[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:22] 6 p.m., when you're ready. Thank you.
[0:27] 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.
[0:50] 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
[1:01] one that promotes justice and peace and dignity for all.
[1:06] In that regards, Lord, we pray that you would grant wisdom to those who are in leadership,
[1:11] to those who have influence, and guiding the affairs of our land.
[1:15] When we pray for our peace officers, we pray, Lord, for our first responders,
[1:20] those who serve on the judiciary, and Lord, in particular, this evening for our elected officials
[1:26] who are gathered for tonight's meeting.
[1:29] Pray that you place a hedge of protection around them and around each of their family members.
[1:35] With regards to their official duties, help them with the various issues that they're
[1:40] going to deal with and wrestle with this evening.
[1:43] Pray especially that they will find their thinking to be in tune with the Spirit of God.
[1:48] For all of these things, sir, we pray in Jesus' name.
[1:52] Amen.
[1:53] Amen.
[1:53] Thank you, Pastor.
[1:56] They can join me in the pledge.
[1:58] I pledge allegiance,
[2:07] individual, with liberty and justice for all.
[2:17] So if the clerk will please call the roll.
[2:20] Certainly.
[2:22] Mayor Patten.
[2:22] Here.
[2:23] Council Member Haley.
[2:25] Council Member Yeager.
[2:26] Here.
[2:27] Council Member Kelly.
[2:28] Present.
[2:28] Council Member Wick.
[2:29] Here.
[2:30] Deputy Mayor Hattenberg.
[2:32] I have two excuse.
[2:33] Deputy Hattenberg.
[2:34] Second.
[2:35] All those in favor?
[2:36] Aye. Aye. Opposed?
[2:39] And Council Member Wick.
[2:41] Or excuse me, Council Member Merkel.
[2:44] Sorry.
[2:45] Move the excuse, Council Member Merkel.
[2:47] Thank you. All those in favour?
[2:48] Aye. Aye. Opposed?
[2:50] Both Council members are excused.
[2:54] We now have the approval of agenda.
[2:56] I move to approve the agenda.
[2:58] Second.
[2:59] All those in favour?
[3:01] Aye. Opposed?
[3:03] The agenda is approved.
[3:05] Approved.
[3:05] There's no special guest or presentations, no proclamations.
[3:11] And so we have the first general public comment opportunity.
[3:14] This is an opportunity for the public to speak on any subject except agenda action items.
[3:20] As public comments will be taken on those items were indicated.
[3:24] Please keep comments to matters within the jurisdiction of the city government.
[3:29] This is not an opportunity for questions or discussion.
[3:32] Diverse points of view are welcome, but please keep remarks civil.
[3:37] Remarks will be limited to three minutes per person.
[3:40] If a person engages in disruptive behavior or makes individual personal attacks regarding
[3:46] matters unrelated to city business, then the council and or mayor may end that person's
[3:52] comment time before the three minute mark.
[3:55] Is there anyone on Zoom?
[3:57] We don't have anyone via Zoom this evening, nor do I have anyone that has signed up.
[4:02] Anyone in the audience who would like to make here we don't?
[4:13] I live here in the valley.
[4:17] Three or four weeks ago, you did a state of the city address, I was really impressed.
[4:25] I thought that was the neatest thing that you guys do for our city, so much stuff.
[4:32] 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.
[4:42] Debbie and I both feel the same way.
[4:44] And I also wanted to say thank you for these guys right here, these technicians. I could actually hear last week.
[4:51] It was great. One week or two ago. It was wonderful. They must have done something to the system, but it's great.
[4:57] So thank you so much. That's all I got.
[4:59] Thank you.
[5:01] Thank you. Anyone else for comment? Seeing none, we'll close the public comment.
[5:11] Not comes the consent agenda.
[5:14] 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?
[5:31] approved.
[5:33] Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, I opposed.
[5:39] It is approved.
[5:44] So action items.
[5:45] We have homeless and housing task force appointment with Eric Robison.
[5:51] Move to confirm the mayoral appointment of Jessica Lafferty to position three and Brynn
[5:57] Hexenberger to position nine on the homeless and housing task force.
[6:01] Thank you.
[6:02] Yeah.
[6:03] Go ahead.
[6:06] Oh.
[6:08] Try again.
[6:09] Yeah.
[6:09] Okay.
[6:10] Thank you.
[6:11] Thank you.
[6:12] Hello, Mayor Patron.
[6:13] Patron Council members.
[6:14] Good to be with you.
[6:15] Eric Robinson.
[6:16] Housing and homeless coordinator for the city.
[6:18] This item on the agenda, as was stated, we are trying to fill two open positions that are
[6:24] currently exist on the homeless housing task force.
[6:27] Just as a reminder, this is a task force that's required by state law in order for the city
[6:32] to manage and administer certain funds related to homelessness and housing.
[6:36] It's been operating for some time now.
[6:39] We have recently had a position open, position number three, the business sector representative
[6:44] when Lance Beck moved out of his position with the Valley Chamber.
[6:49] And so that would, the nominee for position three, as was stated, would be Jessica Lowry.
[6:54] In position nine for community health care, the nominee is Bryn Eichsenberger who currently
[7:00] works for CHAS, but also has a history and other related areas related to this work.
[7:06] And I know that Mayor had a chance to interview both of these candidates before bringing
[7:10] them, their nomination before the Council, happy to answer any questions I can about the
[7:14] process at this point if there are any.
[7:18] Are there any questions from Council?
[7:22] Comments?
[7:22] I will make the first comment.
[7:25] Both of these people are extremely familiar with vulnerable populations and how to deal
[7:32] with them.
[7:35] Jesse has worked with Joya, which is an organization that empowers families with children with
[7:41] special needs, and they have, you know, things like speech therapy and occupational physical
[7:47] therapy and special ed services.
[7:49] us. She also has a strong background and has worked with a hunting settlement, but again
[7:55] is working with vulnerable populations of youth and housing them. Obviously, they're, you
[8:02] know, they're not with their parents or maybe even don't have parents, but they're with
[8:08] the hunting settlement. So she's definitely worked with those kinds of populations and can
[8:13] 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.
[8:35] 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.
[8:47] 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.
[9:01] which is very important in the homeless community to try to get those kinds of things to
[9:06] take care of. And it's a big supporter of our co-deployed teams. So I think she has extensive
[9:13] experience in this exact area that she's going to be asked to have discussions with and make
[9:21] decisions about. So I think both of them are very good choices.
[9:27] Council Member Kelly.
[9:30] Yes, I'm sorry, I missed my opportunity to ask a question, but are you familiar with both these individuals?
[9:38] 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.
[9:46] Okay. Well, I guess my only comment or perhaps, you know, would be that given that we as a city
[9:54] is taking a little bit more, I guess, a lower tolerance posture for homelessness. I'd like to know.
[10:00] 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
[10:29] And I had that, you know, we should be mindful that we have people that are not married
[10:35] to a particular, I guess, agenda, if you will.
[10:38] Well, I certainly know Jesse personally, and I have no qualms there.
[10:44] And after talking to Brent, I didn't have any qualms there at all, but City Manager, you
[10:51] wanted to.
[10:59] She represents the Valley very well.
