(The Center Square) – After more than 100 years of tradition, the Spokane City Council voted Monday to move its regular meeting date to Wednesdays, with other rule changes slated for a vote next week.
The council typically adopts its annual rules of procedure in the lead-up to Jan. 1 or soon after. The process was delayed this time as multiple members faced reelection. Two new officials joined the dais this year, shaking up the negotiations, which continued Monday as they considered new amendments.
The council has floated the idea of rescheduling its legislative sessions a few times in recent years to avoid cancelling Monday meetings that often fall on holidays. The officials rarely reschedule cancelled meetings for later in the week, but that shouldn’t be much of an issue anymore after Monday’s vote.
“We have been discussing moving our council meeting days for a number of years. This is not new,” Council President Betsy Wilkerson said Monday. “We had gone through the process last year; we had gotten to the finish line. One of our council members said they absolutely could not go to Tuesday.”
The last time the dais updated its rules was in December 2024. The officials nearly moved legislative meetings to Tuesdays, but held off because former Councilmember Jonathan Bingle had a scheduling conflict. Moving the date would have limited Bingle’s participation just a year before he faced reelection.
Councilmember Sarah Dixit beat Bingle in the 2025 election, essentially clearing the way to reschedule the meeting date after the city swore her in, along with Councilmember Kate Telis. Just three residents testified on Monday about changing the meeting date, all of whom opposed holding it on Wednesdays.
They said several neighborhood councils also hold meetings on Wednesday, which would force people to choose which meetings to attend. Dixit said neighborhood councils typically meet once a month, so those who continue meeting on Wednesdays would miss only one council meeting each month.
The council’s committee meetings and agenda review meetings also moved from Mondays to Tuesdays under the change, allowing more time review agenda changes before Wednesday. Councilmember Kitty Klitzke welcomed the change, noting that many city hall staffers have children in Spokane Public Schools. SPS cancels classes on Mondays at times, and late starts can create scheduling conflicts as well.
“Do I need to be the council person sitting up here upending 114 years of history on the day we meet? I don’t know,” Councilmember Michael Cathcart questioned, while crediting The Spokesman-Review for uncovering the timeline that some thought extended only 60 years or so, before voting in opposition.
He felt there wasn’t a strong enough argument to move the meeting date. Cathcart also attempted to block another change that is scheduled for a vote next week during Monday’s agenda review meeting.
The council will consider the rest of its proposed rules next Monday, with the most significant change being to public testimony. Cathcart proposed amendments that would’ve allowed residents to continue testifying on most agenda items for up to three minutes each, but his peers went a different direction.
First, the proposal creates an “express” testimony option, allowing individuals to testify for up to three minutes on a single item or the entire agenda, so they don’t have to stay the whole meeting. In return, they can’t speak at that meeting again except during the open forum or for three minutes during hearings.
For other items, the agenda would be split into three sections: proposed, pending and final action; for proposed agenda items, which would be the first touch in a legislative session, each resident can only testify once for up to two minutes on the entire section, regardless of the number of agenda items.
The pending section would contain items that already had a first reading at another meeting and are now moving toward final action or amendments. Residents would be allowed to testify on each agenda item in this section for up to two minutes, with grouped testimony on appointments, contracts and claims.
The last section would contain items scheduled for a final vote, during which residents would again be limited to two minutes each to testify on the entire section, regardless of how many items it contains.
“The insinuation that any of this would be reducing people’s time, I don’t think is a fair statement,” Dixit said Monday, arguing that the restructuring provides more public comment opportunities.
If approved, the public testimony rules would take effect on July 9 along with the new meeting dates.
