{"id":2317357,"date":"2024-08-01T08:26:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T12:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spokane-city-council-out-of-session-for-25-of-year-still-receiving-full-salaries-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-08-01T08:32:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T12:32:10","slug":"spokane-city-council-out-of-session-for-25-of-year-still-receiving-full-salaries-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spokane-city-council-out-of-session-for-25-of-year-still-receiving-full-salaries-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Spokane City Council out of session for 25% of year, still receiving full salaries &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspokane-city-council-out-of-session-for-25-of-year-still-receiving-full-salaries-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2317357&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Spokane City Council has faced criticism for taking extended recesses from city business, with\u2062 officials being out of session for 25% of\u2062 the \u2064year while still receiving full salaries. A \u200bseries of cancellations for meetings was issued by the city, indicating that the council would not convene \u200bfor 11\u200c out of 52 weeks in 2024, primarily due \u2063to holidays. However, only a few\u2063 of these cancellations fell directly on holiday dates. Citizens, including Christopher \u2062Savage, have expressed concern over the council&#8217;s decision to take breaks around holidays,\u2063 questioning the appropriateness of the\u2062 timing given the nature\u200d of city governance. The council&#8217;s schedule raises legal questions as \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-rules-ca-gov-overstepped-his-authority-with-covid-order-issues-permanent-injunction-restraining-newsom-from-further-issuing-unconstitutional-orders\/\" title=\"Judge Rules CA Gov Overstepped His Authority with Covid Order, Issues Permanent Injunction Restraining Newsom From Further Issuing Unconstitutional Orders\">state law<\/a> mandates that regular meetings falling \u2063on holidays must occur on the next business day, \u2063a stipulation that appears \u2063inconsistent with the Spokane Municipal Code which allows some discretion. The council&#8217;s summer break will keep officials\u200b out of \u200dmeetings \u2062until \u200cAugust 12, leading to further scrutiny about their adherence to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hubris-exposed\/\" title=\"Hubris Exposed\">decision-making responsibilities<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Spokane City Council out of session for 25% of year, still receiving full salaries<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1720285\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>(The Center Square) &ndash;&nbsp;Spokane&rsquo;s elected officials are on another recess from city business, this time for a two-week vacation less than a month after taking another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/willie-nelson-calls-on-biden-to-make-april-20-to-april-29-the-high-holidays\/\" title=\"Willie Nelson Calls On Biden To Make April 20 To April 29 The \u2018High Holidays\u2019\">week-long holiday<\/a>; however, the timing of those breaks may <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/boston-school-board-members-resign-after-racist-text-messages-emerge\/\" title=\"Boston School Board Members Resign After Racist Text Messages Emerge\">violate state law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The city disseminated a&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/static.spokanecity.org\/documents\/citycouncil\/interest-items\/2024\/2024-city-council-meeting-cancelations-town-hall-meetings.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">list<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;of cancellations earlier this year, noting that the city council would not meet for 11 out of the 52 weeks in 2024. Most of the cancellations are due to various holidays. However, only a few regular meeting dates would&rsquo;ve actually fallen on a holiday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Spokane has mostly followed its list of cancellations, except for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/static.spokanecity.org\/documents\/citycouncil\/advance-agendas\/2024\/01\/city-council-advance-agenda-2024-01-01.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Jan.&nbsp;1<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;and one of the council&rsquo;s legislative sessions, which it called off in&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/static.spokanecity.org\/documents\/citycouncil\/special-notices\/2024\/05\/special-notice-cancelled-legislative-session-2024-05-13.pdf\">May<\/a><\/strong>. Still, assuming there aren&rsquo;t any more unplanned cancellations by the end of this year, the council would&rsquo;ve been on break for 25% of 2024.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Savage, who&rsquo;s run for council multiple times, testified to the elected officials after their July 4 holiday over the apparent waste of time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The reason given for canceling the meeting was because of the Fourth of July holiday,&rdquo; Savage said, &ldquo;yet the meeting was on July 1, which is three days from July 4.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Out of the 11 scheduled cancellations and two others that were called off, only six, or 46%, actually fell on a holiday. The other 54% of the cancellations were days away from the mentioned holiday.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Again, why does the council think that they can take the whole week off from city business to celebrate a holiday when everyone else had to work up to [July 4]?&rdquo; Savage continued.<\/p>\n<p>Spokane&rsquo;s city council will not return from its &ldquo;summer break&rdquo; until Aug. 12. The last formal meeting was on July 22, meaning that 21 days will have lapsed since the previous council meeting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Spokane Municipal Code notes a few dates during which all offices, including municipal court, are&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/my.spokanecity.org\/smc\/?Section=03.03.010#:~:text=The%20first%20Monday%20in%20September,known%20as%20%E2%80%9CChristmas%20Day%E2%80%9D.\">closed<\/a><\/strong>; these include New Year&rsquo;s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, the next day known as Black Friday, and Christmas Day.