[11:01] I think she's very compatible with the philosophies and policy directions that the council has.
[11:08] And I look forward to continuing growing the relationship with the city and the chamber
[11:14] under her leadership. So I think she'll do a fine job on the task force.
[11:18] Thank you. Can I just add, in addition having a good mix on the task force, whatever
[11:23] recommendation recommendations they may come before this council and you ultimately approve or
[11:28] don't approve. So, you will have the ultimate say on how those dollars are distributed regardless
[11:33] of what recommendations the task force may make.
[11:38] Any other comments? Okay, all those in
[11:40] favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye, Tabit.
[11:48] And we get to stick with Eric and with an admin report
[11:51] on the point in time count. And I guess you'll introduce, I think, is it Amanda? It is.
[12:00] Yes.
[12:00] Awesome.
[12:01] Welcome.
[12:02] Thank you.
[12:03] Yes.
[12:03] This evening, as we go through the point and time count information on most of the presentation
[12:09] will be provided by Amanda Martinez, who is the lead for the Homeless Management Information
[12:14] Services or HMIS team at the City of Spokane.
[12:19] And just to step back a minute and then to explain that relationship, the City of Spokane
[12:25] acts as what's called the collaborative applicant for the continuum of care.
[12:28] The COC receives federal HUD dollars for our community, and all COCs have a collaborative
[12:36] applicant that's essentially the staff that helps get the work done.
[12:40] And in our COC, that role is filled by the City of Spokane.
[12:44] So while they are also City of Spokane staff, they're managed here with their COC hat on as
[12:50] a regional representative, and this data that's being presented is COC data for our region.
[12:56] And we happen to have a collaborative applicant that the city of Spokane.
[13:00] So just wanted to provide that kind of context.
[13:04] The point in time count happens every year.
[13:07] I'm sure you've heard of it before.
[13:09] We'll get into the data, but with that, is there any, I don't know if there's any other.
[13:14] You'll get into it after this unless there's any questions at the moment.
[13:17] We have a presentation from here.
[13:21] Please feel, I think you've flipped through as needed.
[13:23] Thank you, Eric.
[13:24] Thank you.
[13:25] So we will cover both the point in time count, which looks at those that experience sheltered
[13:30] and then sheltered homelessness on a single night in January, as well as the housing inventory
[13:35] count, which looks at all the beds available across several different programs, where experiencing
[13:42] homelessness is a requirement to access that bed.
[13:46] First, it's always very important to think all
[13:49] of the partners that participated all of the volunteers, the city of Spokane Valley, Spokane County,
[13:54] It really is a regional effort, and we could not do it without them.
[13:58] Thank you.
[14:00] We'll start off with some brief introductions and definitions to help contextualize the numbers
[14:05] that you'll see further down the line.
[14:08] As I mentioned, the point-and-time count looks at those that are experiencing homelessness.
[14:11] In the sheltered count, that's specifically emergency shelter, so that's crisis intervention,
[14:16] night-by-night beds, transitional housing programs, which are about one to two year programs
[14:21] and pre-identified units with intensive case management and then safe havens, which we
[14:26] actually don't have any in-spoken, so it's really just emergency shelter and transit housing.
[14:31] And then sheltered looks at those in locations not meant for human habitation, a car, a parking
[14:36] abandoned building, an airport, anything like that.
[14:40] This year's count was January 27th, 2026.
[14:44] Every year that you're doing the point in time count, it has to happen within the last ten
[14:47] days of January.
[14:49] And we do what's called a service-based count.
[14:51] So, we count for several days and then we remove any duplicates that appear throughout
[14:56] the data.
[14:58] Now, the housing inventory.
[15:00] Council, as I mentioned, it's the same night as the point-and-time count. And it looks at
[15:04] emergency shelter, transitional housing, also rapid rehousing. So these are market rate units
[15:09] in the community that have intensive case management, usually goes for about two years and
[15:14] permanent supportive housing are pre-identified units like, think of Catholic charities,
[15:18] the colorful buildings, or even more of them that come through the book and housing authority,
[15:22] as well as other permanent housing units. Now, the point-and-time count methodology is defined
[15:29] 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.
[15:38] It's really important to note that also in 2021, we did not conduct on a sheltered count due to COVID-19.
[15:48] Now, these are just some more specific definitions of all of the project types.
[15:52] I'll take a moment to cover a couple of them.
[15:54] So, VASH is VA supportive housing that comes through the Veteran Affairs Office, and it's
[16:03] specifically permanent supportive housing for those for homeless vets.
[16:08] So, it's not just for anyone, there's that additional eligibility criteria that they have
[16:11] to be a homeless vet.
[16:13] The other area that I'll take a moment to focus on are the different breakdowns of our
[16:16] emergency shelter beds.
[16:18] So, we have year-round beds, that's really what they sound like.
[16:22] they're the whole year, inclement weather beds are only available during specific conditions,
[16:27] according to the Spokane Municipal Code, like 35 degrees windshield, if they're smoke,
[16:33] if they're successive heat, and then the surge beds are there just if there's an increase in
[16:38] demand, like a very large family will come into a shelter, for example, so they'll pull like surge
[16:42] beds out of the ground. And then emergency declaration beds are those that were made during the
[16:46] just what can's mayors, emergency declaration,
[16:50] in late October of last year.
[16:55] Now, the point in time count also includes
[16:57] several different household types.
[17:00] I apologize, this is a lot of definitions,
[17:02] but they will be used later on.
[17:04] So the main household categories are adult and child, right?
[17:07] So someone over the age of 18, someone under the age of 18,
[17:10] everyone is over the age of 18.
[17:12] It's an adult only household,
[17:13] and then the child only household
[17:14] is everyone is under the age of 18.
[17:17] And when we look at parenting youth,
[17:18] That means that there is someone in the household ages 18 to 24 who has someone under the age
[17:24] of 18 in their care, or they themselves are under the age of 18 and have someone else
[17:29] under the age of 18 under their care.
[17:31] There's two categories for that, and then on a company's use is anyone 18 to 24 or under
[17:36] the age of 18 that is by themselves.
[17:38] There's no one taking care of them or no one else in the family.
[17:42] And then that adult child and adult only groupings also have specific breakouts for
[17:48] better in populations.
[17:52] And chronically homeless is those that have been specifically unsheltered
[17:56] for at least 12 months or for occasions over the past three years, totaling 12 months.
[18:07] January 27th, 2026, again was the date of the point in time count. We had 1,738 individuals
[18:14] across the entire county in 1,500 households. The majority of these were adults only. We only had
[18:23] at 17 under the age of 18, so 17 children only, and they were all in sheltered.
[18:27] We did not have any unsheltered minors that were by themselves.
[18:34] Now we did have adult and children households, 92 of them, with about 302 individuals.
[18:42] When we look at the sleeping locations, the majority of the individuals that night were in
[18:47] shelter, either in emergency shelter or transitional housing, and actually most individuals were
[18:54] in shelter. Now, you'll notice at the bottom that we did have unoccupied beds in both emergency
[18:59] shelter and transitional housing. The unsheltered count was 643. With most people in the unsheltered
[19:06] count, either sleeping on the streets or in a sidewalk, it will take a moment to point out
[19:10] the vehicular homelessness at 121. That is not something that is often as visible,
[19:16] whereas easy to see and it is often incredibly difficult to count, because people will move their
[19:21] vehicles throughout and they're trying very hard not to be.
