Before a very raucous crowd this evening (Feburary 3rd) at the Saranac Building, Spokane’s Julian Powers was presented the state’s top environmental award.

Julian receiving congratulations this evening from Ecology's Grant Pfeiferstate’s Environmental Excellence Award.

A prolific public speaker and public letter writer, Powers, 85, has been well known and well-respected in the region’s environmental community for many years. He and his wife, Jane Cunningham, are fixtures in progressive and green causes in and around Spokane and both were on hand this evening for the award presentation from the Washington Department of Ecology’s Eastern Regional Director, Grant Pfeifer.

“As I think about the quality of character that we want to recognize here tonight with this award, I think about the characteristics and attributes of perseverance, of action, and words,” Pfeifer said. “And Julian is the model for us. You walk the talk, or ride the talk, is a better way to say it, on behalf of what we all hold dear.”

Pfeifer’s “ride the talk” line got an appreciative chuckle from the packed hall of well-wishers. Powers has been a tireless advocate for reducing the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming, and up until a stroke hobbled him two years ago, he rode his bicycle religiously.

“Julian said it so well earlier this evening,” Pfeifer added. “Apathy never got anything done.”

“Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking,” Powers joked as he accepted the award, “I will make this very short. I’m surprised and astonished. I really do appreciate this and I’ll remember this evening for a very long, long time, assuming I live that long. I really, really appreciate it.”

The event this evening coincided with a Lands Council “First Friday” event on the Saranac’s second floor, where the Lands Council has its offices.

Julian was featured this morning in a front page story by Spokesman-Review staff writer Becky Kramer, which can read here.

—Tim Connor

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, Mike Ormsby, reports that the Justice Department is considering, but has not yet decided, whether to initiate a “pattern or practice” investigation of the Spokane Police Department.

Former Spokane Mayor Mary Verner requested such investigation in mid-November. In her letter, addressed to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, Verner wrote: “I believe we need expert, outside help in examining how we do business and what steps we need to take to improve the way we police.”

The Center for Justice and seventeen other Spokane area citizen organizations–including the ACLU of Washington, the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, and the Spokane area chapter of the League of Women Voters–sent a lengthy letter to Perez and Ormsby in mid-January, reiterating Mayor Verner’s request and outlining areas of concern.

The month following Verner’s request, the Justice Department completed a very thorough “pattern or practice” investigation of the Seattle Police Department. Among its findings was that nearly one in five uses of force by Seattle police was so excessive as to be considered unconstitutional. In addition to looking closely at police practices and conduct, the DOJ concluded that Seattle’s Office of Professional Accountability “fails to provide adequate oversight to prevent a pattern or practice of excessive force.”  The DOJ report included an appendix with recommendations on how Seattle could improve civilian oversight of its police department.

In his January 25th response, Ormsby agrees that “this is a very important issue to the Spokane community,” but adds “we cannot share with you our deliberations, but if an investigation is commenced, that fact will be announced.”

Spokane Mayor David Condon has said publicly that he supports Mayor Verner’s request. At a January 2nd press conference Condon said he was investigating whether he needed to formally communicate to the Justice Department his support for the investigation his predecessor requested. Last night (Wednesday, February 1st) Condon appeared on City Cable 5′s “Council Connection” with Council President Ben Stuckart. In response to a caller’s question, Condon said he has learned that a formal reiteration of the request to the Justice Department was unnecessary and that he plans to speak with Ormsby by phone about Spokane police issues within the next day or two.

The Spokane City Council is scheduled to consider a broad resolution of police and police accountability reforms at its legislative session this coming Monday, February 6th.

–Tim Connor for the Center for Justice.

With state senate passage, Washington appears to be only days away from being the seventh state to legalize same sex marriage.

By a somewhat surprisingly healthy margin, the Washington state senate tonight passed SB-6239. The bill, which would allow same-sex couples to marry in Washington now goes to the state House of Representatives where it is expected to pass easily next week.

After an hour and a half of debate, the bill passed the senate by a 28 to 21 vote.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire has not only indicated she would sign the bill, but is actively campaigning for its passage.

According to the New York Times, the opponents of the measure, including the Roman Catholic Church, say they will challenge the implementation of a new law with a referendum they hope to have on the ballot this fall.

Spokane Riverkeeper Bart Mihailovich is asking supporters to get behind a campaign to have Washington become the first state in the union to enact a ban on use of plastic  checkout bags.

Plastic pollution on the Spokane River.

“Plastic pollution is a serious threat to the Spokane River and the wildlife that frequent the river and its shorelines,” Mihailovich says. “Washington retail outlets distribute over two billion disposable checkout bags and 95 percent of those don’t get recycled.  What this means is that countless bags wind up as litter in the Spokane River and other waterbodies across the state.  In 2010, a gray whale was found in West Seattle beached with 20 plastic bags in its stomach.  Nothing we use for a few minutes should end up in the belly of a whale.”

The conservation organization Environment Washington is leading the statewide push. Though the focus is on Puget Sound, Mihailovich comes to the issue from the sobering perspective of someone who sees plastic bag pollution in the Spokane River every time he goes to work to keep an eye on the water body his program is devoted to protecting.

“You can’t help but notice them,” he says, “and I’m always amazed at how many hundreds of these bags turn up whenever we participate in river cleanups.”

