The Airway Heights City Council had several issues to tackle at its July 1 meeting, including the filling of an open Planning Commission seat and the approval of a contract for police department body camera purchases.
The council unanimously appointed city resident Mark Collins to the Planning Commission. The military veteran attended the meeting and said he hoped to be able to serve his community well.
Also unanimously approved was a contract with Axon Enterprise. The Airway Heights Police Department sought council approval to enter into a contract with Axon for body camera purchases, maintenance and evidentiary footage.
The department has used body cameras for about 10 years and was one the first municipalities in the county to do so. Axon Enterprise recently purchased VIEVU, the company formerly used by the city, Police Chief Lee Bennett said.
“If you don’t have body cameras, you have no business in law enforcement,” Bennett said. “That’s just my personal opinion.”
Mayor Kevin Richey, who is the president of the deputies union for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, concurred.
“Every cop should be walking around with a body camera,” Richey said.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office does not use body cameras, and in 2017 turned down an offer from Axon for free body cameras and a year’s subscription to the company’s cloud storage services. Officials said that even with the discounts, the county couldn’t afford the investment.
The five-year contract will cost the city just under $70,000, with Axon offering nearly $10,000 in discounts to law enforcement agencies. That’s still about $15,000 more than the contract has been in years past, an increase of about $3,000 per year.
In a letter to council recommending approval of the contract, Bennett called Axon “the industry leader in body worn cameras and digital evidence management.” According to Bennett, Axon will take on many of the responsibilities associated with body cameras, including managing public records requests and redaction services.
The council then heard a rare public comment from the manager of an Airway Heights mobile home park. Manager Ken Gill approached council to discuss an encounter with Airway Heights Code Enforcement Officer Kristina Blake following allegations of code violations.
Gill said several times that he wanted to inform the council “of who they have working for them.”
City attorney Stanley Schwartz told Gill in no uncertain terms that the City Council was not the body that could or would resolve his problem and instead directed him to the Building Department, which oversees code enforcement.
In other news, the council awarded the pavement portion of its 14th Avenue restoration phase two project to POE Asphalt. According to city documents, city Public Works crews are currently in the process of constructing the roadbed portion of the project between Lundstrom and King Streets. For the pavement installation portion of the project, the city solicited quotes and received three bids. The lowest bid, from POE Asphalt, is $78.50 per ton of asphalt and came in 14 percent lower than for the first phase of the project last summer.
The council also unanimously approved an amendment to city zoning code governing pet boarding and grooming services. Staff informed council that the amendment differentiates between “grooming” for pets and that for humans.
Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].
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