[19:26] We had 17 and outdoor encampments.
[19:31] We dive in a little bit further remember when I mentioned those two parenting use categories.
[19:36] We had nine parenting use with nine children and then the unaccompanied use we only had 17 of those
[19:44] that were under the age of 18 and 119 that were 18 to 24. We had 640 adults with serious mental
[19:53] illness and 404 with substance use disorder, as was 139 with domestic violence.
[20:00] We had 590 chronically homeless individuals with a pretty even split between emergency shelter
[20:06] and un-sheltered, so we had a pretty even number of chronically homeless and those sheltered
[20:09] and un-sheltered. This is very similar to last year where the breakdown is pretty even
[20:14] across both of them. We had 84 veterans, and the veteran count this year continues the pattern
[20:20] that we've seen for the last several years of veteran homelessness on the point in time
[20:25] count decreasing consistently for several years.
[20:31] Now this is specifically we're looking at
[20:33] everyone in the count and their demographics. So that top chart, the very first bar looks at
[20:40] the race that everyone identified as with the predominant category of being white and then that sort
[20:48] of sub-bar breaks down those that identified as Hispanic and Latino. What other race they also
[20:54] selected.
[20:57] Now when we look at sex, the predominant grouping that we see is male and then an age is
[21:03] 35 to 44. So the typical demographic combination that we see is a white male between the ages of
[21:13] 25 and 54. That's the majority of the population.
[21:19] If we're looking at the historical trends, we were
[21:28] 390 and since then we have continued on a steady downward trend.
[21:34] This year was a 4% decrease compared to last year overall.
[21:40] I will point out that the trend is going down and it's slow and it's consistent as someone
[21:45] who works day-to-day in data that would be highly concerned of all of a sudden, but it was
[21:48] just like a huge cliff because that speaks to data quality and how well we actually surveyed.
[21:54] Right?
[21:54] of all of a sudden the count drops significantly, it more questions how we did the surveys and the
[22:00] data quality that we received. But a city consistent, that's more sustainable and points in a good
[22:05] direction.
[22:09] When we look at the whole county, all the little dots are everywhere that surveys happened.
[22:16] Over the past several years there has been a lot of effort from the entire continuum to expand
[22:21] the count area and make sure we have the entire county. You'll see we got as far north as deer park
[22:26] 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.
[22:37] 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,
[22:47] 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.
[22:52] Okay, and this is a little bit more zoomed in of that main urban core of the Spokane County.
[23:00] As I mentioned past several years, if you look at prior trends geographically, we had continued
[23:06] to push and push further out and been able to capture those surveys. Thanks to all of the volunteers
[23:12] and the coordination of the partners.
[23:18] In addition to all the normal questions that HUD requires that
[23:21] we ask every COC has the ability to ask supplemental questions. This year we asked two of them.
[23:28] which is, does someone have a photo ID or a social security card?
[23:33] And we found that predominantly they do not have either a social security card or a photo ID.
[23:39] We do know that there is room for improvement in our continuum with helping those with document readiness
[23:45] for when units do become available for them.
[23:49] The second question that we asked was if someone lived in Spokane County before they became homeless,
[23:55] specifically this episode of homelessness.
[24:00] across the board, the majority of them said yes, that they are actually from
[24:04] Spokane County. We had a small percentage of them about 13% of that said that
[24:09] they were from outside of Washington and then of that small percentage, 35 of
[24:16] them said that they were from Idaho. And we had about another 10% of that said
[24:21] they were from Washington, but they were outside of Spokane County. So
[24:24] predominantly everybody said that they were from Spokane. Now this is actually
[24:29] the first year where we asked this question in both the sheltered survey and the unsheltered
[24:33] survey. In prior years, we had only asked it on the unsheltered. So this trend, this next chart
[24:39] is actually the trend of the unsheltered responses that we have seen going back to 2019 in this question.
[24:46] And as you can see, we've had a fairly consistent, especially with the past three years response rate
[24:51] up to 90% this year and 99% in 2024.
[24:55] So that gives us a high degree of confidence
[24:58] and fidelity of the data.
[25:00] For consistently, most people respond that they are from Spokane County.
[25:08] Now we're moving into the housing
[25:09] inventory count, and this looks at the trend of the different beds available in each project type year
[25:15] after year. One of the biggest changes that we saw from 24 to 25 was the increase in the number of
[25:23] bash vouchers that the Spokane Housing Authority had available to them.
[25:38] And this is looking at the trend
[25:39] of all the emergency shelter beds that we've had year over year and in the past couple
[25:44] of years broken down between inclement weather as well as scattered site beds and the 23 emergency
[25:50] declaration beds that were available in 2020.
[25:56] The next couple of charts will look at utilization
[25:59] and then inverse the vacancy that was available per project type. So when we look at emergency
[26:04] shelter we have had a utilization that has had quite a bit of ups and downs over the past couple of
[26:09] years, but it's hovered at around 80.
[26:13] This year for emergency shelter and transitional housing, an 80% utilization is not a bad
[26:18] thing.
[26:19] It's actually a really good place to be, because it means you're using most of your beds,
[26:23] but those that are outside have space to come in.
[26:25] If you're at 100% utilization, well, there's no place for anyone who is outside to actually
[26:30] come in to the beds, and a virtualization is significantly below 80, then that's not
[26:36] not good either because then you're not utilizing the resources available to your community.
[26:43] Now this looks at all the permanent housing projects, so permanent supportive housing, the
[26:47] VASH and the Rapid. You'll notice that Rapid Rehousing is always at 100%. Over the past
[26:54] couple of years, that's because per the HUD methodology, the only way you can count the unit
[26:59] as if someone currently lives in it since their market rate units. So the unit doesn't exist
[27:04] unless someone's in it, and because units only exist, if someone's in it, it's 100%.
[27:10] So that causes a little bit of an up and down year-over-year in the number of units that
[27:14] we have, but the utilization will stay consistent out of 100.
[27:21] Now this looks at the inverse vacancies.
[27:23] You can see we have last year, 17, and 18% immersed in shelter and transitional housing,
[27:28] so around that 20% of vacancy is good because we have space to move people in two services
[27:33] and programs from the streets and children and then the same thing again for the
[27:41] permanent housing projects.
[27:45] We take away that we're noticed from this point in time count
[27:47] and that's really important to remember that this was one night, eight months ago, almost nine
[27:53] months ago now. So this is not the entire year, this is not everyone that experiences homelessness
[27:58] throughout the whole year. There are several other reports available for that, the longitudinal
[28:03] system's analysis that the HMIS team also publishes, the snapshot of homelessness that's
[28:08] provided by the Washington State Department of Commerce, so there are many other reports
[28:13] available.
[28:14] This is just one night in January, eight months ago.
[28:17] We do continue to see that there is a disproportionate number of BIPOC populations, so black indigenous
[28:23] people of color, over-represented when you compare it to the proportion of those populations
[28:28] in our census data, those that are appearing on the pit.
