31,930
comments from council members. The intent of the council member reports is to inform the

842
01:14:31,930 --> 01:14:37,550
entire council and the public of pertinent policy issues or events which impact the

843
01:14:37,550 --> 01:14:44,030
city. Extended reports shall be placed as future agenda items for presentation or submitted

844
01:14:44,030 --> 01:14:48,010
in writing as an informal memo. Council member Kelly.

845
01:14:49,650 --> 01:14:59,970
Yeah, I'd like to share so we had recently had the scraps meeting and the board and they seem to continue to be making progress, they're very focused.

846
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:29,980
We're just on streamlining their operations and making sure that they have sufficient funds to operate while still providing good service. So, based on what I'm hearing and seeing, I'm confident that they're in good hands. Also yesterday, we attended Deputy Mayor Hattenberg and myself attended some of the openings of the new school security doors and was impressed by the number of very dedicated and energetic teachers and kids that put a lot of effort into

847
01:15:29,980 --> 01:15:38,880
So it's good to see that they're making progress and that they've completed their delivered their promise projects about five years ahead of schedule.

848
01:15:39,140 --> 01:15:40,900
So that's going well as also.

849
01:15:41,780 --> 01:15:43,540
Great. Thank you. Council member would.

850
01:15:45,020 --> 01:15:48,380
Nothing major to add just looking forward to cops and cruisers this weekend.

851
01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:51,720
Council member Yeager.

852
01:15:52,060 --> 01:15:54,240
I will second that this weekend. It'll be a lot of fun.

853
01:15:54,240 --> 01:16:01,540
I attended the partners in the Northwest Block Party, it was from 10 to 5, a couple weeks

854
01:16:01,540 --> 01:16:06,920
ago, and I was there pretty early, so I'm not sure it was attended as well at that time,

855
01:16:07,140 --> 01:16:13,540
but then I believe last week I spoke about the course grant opening, which was a beautiful

856
01:16:13,540 --> 01:16:14,340
Saturday morning.

857
01:16:15,520 --> 01:16:22,600
I attended the county GOP convention this last weekend and got to do an abbreviated state

858
01:16:22,600 --> 01:16:28,380
of the city, and so I got to break on us a little bit, and Jill, your thumb drive is back in your seat.

859
01:16:29,840 --> 01:16:36,420
Friday, I did a ride along with deputy speedrun, with the homeless and housing resource officer,

860
01:16:36,960 --> 01:16:40,340
sorry if I'm calling him the wrong thing, but I also got to meet

861
01:16:41,420 --> 01:16:45,220
Misty, who was with Frontier Behavioral Health, and they make a really great team.

862
01:16:46,120 --> 01:16:50,660
And then today we got to cut the ribbon for the Sunshine Health Facilities Assisted Living

863
01:16:50,660 --> 01:16:57,540
and opening, they provide a great campus of care out here in the valley, and that's about it.

864
01:16:58,760 --> 01:17:00,380
Thank you, Council Member Hayley.

865
01:17:00,760 --> 01:17:02,000
Nothing different to report.

866
01:17:05,360 --> 01:17:08,220
Okay, I was at two ribbon cuttings.

867
01:17:08,260 --> 01:17:21,260
One was WestPAC, which is, you know, investment accounts are financial investing firm, and they stated very boldly that they were very intentional

868
01:17:21,260 --> 01:17:27,680
about coming and being in the valley and so they were very thrilled they're out on Indiana

869
01:17:27,680 --> 01:17:36,860
past Sullivan. I also was at the Sunshine ribbon cutting and I will say they are an

870
01:17:36,860 --> 01:17:44,440
interesting group you know as family run they have now including the 4th generation of

871
01:17:44,440 --> 01:17:49,660
family that are doing it and they have grown as the valley has grown they have grown and

872
01:17:49,660 --> 01:17:51,940
in their totally community oriented

873
01:17:52,560 --> 01:17:55,500
and have a great value system of service

874
01:17:55,500 --> 01:17:59,840
to the vulnerable people that they serve.

875
01:18:00,140 --> 01:18:03,260
So they have not just assisted living,

876
01:18:03,460 --> 01:18:06,000
but they have also like a nursing home thing

877
01:18:06,000 --> 01:18:10,920
and various services for various stages of your life.

878
01:18:11,060 --> 01:18:12,620
So that was really a fun event.

879
01:18:13,240 --> 01:18:15,760
I went to the launch Northwest breakfast,

880
01:18:15,760 --> 01:18:21,160
which was an update only on some of their activities.

881
01:18:21,860 --> 01:18:23,360
So they highlighted three programs.

882
01:18:24,380 --> 01:18:27,700
Two of them struck me as pretty important.

883
01:18:27,840 --> 01:18:31,540
One was their Engage IRL, which is engage in real life.

884
01:18:32,120 --> 01:18:34,660
And it's at the high school level,

885
01:18:34,780 --> 01:18:38,560
and they encourage and help students be involved

886
01:18:38,560 --> 01:18:40,420
in extracurricular activities.

887
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:48,380
And they have, they keep track of, you know, statistics on the data on it.