To date, four Washington cities (Seattle, Edmonds, Bellingham and Mukilteo) have passed legislation banning plastic checkout bags, with Seattle passing its bill in December. Around the nation, Portland has banned the bags as have thirty coastal towns in Alaska and both the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Kaui.

Earlier this month, eight westside Washington legislators co-sponsored a bill, HB 2404  that would ban most forms of plastic checkout bags.

Mihailovich is encouraging Spokane River supporters to sign an on-line petition in support of the ban and to email their state legislators to encourage them to support the new legislation.

–Tim Connor and Bart Mihailovich

In keeping with new Council President Ben Stuckart’s goal to lay out a broad and consensus-based road map for reforms to the Spokane Police Department, the council has put the finishing touches on a resolution that it will consider at its first meeting in February.

Council President Ben Stuckart at a recent Public Safety Committee meeting.

The 13-point resolution touches on everything from encouraging the city administration to boost the public visibility of police officer commendations, to restoring through labor negotiations the powers stripped, last summer, from the City’s Office of Police Ombudsman.

The recommended reforms are:

(1) Make public all SPD Internal Affairs Reports (with appropriate redactions to protect officer privacy) from 2009 forward.

(2) Put body (video) cameras on patrol officers.

(3)  Adopt a “discipline matrix” that would plainly and systematically connect acts and types of police misconduct to specific disciplinary consequences.

(4) Adopt Ombudsman annual goals and objectives.

(5)  Amend the recently gutted Police Ombudsman ordinance to:

a) Restore independent investigatory authority.
b) Restore published closing reports and recommendations.
c) Remove the Guild’s pre-screening function for Ombudsman candidates.
d) Allow OPO investigations to be considered in the SPD disciplinary process.

(6) Add a “commendation” section to the Office of Police Ombudsman’s website that report all official commendations of Spokane police officers.

(7) Review the Public Information Officer position for the SPD to determine whether the responsibilities would be better suited for a civilian employee.

(8) Re-certification of the SPD under terms of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement.

(9) Revise the SPD’s use of force policy, as informed by the work of the new Use of Force Commission and the Mayor’s Advisory Board on Policing.

(10)  Review and revise, if necessary, policies to ensure a“best practices” approach for the SPD’s Internal Affairs office.

(11) Review SPD policies regarding crisis intervention training and response to people under the influence of drugs, alcohol or with untreated mental illness. Explore opportunities for engaging community mental health professionals in training.

(12) Review whether the Property Crimes Unit should be re-established.

(13) Collect accurate data on race, age, and gender of all persons stopped and searched by the SPD, pursuant to collection and reporting procedures specified in state law.

Although several of the recommendations have been watered down, all the basic proposals in the resolution were  included in an initial list that Stuckart compiled and brought to the council for a briefing session presentation on January 12th. Two items were subsequently withdrawn: one that would have recommended pursuing a policy whereby police officers would be required to document each instance in which they displayed firearms during an arrest or other encounter, and one that would have endorsed the use of emergency budget resolutions and access to city reserves to fund implementation.

As we reported earlier, the display of weapons reporting requirement was tabled after objections were voiced by acting Police Chief Scott Stephens and questions from three council members. It’s not clear why the recommendation on funding for the reforms was dropped from the final version of the resolution.

The last public meeting on the resolution was at the council’s Public Safety Committee meeting on January 17th. According to Stuckart, the resolution was to be discussed in an executive session on the 22nd to assess how the city could advance the items in the resolution in the forthcoming negotiations with the police guild.

Although Stuckart and Assistant City Attorney Mike Piccolo have tried to assure the council that many of the proposed reforms can be legally implemented without bargaining with the union, some of the key pieces will undoubtedly require the guild’s consent, especially if they are going to be implemented in the coming year.

One of those items is the recommended change to the City’s police ombudsman ordinance that would allow the police chief to consider the reports and findings of the ombudsman in making disciplinary decisions. Because officer discipline is a component of working conditions, under Washington state labor law such a change would be subject to collective bargaining.

At the Public Safety Committee meeting on January 17th, police ombudsman Tim Burns initially expressed discomfort with a change that would formally allow the police chief to consider ombudsman reports in the disciplinary process.

The purpose of his office, Burns said, is “not to usurp the chief’s authority.”

The response to Burns came from Councilman Jon Snyder who said he was a strong advocate for bolstering the ombudsman office’s independence.

Snyder said the intent of formally acknowledging that the chief could use an Ombudsman report in disciplinary decisions “is not to usurp the chief’s authority but to prevent a situation where a disciplined officer could conceivably bring a legal action against the chief and say the chief was influenced by something the ombudsman did.”

Burns said he was satisfied with that explanation and, when asked, interim Police Chief Stevens said he was “very supportive” of the new ombudsman proposals, including the language that would allow the police chief to consider ombudsman reports in making disciplinary decisions.

Stuckart has made clear that he is doing additional research and still considering adding a recommendation from the council on a firearms display policy

In a related development, the City announced it had filled the three remaining positions on the Use of Force Commission that Mayor David Condon announced on January 2nd. In addition to the commission’s chair, Gonzaga University Executive Vice President Earl Martin, and its vice chair, former U.S. Attorney William Hyslop, the City announced that retired Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander would serve, as would Spokane Public Schools Equal Opportunity officer Ivan Bush, and Susan Hammond, the Director of Outpatient and Psychology Services for Spokane Mental Health.

–Tim Connor for the Center for Justice