[28:33] As I mentioned the document readiness, we saw over 40% of the individuals that we surveyed
[28:38] did not have their documents, so that is an opportunity for our COC to continue to work
[28:42] on those programs to make sure people have their documents when they're needed.
[28:46] And of course, we had almost 200 emergency shelter beds that were available, so we need to
[28:51] increase that utilization as well as, you know, there were people on sheltered, but we had
[28:54] beds available they could have used on the night of the pit.
[28:57] And consistently across all the reports that are being published, the point in time count
[29:01] the longitudinal systems analysis, even the system performance report, we are seeing progress
[29:07] and consistent progress and manageable progress and sustainable progress being the most
[29:12] important towards main goals of our vibrant plan, really. Now, of course, there's room for improvement
[29:19] and there are further things that we need to do in sustained these improvements, but we are seeing
[29:23] a positive change.
[29:28] Thank you very much, Amanda. Before we get into questions, I also wanted to
[29:33] to talk a little bit about those trends.
[29:35] Of course, their positive trends were seen,
[29:37] but there's also larger context.
[29:39] Again, this was eight months ago.
[29:41] So since we've taken this count,
[29:43] we've had inflation really take off.
[29:45] Gas, $5 a gallon was not the case
[29:47] when we had this pick count.
[29:49] So groceries, things that families are struggling with.
[29:54] 2025 saw a record number of evictions in Washington state.
[29:58] A lot of that was driven by the West side.
[30:00] 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.
[30:27] 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.
[30:35] 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.
[30:45] Other questions from Council? Council Member Yeager?
[30:50] Thank you. So on the availability of the bed inventory trend, we've roughly lost 600, let's say.
[31:02] in 400 ish in Rapid Rehousing and then 200 in the Vash, you remind me like maybe
[31:10] why that happened or what happened there to reduce the availability of the
[31:15] bed inventory. So for Rapid, the units only counts if someone's actively living in
[31:24] them. That's per the definition that we have that requirement of HUD. So in a
[31:29] The rapid rehousing program, someone gets selected through coordinated entry and an organization
[31:34] begins to work with them to find them a unit in the community.
[31:37] And then there's a point that they move into the unit.
[31:40] The inventory for that is only counted when the movement happens.
[31:43] That whole time of the client is not moved in.
[31:46] The unit does not exist for the purposes of the housing inventory account, right?
[31:50] Because that unit is a market rate unit, so it's just available for anybody.
[31:56] With that, that is through SHA and allocations that come from the federal government to
[32:02] SHA for vouchers.
[32:05] Thank you.
[32:06] Yeah, and to add to that, the rapid rehousing, when funding goes out, funding isn't provided
[32:11] to say, help 100 families.
[32:13] You're given an X amount of funding, and you help have for many families you can, and as
[32:16] things get more expensive, you can help fewer families with the same dollars.
[32:20] So I think partly what we're seeing here too is, you know, as COVID funds went away,
[32:26] some of these funding that helped produce extra beds went away too.
[32:29] You can see the number of emergency shelter beds significantly dropped after 2024 when
[32:34] the trend shelter closed.
[32:36] And you know, it was often, it was a lot of us funded by COVID dollars that didn't exist
[32:40] anymore.
[32:41] So some of these have to do with federal funding sources that were available, that no longer
[32:46] are available.
[32:47] Thank you.
[32:49] It's just going to go along the same lines of just looking at the county dollars.
[32:53] And I know you're on the HCDC with us.
[32:56] How do you see that that impact, because I know that the county prioritized emergency
[33:00] shelter beds trying to stabilize that one, but didn't really have a goal for trying to
[33:05] stabilize rapid rehousing.
[33:06] Do you think that kind of played into some of these numbers too?
[33:10] It has to.
[33:11] I mean, there's a tradeoff, right?
[33:12] When you prioritize one, you can't prioritize the other and that's the truth.
[33:17] We also our system had a challenge with rapid rehousing beds for a while when vacancies
[33:21] were really low.
[33:22] So we had some funds, but had a hard time placing people.
[33:25] So then we decided, well, maybe as a community, we'll put a little less there and try some
[33:29] of these other areas.
[33:30] But emergency shelters are also very, very expensive.
[33:33] So you might put money into it, but still don't see a growth in beds.
[33:36] You might just maintain the status quo because the cost of running a shelter bed is quite high.
[33:41] So it has to have an impact when we're trading off where our area of focus is, yeah.
[33:49] So when the track site closed, and I don't remember how many beds there was at 300 or 400,
[33:57] well, it fluctuated. Well, officially the number was 250, but it did fluctuate significantly up to,
[34:07] I did see the 400 through 150, but the official number of their typical euro meds was supposed
[34:13] to be 250.
[34:14] Thank you.
[34:15] Okay, and so if I recall correctly, Spokane went to a different paradigm where they had
[34:19] smaller sites around this or outside the city, maybe you're in the city, whatever.
[34:26] So how many of the smaller sites that sprung up, how many beds was that total?
[34:31] Did it not balance the track number?
[34:35] That's a great question.
[34:36] So, on that on this slide right here, we have 182 of those scattered sites, which is what they called.
[34:42] And that switch in models was actually something, a lot of feedback that we heard from the providers,
[34:47] which is it's a lot harder to wrap your arms around 300 people than it is to case manage 30,
[34:55] right, in a single location. So, that was a lot of feedback that we had received,
[34:58] and that was part of the push.
[35:00] 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.
[35:26] So, volunteers of America converted HOPE House to a respite program that's reimbursed through
[35:32] Medicaid rather than being an emergency shelter. Now, I understand from Amanda that those numbers
[35:36] are included in the emergency shelter count, but those aren't walk-in shelters. Not anyone can
[35:42] just walk in those and access those. So, while they still appear in the count, in terms of how many
[35:49] beds are accessible for someone to walk into that they need, well, it's even actually smaller than
[35:53] and the emergency shelter count number tells us.
[35:58] So do any of the service providers,
[36:01] at least like at track,
[36:03] they are all together in one place,
[36:06] and service providers can come in,
[36:08] I don't know how many or what kinds did,
[36:11] but when you're scattered throughout the city,
[36:14] then service providers are going to,
[36:16] like maybe a counselor or something,
[36:19] going from place to place,
[36:20] is there any feedback on that kind of thing?
[36:27] Okay. Yes, there is a lot of coordination, and I'm not sure if you've heard of the housing
[36:32] navigation center, you've probably seen it in the news, but that is also a location
[36:36] where a lot of service provider comes. I know Jules Helping-Hans have a rotating list
[36:42] of every service provider and what day they're going to come in. Jules partners with Cat
[36:47] with Providence at their Medical Response Center, so that collaboration is still happening constantly.
[36:54] house of charities collaborating with the Housing and Navigation Center.
[36:57] So all of those connections do exist in the community and they are being utilized.
[37:02] I'll add to that.
[37:03] The city's Spokane recently put out a call for proposals for the inclement weather beds and receive a couple responses,
[37:09] one from Catholic charities, which is house of charity in St. Margaret's and one from jewels that has four different scattered sites.
[37:15] 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.
[37:22] 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.
[37:33] Any other questions?
[37:37] Comments?
[37:40] I guess that's it. Thank you.
[37:41] Thank you.
