Airway Heights moves housekeeping items to January

The Airway Heights City Council went through several housekeeping items at Monday night’s study session and moved them forward for approval at its Jan. 4, 2016 meeting.

They moved forward a resolution amending rules of procedures to allow council members to recommend and appoint residents to a committee. Previously, only the mayor could recommend committee appointments.

Council agreed to have staff draft a resolution to adjust the salaries of elected officials.

Under the resolution, the mayor would make $1,200 a month while the deputy mayor would receive $600 a month. Mayor Kevin Richey said he’d like council members to still be paid $500 a month, though he said cutting the mayor’s salary was “fair.” He added that the salary adjustments would not take place until the next election cycle.

In regards to having council appoint a mayor among themselves, Richey said he talked to City Attorney Stanley Schwartz who believes that voters would have to approve such a proposal.

“Any kind of change to the language for an elected official who is elected by the people must go to a vote,” Richey said.

Council also moved forward a resolution amending administrative fees. Court administrator Bree Breza explained some of the changes include charging a $30 per hour fee for public records request after the first hour while probation monitoring fees are set at $120 per month and the fee for conviction of violation of a court order is set at $115. Breza said the fees go into a fund the city can only spend on advocacy.

“That’s money we’ve never touched, we’ve never seen or know what to do with,” Breza said.

Breza added that Airway Heights currently doesn’t have a court advocate, which the YWCA provided to the city.

“The YWCA does provide the city with an advocate, but it’s through a grant,” Breza said. “We share one with Spokane Valley, however I was informed that they (YWCA) might be making some changes and they were planning on contacting me. I was hoping they would have done that sooner, but they have not.”

Richey and Police Chief Lee Bennett agreed that since the city has a lethality assessment program, it should have the same services as other cities, specifically an advocate to help victims navigate through the court systems and provide services they need.

Other items moved forward at the study session included:

● A professional services agreement between the city and consultant Studio Cascade for work on the Highway 2 revitalization project.

● The reappointment of Jacob Powers to the Park Advisory Board.

● Renewal of the Commute Trip Reduction intergovernmental contract between Airway Heights and Spokane County.

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.