The Council voted 5-2 to raise elevator inspection fees such that another inspector could be hired so that the City can properly handle annually inspection of the over 1100 conveyances in the city. Elevator inspection is an enterprise fund so the money from the fees will go to support the inspection program not to the general fund. Adding an additional inspector was the right thing to do because it keeps the jobs here in Spokane and allows the City to maintain a one-stop-shop for users of our building services, but more importantly having two inspectors in Spokane lets us effectively address the backlog of inspections and gives us the best opportunity to have the safest inspection program possible for our citizens who ride elevators and escalators every day. Since state law requires annual public inspection our only other alternative would have been to turn the program over to State Labor and Industries, but concerns about L&I workload, budgets cuts, a 12-16 month lag in takeover, and response times for a program operated out of Olympia instead of Spokane made this alternative undesirable. The Council heard testimony both for and against the increased fees (which hadn’t been raised substantially in almost 20 years) from the business community.

The Council also spent an extended amount of time hearing about a potential street vacation at Lloyd Rd. and Morril St. on the upper South Hill near Chase Middle School. Some of the issues the Council heard about included unauthorized access by motorized vehicles to the dirt trail at the north end of the street which has lead to partying, vandalism and garbage. We also heard that the street gives important access to a driveway, a sewer line and a gas line, and one neighbor gave testimony that the street provides important pedestrian access to middle school students. But a big issues is that the homeowners on each side of the street vacation don’t currently agree on whether or how to proceed on the vacation. The council decided to keep the hearing open for two more weeks to give the two homeowners more time to discuss their differences and see if having the city just block motorized vehicle access with a gate without requiring expensive street-blocking construction would be a viable solution.

In other business we heard mayoral proclamations on Community Gardens and Camp Fire, and had presentations from the International Trade Alliance and GSI.