[37:48] We now have an admin report, a budget estimated review revenues and expenditures with Chelsea.
[38:04] Good evening, Mayor and members of Council. Chelsea Walls Finance Director.
[38:08] here. This is the second occasion where Council will review the draft 2027 budget numbers.
[38:15] The first occurred back at the June 9th budget workshop where you reserve reviewed the
[38:20] work sheets that were prepared by staff in detail. By the time Council is scheduled to adopt
[38:25] the 2027 budget on November 17th, you will have an opportunity to discuss the budget on eight
[38:32] separate occasions including three public hearings. Each year staff prepares estimates
[38:37] proposed revenues and expenditures for the next budget cycle and we will review these
[38:41] this evening and then again on September 15th when a public hearing will be held for the revenues.
[38:48] Please keep in mind that these worksheets that are included in your RCA this evening are still
[38:52] work in progress and they could change as we go forward although I don't anticipate anything material
[38:58] changing. The budget continues to involve. I'm working particularly on the capital project
[39:05] budgets with engineering and I want to review those with them again to make sure that those
[39:08] are accurate. So that's a place that I could see some ships happening, but again, I don't anticipate
[39:13] anything large besides what we know are unknowns right now. I wanted to highlight a few changes that
[39:21] have occurred since the June 9th workshop and those are indicated in blue font throughout your packet.
[39:26] First, the general fund recurring revenues were revised downward due to new estimates
[39:32] on state shared revenues that came out.
[39:36] Also, staff is proposing adding that transfer to fund 503 for the future replacement of
[39:42] police vehicles acquired in prior years.
[39:44] That's $653,000 transfer from the general fund to fund 503 in the non-recurring section.
[39:51] And also included are the supplemental budget requests from the June 9th workshop that had
[39:58] that council consensus at that time.
[40:01] 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.
[40:32] 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.
[40:48] 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.
[41:00] Looking at our full-time equivalent employee count, that is increasing the funded FTE amount
[41:06] is increasing by one to bring it to 120.25. That is the addition of the public safety director
[41:14] position, which has been included as an unfunded position in the last several years. But on
[41:19] the June 16 council meeting, council gave consensus to bring that in and fund it in the
[41:25] in the 2027 budget, so that is now included
[41:28] as a funded position.
[41:31] Looking specifically at the general fund,
[41:33] recurring revenues are estimated at 71.8 million.
[41:37] That's an increase of 3.5 million or 5.14%.
[41:41] These estimates are developed through historical trends
[41:43] and projections of future economic conditions.
[41:46] The two largest revenue sources in the general fund
[41:48] are property taxes and sales taxes.
[41:51] Those collectively account for about 82%
[41:53] of our general fund recurring revenues.
[41:57] So looking a little bit at those two revenue sources, property taxes are estimated at 14.5 million
[42:03] in order to develop that estimate. I take the 2026 actual levy and then add an estimated new
[42:10] construction of 200,000. I will watch that number as we progress throughout the year. I expect to get
[42:16] an update from Spokane County Assessor's Office in the next week or so with some new information on that.
[42:22] Just to say, this estimate does not include the 1% that is allowed by state law.
[42:28] It also does not include the 1.4 million of available bank capacity, excuse me.
[42:35] And I will be coming forward in September for reports specifically on property taxes.
[42:41] So looking at our general sales tax amount, that's estimated at 37 million.
[42:46] That's an increase of 9.6% over the 2026 budget.
[42:52] 2026 sales taxes are currently expected to come in over our budgeted amount of $33 million
[42:58] with the data I have right now through June. If that trend continues, I'll be including
[43:03] an increase in sales tax revenues in the future, 26 budget amendments. However, like I said,
[43:08] it's only through June. I'd like a few more months of data to see if that trend is holding.
[43:12] So I'll keep watching that. In projecting the 2027 budgeted sales tax, staff started with
[43:19] the actual 2025 collections and then added increases of 5% in 2026 and 4% in 2027 to bring
[43:28] us to the 37 million. Sales tax revenues for 2026 are currently about 6.5% higher than
[43:35] they were for the same period in 2025.
[43:41] All right, so general fund expenditures and recurring
[43:43] expenditures, we currently do not know these because of unknown law enforcement contract costs.
[43:49] City staff is continuing to work with Spokane County to determine reasonable estimates.
[43:55] 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.
[44:06] Thank you, Mayor.
[44:07] Councilor, I do have an update.
[44:19] We've had multiple meetings with County staff.
[44:22] We actually had a meeting with Sheriff, with commissioners, Brooks and
[44:28] with Mayor Padden, Deputy Mayor Hattenberg, and Council Member Haley, working through some of the issues that were identified at the June Budget Workshop.
[44:38] There's been extensive work with the Budget Office and the Sheriff's Office.
[44:44] 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.
[44:52] That includes the 2024 Law Enforcement Settling Adjust.
[44:57] We also understand that the
[45:00] 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.
[45:28] That is a significant move because that bumps us up from where we were previously paying at 2023 rates.
[45:36] 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.
[45:48] I was, I was at a meeting last Friday and was provided a budget estimate.
[45:55] My understanding is this does come from the Sheriff's Office.
[45:58] Again, it was just provided this on Friday.
[46:01] And so we're still trying to work through what this, what it, what, what goes into this and
[46:07] understand there's anything we have questions about.
[46:11] The amount that was provided has a Sheriff's Office budget of 20 for 2027 of approximately $82
[46:17] million dollars working through everything and they just provided basically a rough 50% estimate,
[46:26] based on the FTEs. That would leave Spokane Valley with approximately a $41 million amount for
[46:32] 2027. I think, as I said, that we have questions about this. One thing is that this budget amount,
[46:41] We understand our current understanding is this doesn't represent increase in any service levels, so this is really just cost escalation.
[46:51] That would be approximately 6.6% over our current 2026 budget.
[46:58] Like I said, there are still some pieces we're working through and so we're trying to understand what all goes into that.
[47:03] I think it is significantly higher than the county's adopted budget for
[47:08] 2026 for the Sheriff's Office.
[47:11] And so I think understanding what plays into that beyond the collective bargaining amounts,
[47:15] which are not that much relative to what's been provided by the sheriff.
[47:20] So at least we're getting some numbers and we continue to work through that.
[47:25] Like I said, it does show an increase over the 2026 budget and we continue to work forward.
[47:31] and I do want to highlight I think since our June workshop there's been an increased level
[47:37] of communication and participation between all three parties trying to work towards resolving
[47:42] many of the issues that we talked about in June. So any questions specifically on public safety
[47:49] or law enforcement?
[47:58] Actually, I guess I have one. So you said the 2024 was settled?
[48:06] 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?
[48:17] That you are correct, Mayor.
[48:19] So we did settle the 2024, settle and adjust payments for everything but the training center, so I apologize.
[48:26] We are continuing to work through that.
[48:29] 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.
[48:45] It's an approximate $40 plus million building.
[48:50] The county's position has been that it is under the contract subject to depreciation
[48:57] and we should pay that component.
[49:02] We've made some headway, but we continue to work on that.
[49:06] City manager?
[49:08] Yes, I would ask Eric to provide maybe a little bit more context on the actual dollar numbers.
[49:14] 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.
