No More Office of Neighborhood Services?

No More Office of Neighborhood Services?

[NOTE: Within minutes making of this post, we received a call from Jonathan Mallahan of the City of Spokane. He stressed that the Office of Neighborhood Services is not going away and that the initial blog post announcing the City Hall reorganization (linked below) could perhaps have been clearer about this. We’ve invited him to speak at the next EGNC meeting to clarify any uncertainties and added a question mark to our title above. Please read the following with this in mind.]

Mayor Condon announced yesterday that the City of Spokane would soon be undergoing another organizational restructuring.

A blog post on the City website had the following to say:

A consolidated Neighborhood and Business Services division, under the leadership of Jonathan Mallahan, will integrate planning, developer services and parking into what was previously Neighborhood Services to better align our customer service efforts.

This means the Office of Neighborhood Services as we know it is going away. Technically, this is a violation of the City Charter (Article VIII), which calls for a very specific ONS department:

Section 71: Neighborhood Councils Program – Creation

A neighborhood councils program is hereby created which shall consist of the following bodies: Neighborhood councils, the community assembly and the office of neighborhood services which shall be established in accordance with the rules and procedures designated in the following sections.

Effective Date: November 2000
Ordinance C32687 Section 1

Is it merely a name change or does it have more far-reaching implications?

The idea of neighborhoods and businesses being served by the same department does have some advantages, as neighborhoods and business tend to be viewed by the wider community as separate entities, not parts of the same whole. That has had the potential to cause unnecessary rifts where there should be collaboration.

But if the change results in a diminished focus on neighborhoods and the increased transfer of their power to City Hall, it would threaten to take even more self-governance away from Spokane citizens and put it in the hands of a small number of bureaucrats. That’s a change that only the bureaucrats themselves would welcome.

We’ll be following this development and discussing it at the next Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting on Wednesday, February 10 at 6pm in the Corbin Senior Activity Center (827 W Cleveland).

Neighborhood Notification Trainings (Jan 12 & 28)

Neighborhood Notification Trainings (Jan 12 & 28)

Owing to the popularity of its previous Neighborhood Notification training session on December 28, the Office of Neighborhood Services has coordinated two more training sessions.

The first is a repeat of the earlier Neighborhood Notification Training. That is scheduled for today (Tuesday, January 12) from 5:30-7:00pm at the the West Central Community Center (1603 N Belt) in the Mason Room at the rear of the building. If you missed the first one in December, it would be useful to attend this one to get an overview of what Neighborhood Notification involves and the protocols associated with it.

huose_plans

A second more advanced training covering Decision Criteria will be offered on Thursday, January 28 from 5:30-7:00pm (location TBD, but likely at the West Central Community Center once again). This session will provide a more in-depth look at the decision-making criteria for development projects. If you’re planning on attending the Decision Criteria Training, it’s important that you attend the Neighborhood Notification Training beforehand.

These training sessions are open to anyone who’s interested, not just neighborhood council members, so please feel free to attend and help spread the word.

To RSVP for either session, please contact Jackie Caro at jcaro@spokanecity.org or call (509) 625-6733.

Neighborhood Notification Training (Dec 28)

Neighborhood Notification Training (Dec 28)

Following the passage of the Neighborhood Notification Ordinance, neighborhoods have had questions about the notifications they have received and how they are expected to respond.

To better educate and prepare neighborhoods for this responsibility, the Office of Neighborhood Services has organized a training in partnership with the Building & Developer Services Department to help neighborhood councils navigate the development notifications. The training session will be held on Monday, December 28 starting at 5:45pm in the Newton Room of the West Central Community Center (1603 N Belt).

NeighborhoodNotification

This training will teach your neighborhood what notices you will be receiving, the process itself, and how you can be engaged in the application review and decision-making process. All neighborhood councils are strongly encouraged to attend this training!

Please RSVP to Jackie Caro at jcaro@spokanecity.org or by calling 625-6733. To confirm your attendance via the Facebook event, click here.