888
01:18:48,780 --> 01:18:53,780
And so the students that are involved, the absenteeism has gone down.

889
01:18:54,420 --> 01:18:58,600
Their grade point averages have gone up much less screen time.

890
01:18:58,720 --> 01:19:00,280
These activities are not screen time.

891
01:19:00,400 --> 01:19:06,660
These are interacting with real people and their peers and adults and playing games and learning things.

892
01:19:06,660 --> 01:19:09,760
and so it's really, I think, a really good program.

893
01:19:10,200 --> 01:19:12,720
They also have one called Empower Mentoring,

894
01:19:12,880 --> 01:19:16,320
which is a peer who could be, I mean, mentoring,

895
01:19:16,480 --> 01:19:18,780
who could be a peer or a college student

896
01:19:18,780 --> 01:19:23,380
or a trusted adult, and so they do things

897
01:19:23,380 --> 01:19:27,480
like locate scholarships, talk about careers,

898
01:19:28,100 --> 01:19:29,700
meet basic needs for students.

899
01:19:30,420 --> 01:19:35,780
And as of 2025, 26, they had 3,018 participants,

900
01:19:35,780 --> 01:19:47,220
students, student participants, and 131 mentors, so that's a pretty, you know, substantial impact in the schools and this is in Spokane schools.

901
01:19:49,120 --> 01:19:52,260
So, and that's it. So then city manager.

902
01:19:52,900 --> 01:19:59,780
Okay. Thank you, Mayor Patten, Councilmembers. Just to follow up on the Mayor's comments, I did speak.

903
01:20:03,240 --> 01:20:29,980
She has been really preoccupied with the fire recovery response and sounds like we'll be having some really interesting news later this week that she didn't really tell me other than they have a big thing that they've been working on. So she's been a little bit preoccupied. But set by the end of the week, we should be in a position to schedule a visit from launch Northwest. So I'll work with you.

904
01:20:29,980 --> 01:20:33,220
for the clerk to get that set up.

905
01:20:34,380 --> 01:20:38,300
And then wanted to, as Council Member Wick brought up

906
01:20:38,300 --> 01:20:42,280
this weekend, there's a variety of things happening.

907
01:20:42,580 --> 01:20:45,280
There's actually three large events going on.

908
01:20:45,840 --> 01:20:49,100
The first starts at 3.30 across the street,

909
01:20:49,140 --> 01:20:52,200
and that's the rubbing cutting of our sports courts.

910
01:20:53,060 --> 01:20:54,640
And so that's going to be really exciting.

911
01:20:54,880 --> 01:20:58,840
We invite everybody to come out and join

912
01:20:58,840 --> 01:21:05,900
the city council to open the new basketball and pickable courts sports lighting and then the

913
01:21:06,600 --> 01:21:12,720
expanded sound system. So the one thing my understanding on the sports lighting piece is that

914
01:21:13,440 --> 01:21:19,540
it'll be set up for motion detection so there won't be any light switches out there so we'll have

915
01:21:19,540 --> 01:21:25,900
to work through how that all that operates but I think it should be pretty exciting and the courts

916
01:21:25,900 --> 01:21:31,840
That looks great, so I think it's going to blend in really well with all the other improvements there, so.

917
01:21:32,440 --> 01:21:44,220
And the park next year at this time, we did get confirmation from RCO that the federal part of the splash pad and playground has been approved.

918
01:21:44,540 --> 01:21:53,740
So we've checked all the boxes there and were on track for a 2027 installation for the splash pad and playground.

919
01:21:53,740 --> 01:21:58,820
And so that will, this year and next will really transform that space across the street.

920
01:21:59,500 --> 01:22:06,460
So that's at 3.30 and then immediately after from 4 to 7, as was mentioned, is the Cops

921
01:22:06,460 --> 01:22:07,340
and Kids car show.

922
01:22:07,680 --> 01:22:09,620
So we're all looking forward to that.

923
01:22:10,160 --> 01:22:17,700
And then after 7, closer to I think sunset and accounts member wake, you might want to talk

924
01:22:17,700 --> 01:22:18,980
about the movie in the park.

925
01:22:20,120 --> 01:22:24,260
just that we're having another or probably one of our last movies for the

926
01:22:24,260 --> 01:22:29,420
summer for the free movies in the park is we're going to show cars. So great

927
01:22:29,420 --> 01:22:30,020
theme.

928
01:22:32,280 --> 01:22:35,960
Until we're really excited about this weekend and hope to see

929
01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:41,460
everybody there and that's all I have tonight. Thank you. Move to adjourn. Second.

930
01:22:41,460 --> 01:22:41,560
All right.

931
01:22:41,700 --> 01:22:42,240
All right.

932
01:22:42,740 --> 01:22:43,220
All right.

933
01:22:43,220 --> 01:22:43,360
Opposed?

934
01:22:43,360 --> 01:22:43,480
All right.

935
01:22:43,740 --> 01:22:44,220
Opposed?

936
01:22:44,460 --> 01:22:45,440
We are adjourned.