[49:43] over estimating our budget amount, so I think it's important to at least have, have some context for the council.
[49:53] Yeah, so 2024, excuse me, sorry to interrupt you.
[50:00] 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
[50:29] that the county's budget office says?
[50:33] Yes, so let me start with a city manager,
[50:38] Holman asked, so our settlement adjust
[50:41] is an agreed upon amount for actual expenses.
[50:45] And by both sides, I mean the county and Spokane Valley
[50:49] agree to this, this is the agreed upon amount
[50:52] for the services we received, what we actually owe.
[50:56] So it is a resolution of everybody.
[50:59] 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.
[51:23] 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.
[51:41] The 2026 estimate, so this is after we've added all 20 positions.
[51:47] I guess let me step back.
[51:50] Our budget for 2026 is $38 million.
[51:53] So over two years, we estimated approximately $10 million more for budgeting purposes.
[52:02] The 2026 estimate, which again is just an estimate, that is an amount that was originally derived
[52:11] On the county side, but ultimately agreed to by both sides is approximately 33 and a half million dollars.
[52:18] 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.
[52:27] Now, the amount then that we're talking about, so our budget is $38 million.
[52:32] dollars, the estimate is $33 million.
[52:36] What we're talking about this amount of $41 million.
[52:41] My understanding merit to your question is that they come from the Sheriff's Office. I do not know
[52:51] exactly how much involvement the budget office had. I know they are looking at that.
[52:57] And we will continue to look at that as well.
[53:01] 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.
[53:26] Council Member Yeager.
[53:28] All right, I missed what you said the 2026 budget number was.
[53:32] So our 2026 budget number is $38.5 million.
[53:37] So you can see that at least as the sheriff's office is estimating for or budgeting
[53:43] with this initial budget amount, which again we're not.
[53:46] We haven't worked and really gotten into it because we just received this.
[53:50] You know at $41 million that's about a six and a half percent increase over our
[53:57] 2026 budget amount. So the sheriff's office at least is in range and higher than where we're at.
[54:05] Council member Wood.
[54:07] So your so their estimate was 41 million but the 26 you're comparing that to our budget amount but
[54:13] their 26 estimate was 33 and a half. Yeah. So I don't know that we would want to base the
[54:19] different based on our budget, more so than their estimate.
[54:23] Well, and I would say that the estimate is something that we've just worked out.
[54:30] The goal under the contract and historically has been to get the estimate provided early in the year.
[54:36] So we're making more accurate payments.
[54:38] Under the contract, the estimate is to be derived from the lead cap.
[54:42] That was not possible.
[54:44] And so the estimate this year, I think, is much more of a generalized escalation using certain assumptions than based on the lead cap.
[54:54] So well, I think it gets us closer to a more realistic number.
[55:00] 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.
[55:24] I just wanted to make sure I fully understood that this was clear as possible to the public.
[55:32] So 2024, the actual expenditures from by the city was 28 million.
[55:39] And if we want to assume that we're approximately 50% of the county's budget, then we can extrapolate
[55:44] 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.
[55:59] Okay. And then for 2026, the estimate of $33 million is what the Sheriff's Office expected
[56:08] as to make payments against, but we were being prudent and budgeted about $38.5 million,
[56:15] about $5 million more. Correct. And I would say that it is the estimate was simply an agreement
[56:23] by the parties to try to catch our payments up, I think it is based on a couple of years,
[56:31] prior actuals and then escalations that are based on assumptions. And so, again,
[56:37] I think our goal for the 27 budget development is to continue to get more information, both,
[56:45] for example, from the sheriff's budget projection and understand what's going into that,
[56:50] 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.
[57:06] So I guess I would say we continue to work on this.
[57:10] 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.
[57:18] there's a lot of numbers being thrown around for a lot of different years.
[57:22] But I think the takeaway is at least right now, we've budgeted conservatively from the standpoint of
[57:29] making sure we are setting aside enough money to pay for all the costs that we believe if all
[57:35] the positions are filled, we will incur. And that includes all the new positions where we see
[57:43] the sheriff's office going is certainly, you know, around or higher than those numbers as well.
[57:50] City manager? Yeah, I think I just wanted to add that when we spoke about this in June during
[57:57] our workshop, there might have been an impression that we had been overly conservative or overestimating
[58:06] our budget for the last several years. We have been working through this since that time but
[58:13] 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
[58:20] had our budget high enough to cover any expenditures that we might see in 2027.
[58:26] So there's a lot of uncertainty, we're going to continue to work through that.
[58:30] But that's kind of where we're at right now is trying to determine if we're overestimating or underestimating.
[58:36] And some of the data shows that we might have been overestimating.
[58:40] but now this new data point that we have we're underestimating and so we'll try to get this
[58:47] clear because again we need to provide you with a final draft budget by the first week of October.
[58:55] So there's not a lot of time for us to work with entities at the county to resolve this issue but
[59:02] we are doing our best to try to get you an actual complete budget by the first week in October.
[59:11] So is this a follow-up on your initial?
[59:13] Yes.
[59:14] Okay.
[59:15] So with regard to this $33 million estimate,
[59:20] is this based on your-to-date numbers,
[59:23] or do we have your-to-date numbers
[59:24] to give us some idea if that's realistic,
[59:26] if it's trending more to their number or our number?
[59:29] We are working to get your-to-date from the county
[59:32] at this point.
[59:33] The estimate was not based on your-to-date.
[59:36] It was based on the 24 actual and then escalated
[59:40] and adding additional officers based on certain assumptions of how much to
[59:45] escalate. Thank you. Council moved away.
[59:48] Just want to clarify, the 26 was last time we added officers, right, so that was
[59:53] already our second set of 10 that we added. Correct.
[59:56] In the 26, so there's no additional officers between 26 and 27.
[1:00:00] 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
[1:00:29] bargain and agreement increases in escalation. So I think a fair number of pieces we need
[1:00:36] to understand why they're driving that cost up so much.
[1:00:41] Councilmember Kelly, wait, did you have?
[1:00:45] I was just going to add Eric, maybe you can provide the sheriff's 2026 budget number.
[1:00:51] I think it was in the 66 million range.
[1:00:54] Yeah, what I was told is approximately 66.3 million dollars for the 2026 sheriff's office
[1:00:59] budget.
[1:01:00] And how much of an increase is that getting you to the projected 2027?
[1:01:06] It's about 15.9.
[1:01:13] If I'm doing the math right, it's if 82 minus 66, what's that?
[1:01:23] 16 million, but percentage wise, it's about a 23% increase.
[1:01:29] So
[1:01:33] 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.
[1:01:45] 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?
[1:01:58] 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.
[1:02:10] City manager.
[1:02:12] 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.
[1:02:28] Mr. Sheriff was amenable to that. However, part of his, I guess, request that we would have
[1:02:35] to discuss further would be that he would be the determining factor of level of service.
