(The Center Square) – Citing upcoming budget adjustments, the Spokane City Council proposed granting its only citywide member near-complete authority over hiring and firing council office staff on Monday.
While the proposal would centralize authority under Council President Betsy Wilkerson, members from both sides of the ideological divide signed on as sponsors. Council Policy Advisor Chris Wright said he began drafting the ordinance last month, but legal staff recently indicated they need to speed this up.
The plan was to pass the proposal around the same time as the council would amend the budget. The current ordinance regulating staffing authority requires at least five concurring votes to fire someone in the council office, and four votes to hire someone; however, it also identifies five central positions.
The council will need to act on this proposal if it hopes to save money by not funding those positions.
“We need to pass this before there’s a vote or council action on the budget if you want the flexibility,” Wright said on Monday. “Otherwise, … if you make any decisions regarding positions, you’re going to have to follow the current statute and the requirements for a vote and a resolution for those positions.”
The five positions listed in the existing statute include council director, policy advisor, budget director, director of communications and engagement and manager of intergovernmental affairs. Wilkerson said the conversation started in June and that she had consulted with the city’s human resources director.
Council staff are the only paid city employees whom the council must vote on before hiring or firing. Wilkerson said amending this policy could offer some additional privacy. Councilmember Paul Dillon said the main thing is providing flexibility to modify, downgrade, reclassify or discharge any positions.
Each council member would retain authority over their personal legislative assistants. Wright put the proposal on the Oct. 27 agenda as an emergency ordinance requiring five votes to pass. Dillon is one of the sponsors, along with Councilmember Michael Cathcart, who attended virtually on Monday.
Cathcart reserved his comments as he was handling some family matters, but Councilmember Jonathan Bingle, who represents the conservative minority alongside him, didn’t hesitate to voice his concerns.
“It says it would leave those decisions with the council president, subject to consultation,” Bingle said on Monday, alluding to a section requiring Wilkerson to consult with her peers. “What does that mean?”
Wright said the provision meant the council couldn’t hold meetings specifically over a staffing decision, but Wilkerson could talk to individual members about their perspective. Bingle took issue with the lack of definition around consultation, as the council majority routinely leaves him and Cathcart out of the loop.
That provision also requires Wilkerson to make personnel decisions consistent with the council rules, which the officials intend to approve sometime in January. Wright said the reason they want to avoid everyone meeting over staffing decisions is to maintain compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act.
“This has not given us flexibility to plan for situations where the budget gets tighter or our priorities change,” Councilmember Kitty Klitzke said, citing confusion around the existing ordinance. “I think we definitely need to do some work to make it so that we can manage our office like anyone else would.”
When asked about any plans to save money in the budget by downsizing the council office, Dillon told The Center Square that the council would need to see what Mayor Lisa Brown proposes first. He said his peers would make any determination about staff cuts after introducing the budget next month.