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, according to state law, &ldquo;if at any time any regular meeting falls on a holiday, such regular meeting shall be held on the next business day.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The SMC backs this by noting, &ldquo;When a Monday is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-have-democrats-missed-the-deadline-to-remove-biden-from-the-ballot-in-wisconsin-and-other-states\/\" title=\"FACT CHECK: Have Democrats Missed The Deadline To Remove Biden From The Ballot In Wisconsin And Other States?\">legal holiday<\/a> according to City ordinance, then the meeting may be held on the next succeeding day which is not a City holiday.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The difference is that state law uses the language &ldquo;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/rcw\/default.aspx?cite=42.30.070#:~:text=If%20at%20any%20time%20any%20regular%20meeting%20falls%20on%20a%20holiday%2C%20such%20regular%20meeting%20shall%20be%20held%20on%20the%20next%20business%20day.\">shall<\/a><\/strong>,&rdquo; which means the governing body&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/shall#:~:text=Shall%20is%20an%20imperative%20command,implying%20some%20degree%20of%20discretion.\">must<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;hold the regular meeting on the next business day. In contrast, the SMC uses &ldquo;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/my.spokanecity.org\/smc\/?Section=02.01.010#:~:text=When%20a%20Monday%20is%20a%20legal%20holiday%20according%20to%20City%20ordinance%2C%20then%20the%20meeting%20may%20be%20held%20on%20the%20next%20succeeding%20day%20which%20is%20not%20a%20City%20holiday.\">may<\/a><\/strong>,&rdquo; which allows the council to&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/may\">decide<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;whether or not it will meet instead of requiring it to do so.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Gardner, director of communications and community engagement for the Spokane City Council, said that while some are vacationing, other council members are still in the office.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, she said that all of them have the option to take two weeks off with their full salary provided.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Gardner confirmed that Council President Betsy Wilkerson was in office for part of this week but that some of the others from the council office were taking the break away from city business.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the conflict between state law and the SMC regarding holding meetings the day after a holiday, Gardner said she would contact the council&rsquo;s policy advisor.<\/p>\n<p>The Center Square contacted Christopher Wright, the council&rsquo;s policy advisor, and City Attorney Mike Piccolo but did not receive a response.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Erin Hut, Spokane&rsquo;s director of Communications &amp; Marketing, confirmed that Mayor Lisa Brown is working during the council&rsquo;s summer break.<\/p>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1720285\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1720285\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spokane City Council is currently on a two-week break from city business, just weeks after a previous week-long holiday. This pattern of taking extended breaks may be in conflict with state law. Earlier this year, the city released a schedule indicating that the council would not convene for 11 out of the 52 weeks in 2024, primarily due to various holidays. However, only a few of these cancellations actually coincide with holidays. So far, Spokane has adhered to its cancellation schedule except for January 1 and one legislative session that was canceled in May. If no further unexpected cancellations occur this year, the council will have been inactive for 25% of 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Savage, who has run for council multiple times, criticized the elected officials after their July Fourth break regarding what he perceives as inefficiency. He pointed out that while they canceled meetings citing the holiday, those meetings were scheduled days before July Fourth. Out of the total scheduled cancellations and additional ones called off, only six (46%) fell directly on holidays; over half were days removed from any holiday.<\/p>\n<p>Savage questioned why council members felt entitled to take an entire week off when others continued working up until July Fourth. The Spokane City Council will not reconvene until August 12; thus far there will have been a gap of 21 days since their last formal meeting on July 22.<\/p>\n<p>The Spokane Municipal Code specifies certain holidays when all municipal offices are closed but state law mandates that if a regular meeting falls on such a holiday it must be rescheduled to the next business day\u2014using &#8220;shall&#8221; implies obligation compared to &#8220;may,&#8221; which gives discretion.<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Gardner from the Spokane City Council&#8217;s communications team noted that while some members are away on vacation others remain at work and confirmed they can take two weeks off with full pay during this period. She mentioned that Council President Betsy Wilkerson was present part-time during this week while other members took time off.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about potential conflicts between state law and local regulations regarding post-holiday meetings, Gardner indicated she would reach out to their policy advisor for clarification but did not receive immediate responses from them or other officials contacted by The Center Square. Meanwhile, Erin Hut confirmed Mayor Lisa Brown is still working through this summer recess period<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2317358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24014160623172-1-1-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[36155,36854,8038,36853],"class_list":["post-2317357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-government-accountability","tag-local-news","tag-salaries","tag-spokane-city-council"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24014160623172-1-1-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2317358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}