[1:02:42] So that, to me, would mean that staffing would be solely his responsibility as opposed to input
[1:02:51] from the council. So I think there's a lot to discuss on that yet, but that could be an
[1:02:56] option because I have grave concerns that we'd be able to accommodate a $41 million
[1:03:05] budget for 2027. That's a pretty big increase. Even though we seem to be doing well on sales
[1:03:13] tax collections, there's other costs that have escalated as everybody has experienced over
[1:03:20] the last many years and so that's something that we will definitely have to talk about and move
[1:03:27] forward with potentially. Can it's member Wick? So I know this is kind of outside of our
[1:03:34] purview but the county budget request from the sheriff's office of 82 million is that
[1:03:39] was that made after they identified that they had a $30 million whole or was that before?
[1:03:50] So is
[1:03:50] increase after they were already at $30 million in a hole.
[1:03:55] I don't want to mispeak.
[1:03:56] My understanding is this was what was provided just recently to, from the Sheriff's Office to the budget office.
[1:04:04] My understanding is there are discussions going on at the county in advance of the presentation of the budget to the commissioners next week.
[1:04:11] So I would guess that the original 30 million deficit discussions did not include this addition.
[1:04:21] but I don't want to misspeak on that.
[1:04:26] Any other questions?
[1:04:30] Comments?
[1:04:32] All right.
[1:04:34] Well, I've got one.
[1:04:35] Yes, continue.
[1:04:36] If you keep on going.
[1:04:38] All right.
[1:04:39] Still looking at the general fund.
[1:04:40] Now non-recurring activity.
[1:04:42] We have non-recurring revenues of 75,000 as a transfer in from 501 for some IT scheduled
[1:04:48] capital expenditures and non-recurring expenditures of 1.6 million.
[1:04:53] Those are primarily related to the supplemental budget requests,
[1:04:57] except for those items that are related to the police.
[1:05:13] 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.
[1:05:29] And one is that recurring revenues exceed recurring expenditures.
[1:05:34] And the other is that our general fund ending fund balance is at least 50% of recurring expenditures.
[1:05:39] We do not know whether we may either of those at this point, so we will keep looking and
[1:05:45] keep evaluating, and as we get more information, we will find out.
[1:05:51] So looking at our other funds and revenues in those funds, motor vehicle fuel taxes,
[1:05:57] is the gas tax in Street Fund 101 is estimated about 1.9 million, those projections are based off
[1:06:04] of a per capita rate that MRSC puts out. Those are currently at 13.7% more than the same
[1:06:11] period in 2025. Telephone taxes have stabilized and they're currently 13.6% more than the same
[1:06:20] period in 25. Those are expected to come in at about 980,000 in 2027. Real estate excise
[1:06:28] taxes are reed or estimated at 3 million. Those are currently down by 13.2% as compared
[1:06:35] to the same period in 2025. Hotel tax revenues are 900,000 that includes the 2% tax or 1.5 million
[1:06:48] excuse me, I'm mixing up my lines here. 900,000 in the 2% tax and 600,000 in the 1.3% tax.
[1:06:55] The 2% tax is currently about 2.5% as compared to the same period in 2025.
[1:07:02] Tourism promotion area fees is the 1.3 million TPA fees. Those are of 6.3% as compared to
[1:07:09] the same period in 2025. For the vehicle license fees, the tab fees are anticipated to be about 1.8 million.
[1:07:17] And I finally have some data so I can tell you that those are pretty much even to the
[1:07:22] same period as 2025 they are holding steady as what we have been collecting.
[1:07:27] And then stormwater management fees are estimated at 6.2 million in fund 402.
[1:07:34] Looking at budget challenges, we've had some structural deficits in a few of our city operating
[1:07:40] funds.
[1:07:41] And currently as we've just discussed we don't know if our general fund right now has
[1:07:45] an operating deficit or not.
[1:07:47] So we will continue to evaluate that, but our street fund deficit is estimated to be about $1 million.
[1:07:53] The draft budget does include REIT transfers to cover that deficit.
[1:07:58] 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.
[1:08:09] Other challenges are, as we've been talking about, lack of timely information for public safety contracts.
[1:08:15] I think we beat that one to death at this point, balancing public safety with other priorities.
[1:08:20] This is a continuing challenge, so rising costs in public safety operations has caused other departments to have to cut costs in prior years.
[1:08:28] But inflationary pressures are affecting all of our city departments, so trying to balance those priorities.
[1:08:34] And then transportation funding, so balancing the needs of arterials and local access streets.
[1:08:39] rates. We've had some shifting around of subsidies in the last several years in order to try
[1:08:44] and cover those costs and cover the costs of public safety and the new officers, so just
[1:08:49] trying to make those numbers work out in the city's favor and continue to get those grant
[1:08:55] funds and have the match for them. And then accumulating funding for large capital projects,
[1:09:01] such as our grade separation project. So Sullivan Trent is coming up next.
[1:09:05] 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.
[1:09:24] And then are there any questions?
[1:09:27] Questions from council.
[1:09:28] Council
[1:09:31] member would.
[1:09:32] So in the street fund, just a quick question, you had two lines in there.
[1:09:38] One is the traffic safety camera program where we added the expenses.
[1:09:45] It looks like it kind of matches or barely matches the revenue then this is the anticipation.
[1:09:52] And those are still very much estimated and I am needing to check in on where that project is.
[1:10:00] So that I believe would come forward potentially with more information next time. What's the traffic
[1:10:06] program increases, like a half a million dollars for the traffic program? Is that similar
[1:10:11] to the cameras or? No, that is the like the traffic operation. So the signals that all
[1:10:17] of that that has to do with. So we think that's going to go by half a million
[1:10:22] dollars more next year. Those are the numbers that I received and that
[1:10:28] that we're presented at the budget workshop.
[1:10:32] Just in there, I know it might be curious to know a little bit more about that.
[1:10:35] I believe some of that, if I'm remembering correctly, is, I know we've added.
[1:10:40] There have been a number of street lights that have been added over the years.
[1:10:43] And truly not the actual cost.
[1:10:45] That's a component of that, I believe.
[1:10:49] And I do know I'm getting her thumbs up from the public, not trying to put you on that.
[1:10:53] So we can provide additional information.
[1:10:55] Yeah, electric costs in particular are like $400,000 or more.
[1:10:59] So those have been rising.
[1:11:07] Robert Blagan, Public Works Director, so about half of that was the street light cost.
[1:11:12] And then we had the full staff in the signal shop.
[1:11:16] And then the cost escalation in our service contracts,
[1:11:20] signing, striping, that comes from the county as their costs have gone up and they pass through
[1:11:25] those costs. So just the accumulation, and we have one of our staff members that was
[1:11:32] charged partially to traffic this now full time, the third member, the other traffic
[1:11:36] counts, they're in my vision. So I'll accumulate those operations cost increased.
[1:11:42] Thanks.
[1:11:46] Any other questions?
[1:11:47] comments, comments, seeing that?
[1:11:53] Thank you.
[1:11:54] Be back for a public hearing and about a month.
[1:11:57] Yeah.
[1:12:06] Okay.
[1:12:07] We're now at our second general public comment opportunity.
[1:12:10] The rules are the same.
[1:12:12] Is there anyone on Zoom?
[1:12:14] No, Mayor.
[1:12:16] And is anyone signed up?
[1:12:19] Unlikely.
[1:12:27] Okay.
[1:12:28] Anyone in the audience wish to make a public comment?
[1:12:35] Okay. We're done with general public comment. Advanced agenda. Any items for the advanced agenda?
