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Brief History of the Community Assembly
At the request of Dave
Griswold, I am submitting a short background and brief history of the
Community Assembly – Rod Minarik, Office of Neighborhood Services.
9/27/2005
In September 1995, the
Spokane City Council adopted Ordinance C31465, which created the
Neighborhood Council Program. The 1995 ordinance established three
groups within the Neighborhood Council Program: the Neighborhood
Councils, the Community Assembly, and a Neighborhood Liaison.
Section 4.27.03 of the Spokane Municipal Code said:
The Community Assembly is a coalition of independent Neighborhood
Councils and serves as a forum for discussion of issues of broad
interest. Each Neighborhood Council shall select one representative with
a designated alternate to serve on the Community Assembly. The
representative will be expected to represent the interests of their
respective Neighborhood Council. The Community Assembly shall meet with
the City Council Neighborhood Committee and the City’s Neighborhood
Liaison periodically to discuss community wide issues. The
responsibilities of the Community Assembly include:
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Review and recommend an
action, a policy, or a plan to the City Council Neighborhood
Committee, the city and to any city agency, commission or board on
any matter affecting the city.
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Support and promote
citizen participation and neighborhood enhancement.
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Promote and facilitate
open communication between the city and Neighborhood Councils and
provide the primary means of communication between individual
Neighborhood Councils.
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Support and assist, as
requested, individual neighborhood councils in becoming
recognized and in performing their functions and responsibilities.
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Serve as an information
resource to the Neighborhood Councils.
Initially, there were three
Neighborhood Councils: Emerson/Garfield, Nevada/Lidgerwood, and Historic
Cannon’s Addition (later expanded to Cliff/Cannon). Representatives from
the three Councils met with the Office of Neighborhood Services at its
office on the 6th Floor of City Hall. As the group grew larger, the
meetings were moved to the Conference Briefing Center in City Hall. Over
time, a pattern of meeting on Friday was established. Periodically, the
question of meeting on a different day is raised, but the first Friday
of the Month (except when it conflicts with a holiday), seems to work
best for the Council representatives.
In November 2000, City voters added the Neighborhood Council Program to
the City Charter. The Community Assembly is addressed in Section 75 of
Article VIII of the City Charter. There were only minimal changes from
the original ordinance to the City Charter regarding the Community
Assembly. The Neighborhood Liaison was replaced with the City’s Office
of Neighborhood Services. Also, in reviewing and recommending an action,
a policy, or a plan, the definition of ‘city’’ was expanded to include
the City Council and the Mayor.
Over time, the Community Assembly has operated with a number of
internal, ongoing, and ad hoc subcommittees. Internal committees include
the Admin Committee which includes five elected members of the Community
Assembly and whose responsibility it is to set the upcoming meeting
agenda. Another internal committee is Building Stronger Neighborhoods.
This committee is currently working on leadership training and is
preparing the agenda for the upcoming Community Assembly retreat in
November. Issues addressed by ad hoc committees have included sidewalks,
mobile home ordinance, street tree (urban forestry), noise, and chronic
nuisance. The ongoing committees include Public Safety and Code
Enforcement, Land Use, and All-City Traffic & Transportation. The Public
Safety Committee recently partnered with the City on the adoption of the
Boarded-up Structures ordinance. The Police, Fire, and Code Enforcement
Departments are active participants in this committee. Recently, the
Land Use Committee has addressed a wide range of land use issue
including the updating of residential, industrial, and commercial codes;
building heights ordinance; centers and corridors; neighborhood
planning; and Plan Commission updates. The All-City Traffic Committee
focuses on three primary issues: traffic management (traffic calming),
traffic enforcement, and Traffic Awareness Week. Except for the Admin
Committee, all members of Neighborhood Councils are invited to
participate.
As for the Community Assembly meeting itself, it is an open public
meeting and all members of the public are invited to attend. Although it
is an open meeting, only those representatives sitting at the table
participate in the business of the meeting, unless recognized by a
Neighborhood Council representative. The Community operates under an
adopted self-generated Policies & Procedures and decisions are made
using the Consensus model. The meetings are held on the first Friday of
the month from 4 to 6pm in the Council Briefing Center, City Hall.
Generally, the meetings include presentations from City staff or outside
groups, committee and liaison reports, and a 20-minute open forum
session.
If you have some time available on a first Friday of the month and you
are interested on observing public participation at its best, please
join us at a Community Assembly meeting!
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