Spokane council revives 3‑day notice for clearing encampments after reversal
(The Center Square) – After seven hours of debate and testimony, only half of Mayor Lisa Brown’s plan to overhaul Spokane’s response to homelessness passed on Monday night.
Despite initially rejecting Brown’s plan to replace Proposition 1 – a camping ban that nearly 75% of voters approved in 2023 – the Spokane City Council amended a provision requiring at least a week’s notice before clearing encampments to only three days, delaying the final vote to June 30.
The Washington State Supreme Court struck down Prop. 1 in April because the law fell outside the scope of the initiative process. The ruling allowed the city to restore the voters’ will by a council vote, but the progressive majority rejected the conservative minority’s attempt to do so.
At the time, the council majority cited the upcoming overhaul and the need for input. Most of the residents who testified on Monday did so against Brown’s overhaul. The council responded by rejecting her Prop. 1 replacement but then resurrected the ordinance after many residents had left.
“This process has been just fraught from day one, a significant lack of transparency every single step of the way,” Councilmember Michael Cathcart said. “We are flying blind, and now we are tricking people. We are literally playing dirty politics, tricking the community.”
Business owners criticized the provision requiring officers to wait before clearing encampments, while service providers took issue with the proposal criminalizing homelessness. Both asked the city to create a zone where camping is allowed, with service providers nearby for support.
The downtown community asked the council to create a hospitality zone to ban camping almost entirely in that area. Several business associations warned that the notice period and a lack of clarity in the ordinance would lead to a loss of tax revenue as people avoid heading downtown.
Before rejecting the Prop. 1 replacement during the first vote, Council President Betsy Wilkeson said she heard what the community asked for. Then, when voting in support of the amendment to reduce the waiting period to three days, she claimed it was what business owners wanted.
One resident stood in the back of the room and denied that residents had asked for three days.
Business owner Aaron Rivkin accused Councilmember Paul Dillon of pushing Councilmember Lili Navarrete to change her vote after initially rejecting the proposal. The conservative minority also questioned whether the majority called the mayor during a brief recess to strategize.
“An hour and a half later, I watched that very same person look at Councilmember Navarrete and signaled to make this new amendment,” Rivkin testified. “There’s obviously some collusion happening within the city council members [aside from] Councilmember Cathcart and Bingle.”
Others followed in agreement and called the decision shocking. While the council won’t vote on the camping ban until June 30, they did pass two other proposals in the overhaul: one codifying existing practices and goals and another on opening shelters and good neighbor agreements.
Derek Baziotis, local government affairs manager for the Washington Hospitality Association, said the council cut business owners off at the knees in the dead of night. Baziotis asked what he should tell the residents who filled the gallery, pleading for the council to protect downtown.
“We were bamboozled into this,” he said. “They got what they wanted, and then you took it right away from them in the dead of night … Betsy, I know you know this is wrong on so many levels.”