[1:12:44] Council member Wick.
[1:12:46] I know that we have ended our agreement with Flock and with the county, but the cameras
[1:12:53] are still there, and the community is still out crying because they don't realize that
[1:12:58] they're off. I just wonder if there was a way that we could collect them so that they're
[1:13:03] not still out on the streets.
[1:13:08] Is it it's the responsibility of flock right to to take them down?
[1:13:14] Yes, but I think we could look at if staff collects them and puts them in a place that could be picked
[1:13:20] up so we could look at that. Okay, an alternative might be just a bag them or something to that effect
[1:13:27] might be cheaper but put
[1:13:31] banks over them basically yeah yeah I would just take them down myself
[1:13:36] versus begging them but yeah okay well I guess fine oh do we have consensus to do that oh yes
[1:13:44] is that consensus consensus thank you sorry okay anybody else are we okay okay we'll look at it
[1:13:56] Anything else?
[1:13:59] Okay.
[1:14:03] Council member reports.
[1:14:07] These are brief three-minute maximum verbal
[1:14:10] reports by council members, specifically regarding meetings or events, committee, commission,
[1:14:16] task force, board members or board meetings or community events. They have recently attended
[1:14:22] while representing the city. This is not an opportunity for general
[1:14:26] comments from council members. The intent of the council member reports is to inform the
[1:14:31] entire council and the public of pertinent policy issues or events which impact the
[1:14:37] city. Extended reports shall be placed as future agenda items for presentation or submitted
[1:14:44] in writing as an informal memo. Council member Kelly.
[1:14:49] 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.
[1:15:00] 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
[1:15:29] 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.
[1:15:39] So that's going well as also.
[1:15:41] Great. Thank you. Council member would.
[1:15:45] Nothing major to add just looking forward to cops and cruisers this weekend.
[1:15:50] Council member Yeager.
[1:15:52] I will second that this weekend. It'll be a lot of fun.
[1:15:54] I attended the partners in the Northwest Block Party, it was from 10 to 5, a couple weeks
[1:16:01] ago, and I was there pretty early, so I'm not sure it was attended as well at that time,
[1:16:07] but then I believe last week I spoke about the course grant opening, which was a beautiful
[1:16:13] Saturday morning.
[1:16:15] I attended the county GOP convention this last weekend and got to do an abbreviated state
[1:16:22] of the city, and so I got to break on us a little bit, and Jill, your thumb drive is back in your seat.
[1:16:29] Friday, I did a ride along with deputy speedrun, with the homeless and housing resource officer,
[1:16:36] sorry if I'm calling him the wrong thing, but I also got to meet
[1:16:41] Misty, who was with Frontier Behavioral Health, and they make a really great team.
[1:16:46] And then today we got to cut the ribbon for the Sunshine Health Facilities Assisted Living
[1:16:50] and opening, they provide a great campus of care out here in the valley, and that's about it.
[1:16:58] Thank you, Council Member Hayley.
[1:17:00] Nothing different to report.
[1:17:05] Okay, I was at two ribbon cuttings.
[1:17:08] One was WestPAC, which is, you know, investment accounts are financial investing firm, and they stated very boldly that they were very intentional
[1:17:21] about coming and being in the valley and so they were very thrilled they're out on Indiana
[1:17:27] past Sullivan. I also was at the Sunshine ribbon cutting and I will say they are an
[1:17:36] interesting group you know as family run they have now including the 4th generation of
[1:17:44] family that are doing it and they have grown as the valley has grown they have grown and
[1:17:49] in their totally community oriented
[1:17:52] and have a great value system of service
[1:17:55] to the vulnerable people that they serve.
[1:18:00] So they have not just assisted living,
[1:18:03] but they have also like a nursing home thing
[1:18:06] and various services for various stages of your life.
[1:18:11] So that was really a fun event.
[1:18:13] I went to the launch Northwest breakfast,
[1:18:15] which was an update only on some of their activities.
[1:18:21] So they highlighted three programs.
[1:18:24] Two of them struck me as pretty important.
[1:18:27] One was their Engage IRL, which is engage in real life.
[1:18:32] And it's at the high school level,
[1:18:34] and they encourage and help students be involved
[1:18:38] in extracurricular activities.
[1:18:41] And they have, they keep track of, you know, statistics on the data on it.
[1:18:48] And so the students that are involved, the absenteeism has gone down.
[1:18:54] Their grade point averages have gone up much less screen time.
[1:18:58] These activities are not screen time.
[1:19:00] These are interacting with real people and their peers and adults and playing games and learning things.
[1:19:06] and so it's really, I think, a really good program.
[1:19:10] They also have one called Empower Mentoring,
[1:19:12] which is a peer who could be, I mean, mentoring,
[1:19:16] who could be a peer or a college student
[1:19:18] or a trusted adult, and so they do things
[1:19:23] like locate scholarships, talk about careers,
[1:19:28] meet basic needs for students.
[1:19:30] And as of 2025, 26, they had 3,018 participants,
[1:19:35] students, student participants, and 131 mentors, so that's a pretty, you know, substantial impact in the schools and this is in Spokane schools.
[1:19:49] So, and that's it. So then city manager.
[1:19:52] Okay. Thank you, Mayor Patten, Councilmembers. Just to follow up on the Mayor's comments, I did speak.
[1:20:03] 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.
[1:20:29] for the clerk to get that set up.
[1:20:34] And then wanted to, as Council Member Wick brought up
[1:20:38] this weekend, there's a variety of things happening.
[1:20:42] There's actually three large events going on.
[1:20:45] The first starts at 3.30 across the street,
[1:20:49] and that's the rubbing cutting of our sports courts.
[1:20:53] And so that's going to be really exciting.
[1:20:54] We invite everybody to come out and join
[1:20:58] the city council to open the new basketball and pickable courts sports lighting and then the
[1:21:06] expanded sound system. So the one thing my understanding on the sports lighting piece is that
[1:21:13] it'll be set up for motion detection so there won't be any light switches out there so we'll have
[1:21:19] to work through how that all that operates but I think it should be pretty exciting and the courts
[1:21:25] That looks great, so I think it's going to blend in really well with all the other improvements there, so.
[1:21:32] 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.
[1:21:44] So we've checked all the boxes there and were on track for a 2027 installation for the splash pad and playground.
[1:21:53] And so that will, this year and next will really transform that space across the street.
[1:21:59] So that's at 3.30 and then immediately after from 4 to 7, as was mentioned, is the Cops
[1:22:06] and Kids car show.
[1:22:07] So we're all looking forward to that.
[1:22:10] And then after 7, closer to I think sunset and accounts member wake, you might want to talk
[1:22:17] about the movie in the park.
[1:22:20] just that we're having another or probably one of our last movies for the
[1:22:24] summer for the free movies in the park is we're going to show cars. So great
[1:22:29] theme.
[1:22:32] Until we're really excited about this weekend and hope to see
[1:22:35] everybody there and that's all I have tonight. Thank you. Move to adjourn. Second.
[1:22:41] All right.
[1:22:41] All right.
[1:22:42] All right.
[1:22:43] Opposed?
[1:22:43] All right.
[1:22:43] Opposed?
[1:22:44] We are adjourned.