Airway Heights Rushing appointed to AWC board of directors

In addition to his duties to the city of Airway Heights, Mayor Patrick Rushing will now serve Washington state in a bigger capacity.

At the Feb. 3 City Council meeting, Rushing announced that he was elected to the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) board of directors. Rushing will be the director for District 1, which encompasses 25 cities and towns in the counties of Adams, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens and Spokane.

Rushing, whose term on the board will be effective until 2015, explained that he will reach out to other city councils, ask for their interests and take them to the AWC. He added that he is looking forward to his new role.

“This will be good for the city and a lot of hard work,” Rushing said.

Following his announcement, Rushing mentioned that he and City Manager Albert Tripp traveled from Olympia, to speak with 6th District Sen. Michael Baumgartner about the senate-sponsored bill regarding snow removal on state highways. Rushing added that Sixth District Rep. Kevin Parker would be working on mirror legislation so that the bill will go through the House quicker.

In action items, the council approved the cooperative fireservices interlocal agreement between the Airway Heights Fire Department, the Medical Lake Fire Department and Spokane County Fire District 10 to bring in Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI) to perform an evaluation of the three individual departments and recommend ways where the departments can work together. The city will pay $13,720 for their share of the consulting fee.

The council next approved the request to assign council members to various city and regional committees for the year. Rushing mentioned that Councilman Steven Lawrence would be taking his spot on the Public Works Committee while he would be moving over to the Community and Economic Development Committee (CEDC).

The council accepted the completion of phase one of the Aspen Grove tree planting project. Rushing commented that the park looks “very nice” and suggested for the council to visit the park. They also accepted the completion of the reservoir and transmission project.

The council approved the memorandum of agreement between Local 270-A and the city concerning wages and benefits for 2014 and 2015. They also approved the collective bargaining agreement between city and the Airway Heights Public Safety Guild for wages and benefits from 2013 through 2015.

The council approved a consulting agreement with Contineo Technologies Inc., to perform a comprehensive review of the city’s IT and network systems. Rushing welcomed Contineo Consulting employees at the meeting.

Contineo president Craig Sanders gave a summary of his company’s 15-year history of serving companies in Spokane and other cities in the country. Rushing said he was looking forward to find out the information Contineo can provide about the city’s IT system.

The council was presented with the first reading of Ordinance C-823, which provides salary and benefit adjustments for Local 270 A, Public Safety Guild, and non-represented employees and Ordinance C-823, which amends the budgets of the current expense fund, street fund, and the Water-Sewer fund.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].