(The Center Square) – Despite declining to cut staff to help balance a $13 million deficit, the Spokane City Council is commissioning a $65,000 office efficiency study. Recent budget amendments only fully funded its office through the end of June — the only remaining conservative now says, “expect to be laid off.”
The city of Spokane published a bid opportunity online last month, “seeking a Firm to complete a City Council Organizational Analysis.” The officials want to evaluate the office’s staffing structure, as well as how the council’s “duties, responsibilities, and expectations manifest in practice,” the listing states.
While the elected office is considered a part-time job, some have advocated for higher pay and must work elsewhere to get by. Council President Betsy Wilkerson told The Center Square that their salaries deter many candidates. She earns $70,600 a year for spending about 60 hours a week on the council.
Councilmember Michael Cathcart, the only conservative left on the dais, wants to focus on the budget.
Spokane has faced back-to-back deficits over the past few years, which the council says may continue. Cathcart told The Center Square he wanted to hire a budget consultant, but the majority went for this.
“This is the six-month heads-up notice,” Cathcart told The Center Square. “If we go beyond July, then we’re out of budget. We’re out of money. We can’t move forward as we are today. There will absolutely have to be reductions, either in the council office or taken from elsewhere, to keep the office afloat.”
Last November, the officials filled a $13 million shortfall with tax hikes and some cuts, while laying off about 15 full-time employees, none of whom were in the council office. Mayor Lisa Brown had warned city staff that the deficit could result in 30 to 50 losing their jobs, but the cuts didn’t reach that extent.
Facing deep cuts to the city’s libraries, the council only fully funded its own staff through June 30.
The move allowed the council to put another $500,000 behind the libraries while saving $149,000 for additional staff funding later in the year or a study like this. Some members proposed more money for the libraries, funded by council staff cuts, but not everyone could agree on how to restructure in time.
Wilkerson said Tuesday that she still hopes to avoid staff cuts by reassessing whether some initiative managers should be considered part-time or full-time, and if a few roles should be combined. She said the budget is a big concern for her, but wants a solid justification from this study before restructuring.
“I think the study is going to tell us that council members should be full-time,” Wilkerson said. “I am really waiting on the study before I really form an opinion one way or the other, but the study needs to happen, and really, if they can tell us how to build a better mousetrap, I’m absolutely open to that.”
Increasing council pay would also affect the budget unless they identify additional funding through tax and fee hikes, operational and material cuts, or restructuring the council office. She and Cathcart both expressed frustration with the inaccessibility of current and past administrations’ budget teams at times.
“That was the impetus of actually adding these positions over the last several years,” Wilkerson told The Center Square, “so we can have timely, unbiased information, so we can make our own decisions.”
Wilkerson said the council has allocated $65,000 toward the office efficiency study. That figure is the cap, so the council hasn’t spent that money quite yet. She said they hope to hire a consultant by Feb. 1, but the bid opportunity closes on Jan. 20. Initially, the listing said deliverables were due by June 30.
The council only fully funded their staff through June 30, so if the study lands on their desks that day, it’ll leave some council staff with little time to find a new job. The council could reallocate some of that $149,000 they set aside in reserves, but Cathcart said the budget essentially served as a layoff notice.
Wilkerson said if the study recommended staff reductions, she would “absolutely” consider tapping the $149,000 to give the council office more notice before any layoffs. She said she always advises staff to “spread your wings and fly,” noting that elected officials don’t often serve long tenures past four years.
“That’s all I can tell them,” she said, “because there’s absolutely no absolute certainty in any of this.”
Hours after Wilkerson spoke with The Center Square, the city updated the bid opportunity, moving the due date for deliverables from June 30 to May 31, which would essentially provide staff more notice.
Cathcart said he, too, wants to reorganize their office, but in a way that doesn’t silence the minority.
“It can’t be something that’s built entirely and only in the image of the majority, and there to serve the majority,” Cathcart said. “I fear, as we reduce staff, that’s certainly something that will happen.”
Last November, the council also passed an emergency ordinance that essentially granted near-complete authority to hire and fire staff outside the regular budget process. During those routine negotiations, the council can create or cut staff positions with a majority vote, regardless of Cathcart’s support.
Former Councilmember Jonathan Bingle and Cathcart both voted against the emergency ordinance.
He criticized arguments from the last few months, which he said suggested cutting council staff to give the administration more to spend. Cathcart said he would be the first to say they have to make hard cuts if reducing staff was absolutely necessary to close the deficit, but in his view, this is “taking from the legislative branch, which is its own independent branch, and handing it over to the executive.”
The Center Square reached out to Mayor Lisa Brown’s office for a response to Cathcart’s comment.
“The Administration proposes budgets, the Council passes them. We suggested the Council share in the reductions that were being taken by all other City departments, including the Mayor’s Office,” City Spokeswoman Erin Hut said Thursday. “This isn’t a money grab, it’s about accountability to taxpayers.”
Still, the administration and council majority have turned to tax hikes in the past two years to fill deficits.
“But that’s not what we’re doing. We’re not making fiscally responsible decisions,” Cathcart told The Center Square. “I just cannot fundamentally get behind that idea that we’re going to take away our ability to get our work done so that the executive branch can make some poor fiscal decisions.”
