(The Center Square) – Spokane’s business groups are advocating for implementing “better government” and public safety solutions as the lilac city prepares to enter 2025.
The Spokane Business Association issued its weekly Three for Thursday address earlier this week. SBA President Larry Stone founded the nonprofit over the summer, with Gavin Cooley, former chief financial officer of the city of Spokane, acting as the new chief executive officer.
This week’s Three for Thursday included calls for “better government,” regional leadership meetings over “critical public safety issues,” and support for a new proposed Alcohol Impact Area, which the Downtown Spokane Partnership also echoed with its own message.
“As we step into 2025, I am reminded of Spokane’s rich history of rising to the occasion when faced with big challenges,” Cooley wrote Tuesday. “Time and again, our community has shown that when we work together – combining innovation, determination, and collaboration – we can achieve incredible things.”
Cooley, who led the city’s finances for nearly 18 years, never found a lack of money to be an obstacle to achieving results. He called on the city to stop raising costs just after it bridged a $25 million deficit while raising taxes in the process, which the SBA, DSP and others endorsed.
Voters approved Mayor Lisa Brown’s Community Safety Sales Tax increase in November. The increase will generate about $7.7 million annually, with 15% going to Spokane County. That revenue is intended to support various public safety initiatives, but skeptics remain.
Some city and county officials are worried about the implications for a future jail initiative. The current downtown jail is often under a “red-light status,” meaning officers sometimes wait hours before there’s space, if any, for new inmates.
Voters rejected a measure in 2023 that would have funded new facilities over the coming years. Cooley referenced this failure in his message, calling for more regional conversations to provide Spokanites with the “public health and safety solutions they are demanding.”
He told The Center Square that a regional solution might be on the horizon without raising rates.
“The three issues highlighted by Gavin are some of the biggest issues we’ve been working on at the DSP,” Emilie Cameron, DSP president and chief executive officer, told The Center Square.
She said the DSP has been convening meetings with other business, nonprofit and municipal associations since June. The goal is to build a “public safety and health funding plan” intended to improve conditions throughout the county as it grapples with homelessness and other issues.
The DSP and SBA both endorsed Brown’s recent proposal to reintroduce an Alcohol Impact Area downtown after the area saw a 64% increase in related incidents over the last three years. The DSP also included increased treatment options and jail capacity, among many others, in its 2025 legislative priorities.
Cameron said the DSP worked closely with Brown on the proposal but is asking the city to do more, such as implementing a high-utilizer program and something similar to Seattle’s Stay out of Drug Areas, or SODA law.
“Coupled with ongoing, permanent increases in police presence downtown and enforcement of ordinances designed to keep our public spaces clean and clear, Spokane can foster a safer environment for all,” Cameron wrote in a letter of support for the AIA to the city council.
