(The Center Square) - After cutting the Spokane City Council Office budget by $550,000 in November, members are now weighing whether to backfill the gap or eliminate staff as a funding cliff approaches.
Last fall, the council closed a $13 million general fund gap ahead of 2026, but in doing so, only funded its own staff through July 1. While the officials reduced the council office budget by roughly 20%, they declined to cut council staff at the time, despite knowing they would face the same issue this summer.
Planning ahead, the council set aside some of those savings as reserves in case they wanted to backfill staff funding later, and allocated up to $65,000 to Matrix Consulting Group for an office efficiency study.
The results of that initiative hit the council’s desks on Monday, suggesting staff cuts may be imminent.
“There's a couple of recommendations in there that I don't find very tenable,” Councilmember Michael Cathcart, the conservative on the dais, told The Center Square on Thursday after reviewing the report.
In January, he told The Center Square that staff should have treated last fall's budget reductions as a layoff notice, arguing that staff cuts or other measures would be necessary to keep their office afloat.
Facing a $550,000 gap, the report reduces the shortfall to $225,000 for the second half of 2026 after using up $325,000 in reserves.
The study lays out four options: maintain current staff levels; cut two initiative managers; eliminate three legislative assistants; or a combination of the last two options.
Every option assumes the council will spend the $325,000 in reserves in addition to the restructuring.
Which option cuts the deepest?
The first option would reclassify the three initiative managers as a policy analyst and a budget analyst, while transferring the third position under the administration’s control. It would save the council about $23,419 for the last six months of 2026, while requiring taxpayers to backfill a $201,581 funding gap.
The second option would eliminate two initiative managers and place the third under the administration; it would save the council $160,919 for the rest of 2026 while requiring an additional $64,081 in funding.
The third option would eliminate three legislative assistants and force each of the districts' two council members to share a single one, in addition to the citywide council president’s assistant. It would mean reclassifying two of the initiative managers and transferring the third, as suggested in the first option.
That plan would save an estimated $182,062 through the year-end while requiring a $42,938 backfill.
The last option would eliminate three legislative assistants and one initiative manager and reclassify another initiative manager. This is the most extensive in terms of cuts and the only option that doesn’t exceed the budget after using up the reserves, saving $250,812 in six months with $25,812 left over.
What’s next?
“It's sort of a nice thought, but the reality is, there's council members with very different perspectives, priorities, ideas, political backgrounds, and your legislative assistant is pretty integral to your work … and trust is a big part of that,” Cathcart said, arguing that council members shouldn’t share assistants.
He is more interested in reforming the existing central staff positions, which include the office director, policy advisor, budget director, communications director, the manager of intergovernmental affairs and the initiative managers for housing/homelessness, neighborhood connectivity and equity and inclusion.
“As far as what's imminent, what we're going to truly do, I honestly don't know,” Cathcart said. “We still need to find probably $150,000 to $200,000, so that will be a discussion … as to whether or not we're able, or we're willing to spend those [extra] dollars to continue throughout the rest of the year.”
The Center Square asked every council member to weigh in on the study, but only Cathcart agreed.
He called The Center Square after meeting with the Council Office Operations Workgroup, which also includes Council President Betsy Wilkerson and Councilmember Kitty Klitzke.
Wilkerson didn’t respond to voicemail or email inquiries before publishing, and Klitzke declined to comment until this Friday.
The council intends to meet as an entire body on Friday to discuss how to move forward before July 1.
Another element the report considered was council pay, given that most members spend over 40 hours per week on the job and are paid as part-time employees.
The consultants noted a disconnect between workload and compensation and suggested a referral to the city’s Salary Review Commission.
The commission must recommend whether to increase the salaries of city elected officials by Aug. 30.
Wilkerson told The Center Square in January that the study might suggest increasing the council’s pay, and said she’s open to tapping additional reserves to give the office staff more notice before any cuts.
On Thursday, Cathcart recognized the difficulty of accepting such a raise as they consider staff cuts.
“Optically, that would be a really difficult thing to do, which is why I continue to think budgets and lack of money are an aspect of this too, but I would love to go out to an advisory vote and get the input of the public,” Cathcart said.
“It'd be great to have the public buy-in. It would help inform them too,” he said.