Recap of the December 2015 E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

Recap of the December 2015 E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

This is a brief recap of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting that took place on December 9, 2015. The meeting began at 6:30pm after a half-hour of mingling and sharing dinner as part of the Winter Potluck.

Guest speaker Roland Lamarche, chair of the Community Assembly‘s (CA) Community Development Committee, talked about proposed changes to how Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding is allocated for sidewalk installation and repair. He began by noting how Spokane’s CDBG program was meant to target neighborhoods with the greatest need, but that hinders the effectiveness of the current sidewalk program.

George Dahl then gave a presentation about the program, its shortcomings, and potential remedies. Tim Musser, our neighborhood’s representative on the CA Community Development Committee, also provided input about how the sidewalk maintenance is often overlooked by landlords in low-income neighborhoods.

[EDIT: Here is George’s presentation. Here is an FAQ for the proposed changes to the CDBG sidewalk program. And here are the minutes for the CA/CD Committee meeting at which the proposal was decided. All are PDF format.]

According to municipal code, the repair of sidewalks is the responsibility of the adjacent homeowners. Neighborhoods have collectively received about $700,000 per year to help address poverty through capital-improvement projects, and approximately $500,000 of that has been used for sidewalk repair. Yet the areas that qualify for CDBG funding are determined by census and change each year. It is therefore not uncommon for low-income individuals with dangerous sidewalks to have wealthier neighbors in their area who disqualify them from CDBG funding, and vice versa.

The committee’s proposal is to remove the area-specific qualifications for sidewalk funding and allow households to individually qualify if they earn less than $36,150 (if a one-person household). The higher an owner’s income relative to this benchmark, the higher the share of the cost they would be responsible for. Priority would be given to the disabled, the elderly, and the lower income.

The typical cost of a repair ranges between $1,600 on the low end and $3,000 on the high end, with the higher expenses usually being associated with larger tree roots. With the cost being shared by the owner, there may be a disincentive for “extravagant” requests that their entire sidewalk be repaired, and if only the damaged portions were repaired, the funding could theoretically be distributed across many more properties.

This proposed process is all very new and in need of further refinement. Anyone with questions or concerns is encouraged to e-mail George Dahl at gdahl@spokanecity.org.

Jay Cousins, Emerson-Garfield’s CA representative, reported that the CA will meet on the first Thursday of each month at 5:30pm starting in January 2016.

Within days of last month’s neighborhood council meeting, it was announced that the Cedar Street sidewalk project would be funded by Photo Red dollars. It was proposed that the $11,010 of funding it was due to receive be reallocated to the asphalt walking path project in Emerson Park, thus ensuring its completion. The council voted unanimously to approve that motion. The neighborhood council members then discussed possible CDBG projects to consider in the future.

The council also voted not to meet in January 2016, per custom, pushing the next meeting to Wednesday, February 10.

“Cleanup Czar” Karl Boldt reiterated that Faith Bible Church is still very eager to host another cleanup project next autumn.

On Monday, December 28 at 5:45pm, the West Central Community Center will be hosting a training session on the Neighborhood Notification process.

Laura Schlangen reported on the Corbin Senior Activity Center. The Spokane Magic Club fundraiser was well attended and netted the center almost $300. A Christmas luncheon themed “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” will take place on Friday, December 11 beginning at 11:30am. The Tap Grandmas will perform a holiday show on Wednesday, December 16 at 6pm.

The meeting adjourned at 7:30pm with enthusiastic holiday well-wishing.

Winter Potluck 2015 (Dec 9)

Winter Potluck 2015 (Dec 9)

The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council is hosting its annual Winter Potluck on Wednesday, December 9 starting at 6pm at the Corbin Senior Activity Center (827 W Cleveland).

The December 2015 meeting of the EGNC will follow with a seasonally light agenda. We’ll be discussing proposed changes to how CDBG sidewalk money is allocated, brainstorming projects for 2016, and doing some year-end housekeeping.

WinterPotluck2015

This event isn’t limited to members of the neighborhood council. Anyone who lives, works or owns property is invited to attend! Just bring a dinner, dessert or drink for sharing.

We look forward to seeing you there! Oh, and feel free to RSVP to the event on Facebook.