ML OKs remote appearances

The March 20 Medical Lake City Council meeting got off to both a late, and somewhat slow start.

Called to order about five minutes past the customary 6:30 p.m. by Mayor Shirley Maike, as members and staff raced in from other meetings, it took another 10 minutes to get into regular agenda items, minus Councilman John Merrick who had an excused absence.

On additions to the agenda, council was first asked by member John Paikuli to cancel the April 3 meeting due to the possibility of there not being sufficient member attendance during the school spring break. That request was later voted down, primarily due to the need for council to address pending changes to the contract with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office to provide policing services.

Then, Councilman Ted Olson requested an executive session to discuss a matter on which he could not elaborate as to its nature. Council was recessed at 6:40 p.m. and after a short conference out of chambers between Olson and city attorney Cindy McMullen, “An alternate route to discuss the matter,” was arrived at she told council.

Discussion quickly moved to the issue of Merrick, who has missed several meetings, all by excused absences. Rather than devote further time to the matter without the newly-elected councilman present, member Laura Parsons suggested any concerns be addressed when he was present.

In a related matter, council voted 5-1 to approve, with Olson loudly casting the lone no vote, to add a new policy to the books to allow remote appearances — limited to two per year, per member — and only on specific instances and circumstances. The person bears appearing remotely bears the responsibility for the cost of any necessary special equipment.

Maike brought members up to date on Spokane Transit Authority decisions, among them the representation of small cities on STA’s board. That shrunk from three seats to two with Spokane Valley picking up the lost place at the table.

She also reported that the city was in line in the state supplemental budget to receive approximately $63,000 to help defray currently unreimbursed costs associated with the city providing police and fire service to state institutions.

In cleaning up old business, council approved two resolutions on the upcoming EMS levy. The first, approved unanimously, was to place the measure that requests 50 cents per $1,000 of property valuation over a six-year period to help fund emergency services in the city on the Aug. 7, 2018 primary election ballot.

As a fallback if the initial request does not pass, a second resolution was approved 5-1. Because of timing it was seen as necessary to make the same request appeared on both ballots, but upon passage, the second would be pulled from the ballot. The previous EMS request passed with relative ease.

Citizen Scott Holbrook addressed the council over future concerns of new 5G cellular service. After several minutes outlining his concerns, council told Holbrook that should this become an issue down the road that they at least were aware and could refer to a packet of information he provided.

Paikuli told Holbrook that currently his concerns were beyond the ability of council to act upon.

However, Olson said it was good to have this knowledge. He said that 40 years ago no one knew the problems associated with building under high-tension electrical lines, but they do now.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].