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Council Adopts New Rules with Additional Opportunities for Public Participation

Giacobbe Byrd, City Council Office Director, 509.625.6715

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 7:52 a.m.

At tonight’s meeting, the Spokane City Council approved amended rules of procedure that provide multiple new opportunities for community members to weigh in on policy proposals.

Under the new rules, beginning in 2025, community members will be able to give verbal testimony at the council’s regular standing committee meetings. Those meetings will be held on Mondays at 12:00 p.m., and testimony will be open to the public both in person and virtually. Instructions for signing up for testimony will be included on the committee agendas, which are posted online.

“I’m excited about the new weekly opportunities to hear from community members,” said Council President Wilkerson. “Community stakeholder feedback is critical for creating good policy, and these new rules allow us to hear from folks earlier and more frequently in the legislative process, ultimately allowing us to create legislation that better meets community needs.”

The newly revised rules will also provide a new opportunity for written public comment to be included in final legislative agenda packets.

To be included in the final agenda packet, written testimony on an agenda item must meet the following criteria:

  1. Be delivered to the council via email at testimony@spokanecity.org  
  2. Include a title that clearly identifies the agenda item(s) to which the commenter is submitting testimony (e.g., “Written Testimony on Resolution 2025-0001”).
  3. Include the name of the submitter;
  4. Be limited to 250 total words, excluding the email sender name, recipient, date and subject line; and
  5. Be received in the testimony@spokanecity.org  inbox no later than 5:00 p.m. on the Wednesday immediately preceding the legislative meeting on which the item is to appear on a final agenda.

While Council’s legislative meetings will remain at 6:00 p.m. on Monday evenings in 2025, Council President has directed Council staff to begin planning for a change in the regular council legislative and committee meeting days, with the goal of having such changes incorporated in the 2026 City Council Rules of Procedure.