Airway Heights City Council to recommend all cities have voice on STA board

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

Airway Heights Mayor Patrick Rushing asked City Council for direction Monday on a recommendation he'll bring to the Public Transportation Improvement Conference as the city's representative. The meeting, set to take place next month, will decide the structure of the Spokane Transit Authority board of directors.

Rushing proposed that each small city should have permanent representation on the board instead of the current arrangement, which grants the cities of Airway Heights, Medical Lake, Cheney, Liberty Lake and Millwood with two rotating representatives. Spokane County and Spokane Valley each have two representatives while the city of Spokane has three.

Medical Lake recently agreed to make a similar recommendation through that city's conference representative, Councilwoman Brenda Redell.

Rushing also proposed that one Spokane County commissioner should represent Fairchild Air Force Base, since STA bylaws state that all board members must be elected officials. He said Air Force officials have expressed concern that all on-base routes could be cut under a cost saving plan later this year, threatening the base's future viability.

After some discussion council agreed with the recommendation, which will be brought as a resolution to the next council meeting.

City attorney Stanley Schwartz gave councilmembers a refresher on state statutes regarding liability, ethics, public records and the Open Public Meetings Act before council proceeded to OK an abbreviated list of action items.

A Department of Corrections contract was approved for employment of a nine-member offender work crew that will complete various maintenance projects for the city through Sept. 30, 2011. Projected man hours are 11,000 at $1 per hour with a 12 percent administrative fee.

Council also approved advertisement of a bid not to exceed $36,000 for a tractor that will be used for landscaping maintenance tasks and is suitable for use on 30 degree slopes.

Councilman Kevin Richey asked city staff why landscaping for the new wastewater treatment facility was not simply made accessible to equipment the city already owns. Staff responded that the 30 degree slopes in question surround 25-foot-deep sewer basins and a lesser grade would have made the facility's footprint too large.

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].