SPOKANE, Wash. — A new mayor, new city council.
Now, there's also a new roadmap for where citizens want to see their city go in Lisa Brown's first 100 days in office.
Brown's transition team of five committees, which she introduced in early December before officially taking office, laid out weeks' worth of work Thursday. After gathering community feedback and holding meetings, the teams identified key priorities the administration should focus on.
"What we heard today, in my opinion, were opportunities for our city to grow from the ground up. We heard it directly from our citizens," said city council president Betsy Wilkerson.
Public safety committee co-chair Maggie Yates said the city needs to engage the community for input to identify public safety priorities, including open conversations with diverse communities.
The group focused heavily on a new possible public safety measure, though Yates said they didn't take a stance on whether or not such a ballot effort should be put forward.
Instead, the group recommended the city immediately begin collaborating with Spokane County to develop a more well-rounded measure if one is proposed again. Yates said the group had major concerns with what she called a lack of budget and lack of planning around public safety with Measure 1, which failed in November.
Yates said the public safety committee recommends any discussion on a public safety initiative move away from strictly focusing on jail facilities and outline other conditions.
"Conditions such as investments also in behavioral health, in housing, in sustainability, and importantly racial equity," Yates said.
Another committee focused on the city's finances and climate goals task Brown's administration with balancing the budget in a 'holistic' manner.
A top recommendation is to eliminate structural deficit and create a long-term budget.
"You throw a lot of effort at solving this year's gap, whatever it is, and it comes back the next year. That's the nature of a structural gap," said committee co-chair Gavin Cooley.
The group advised Brown's team should extend a budget freeze and review to identify ways to cut expenses and seek out revenue sources.
Another committee looked at supporting families, children and the arts.
"The overarching goal is to really increase the vibrancy of Spokane and create a more navigable regulatory environment to make it easier to open up those spaces for the community," said committee co-chair Amber Waldref.
Waldref is working on the mayor's transition team as a private citizen, but said she's committed to collaboration with the city in her role as county commissioner.
This 'Enriching Families and Communities' group recommends the city remove obstacles that keep cultural and neighborhood events from thriving, like conflicting local and state regulations. They also want to see an expansion or reorganization of the city's Office of Neighborhood Services to engage more community members.
Brown's committee on housing and homelessness say an audit is needed for Spokane's shelter system and homeless resources, suggesting an overhaul that includes a new homeless management dashboard.
"Needing a clear count of what truly is our current shelter capacity," co-chair Marty Dickinson said they'd heard from homeless service providers.
A roundup of all the transition team recommendations are available here.
The recommendations now go to Brown's cabinet, she explained.
“All of the recommendations will be more or less assigned to a cabinet member or cabinet subcommittee, then we’ll go from there in prioritizing, assigning timelines and figuring out implementation," she said.
City council may also look at tackling some of the ideas, and Brown said members of the private sector may also want to get involved if they see a recommendation that sparks their interest.
Not all recommendations will become changes, especially in the short-term, Brown warned. Though she did say it's a better idea of what community members hope to see in the future of the city.