(The Center Square) - Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown found herself at the center of controversy over the weekend after rumors surfaced that the city plans to open a homeless shelter in neighboring Medical Lake.
The ordeal all started after Brown visited Medical Lake’s Pine Lodge on Saturday. She claims the trip was to determine whether they could use the facility to free up some of the county’s detention facilities; however, Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper disagreed.
Cooper held a press conference on Sunday, alongside County Commissioner Al French, Sheriff John Nowels, Sen. Jeff Holy and State Representatives Jenny Graham and Mike Volz, to denounce the alleged plan to convert Pine Lodge into a homeless shelter.
“Mayor Cooper and Commissioner French are misinformed and could have simply picked up the phone if they wanted clarification about my visit to Pine Lodge,” Brown wrote in a statement .
Pine Lodge used to serve as a women’s correctional facility before being largely abandoned and left to deteriorate. Brown posted on social media that Cooper and French are “sounding a false alarm” with their news conference as the state owns and administers the facility.
However, Sheriff Nowels took to an informal newsletter thread on Monday, questioning Brown’s motive. He said that the same morning as Brown’s visit, she met with him and other local leaders to discuss the lack of jail capacity but failed to mention her plans with Pine Lodge.
“You would think this meeting would have been an excellent time for the Mayor to let everyone in the room, or anyone in the room, know she was looking at a potential solution,” Nowels wrote in his email. “Did she? Nope. Didn’t breathe a word.”
He questioned whether she lied about the city’s plan to convert the facility. Noting that “if the Mayor isn’t lying about her intentions, then she is moving independently of the entire region regarding public safety solutions,” Nowels wrote.
The City of Spokane and Spokane County typically touts a history of collaboration, one that’s been called into question recently. Last November, Brown failed to support the county’s failed tax initiative that would’ve funded the construction of a new jail.
Now, Brown is pushing for a tax increase that could significantly limit the county’s ability to pass its jail tax in the future. However, the county is also attempting to renew another tax that funds annual operations for Detention Services.
If voters approve the city’s increase but fail to pass the county’s renewal, Detention Services, which both municipalities use, could face upwards of a 90% funding cut. In light of this, Nowels has repeatedly criticized Brown’s tax proposal, adding that it could make Spokane more dangerous.
Meanwhile, Brown has taken new stances on homelessness while attempting to tackle Spokane’s massive structural deficit . Still, many residents and local leaders are skeptical of her new approach and its potential implications across the county.
“Watch what happens over the next few months. Mayor Brown isn’t a collaborator,” Nowels wrote, “and she certainly isn’t transparent. When anyone dares oppose her or her policies or question her, she threatens them or 'gaslights' them. Pay attention. Your businesses and neighborhoods hang in the balance.”
Brown’s social media post states that Councilmember Jonathan Bingle proposed the homeless shelter idea and that she wanted to use it for Detention Services. Still, she said it’s ultimately up to the Legislature to decide what to do with the facility.
Bingle confirmed that it was him that raised the idea, but noted that he would want to do so in conjunction with Medical Lake and the rest of the county.
He said with the majority of Spokane's homeless population being concentrated in his district, it's not his intention to hand the issue of to someone else, rather, he's looking for a win-win situation.
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