- Hello and welcome to a "KSPS" election special.

I'm your host, Kristi Gorenson.

City of Spokane Parks and Recreation and Spokane Public Schools are offering a proposal for a historic investment in Spokane's parks, schools, and neighborhoods called Together Spokane.

It aligns two proposed ballot initiatives to invest in every neighborhood across Spokane, with special focus on youth wellness, recreation, education and workforce development, arts and culture, and public safety.

So, joining me to discuss this are Spokane Parks and Recreation Director Garrett Jones and Spokane Public Superintendent Dr. Adam Swinyard.

Thanks for being here today.

- Absolute.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- So, Spokane Parks proposing a $240 million levy over 20 years, SPS proposing a $200 million five-year bond.

So, this is two separate ballot initiatives, but with one shared vision.

So, tell me, Dr. Swinyard, just what is that shared vision?

- Yeah, well, it really centers around collaboration and partnerships, and recognizing that we wanna have a vision for Spokane that is very forward-thinking, and have a community that's centered around being active, being engaged, creating connections with each other.

And this partnership has really set out to do that, to have an active community.

We went from having, you know, just a handful of projects on the school bond.

The parks had numerous projects.

And then by working together, we've been able to put together over 200 new opportunities, enhancements for our Spokane community.

Every neighborhood, every school, every park is getting some type of investment for Spokane.

- Yeah.

How would you say?

What's your take on the vision?

- You know, I think for us too, it's really around building that identity in our neighborhoods.

And creating a great community, a great city really starts at that neighborhood level.

And when we can put investments into our schools and our parks and open spaces, and when we can see that positive activation, ownership of our neighborhoods, those really create that safe and healthy neighborhoods that we're trying to thrive for, to really have a safe and healthy city.

- How did this whole idea of collaboration come about?

- Yeah, well, the city and the school district have a long history of working together and sharing spaces.

And one of the most recent examples of that was the 2018 ballot initiative, where we really worked to integrate schools and library.

We exchanged land to build new schools and libraries.

Really a great opportunity to just bring the highest level of value to the taxpayer.

And that's something that we have heard resoundingly, that our community wants a vision.

They want spaces that they're able to access, but they want to see a high level of value.

They wanna see smart government.

And that was one of the north stars.

In addition to being an active community that's out of our homes, off of our screens, doing things together, whether that's parks or trails or youth sports or adult rec, pickleball, art and culture, we also set out to have a partnership where it's either gonna save people money, or it's an investment that really they could see value for themselves.

So, it's adding programming, so a single parent can save on childcare, or it's creating new high school and beyond plans, where kids can attend a trade high school and get a two-year technical degree in their diploma.

Or, it's something where people can look at it and say, you know, "I love trails," or, "I love our park system," or, "I'm passionate about indoor aquatics.

And that $8 a month is a worthwhile investment to me."

So- - Yeah.

- We really tried to set out how can we either save people money and/or provide enough different projects where every member of the community could say, "Yeah, for the average homeowner, that's worth my $8."

- [Kristi] Yeah, I see the value.

- You see the value.

- I see the value.

So, Garrett, tell me about some of the projects, some of the big projects that you're excited about on the parks side?

- Yeah, on the parks side, and it really started to with a master plan and really listening to the community.

And both organizations have really done a good job about listening and responding to what the community's needs are and where we see the trends.

And so we started with a master plan of just asking the public, what are we doing well?

What are we missing on?

What do you want to see your parks and open spaces look like?

And for us, some of the major initiatives is, one, every park in our system gets a project or upgrades.

And a part of that too is new parks.

So, three new parks across our system, where we have a goal in the city of Spokane that every community member has a 10-minute walk to a park or open space.

Really thinking about taking away those barriers in our community so we have access for all.

The other is around renovations of major parks as well.

But then a big piece that we've heard, "We love what you do, but we wish the level of service of maintenance and operations was increased."

- [Kristi] Okay.

- And so we're gonna see that increase of operations in our parks.

Whether that's responding to vandalism, repairs, just the curb appeal, mowing, trimming, trash pickup.

And then another big piece for us is on the security side, people want to feel safe in our open spaces.

- Right.

- So, a part of this partnership as well is more than doubling our special commission park ranger program, to where now every district within the city of Spokane is gonna have dedicated special commission officers that are gonna be proactively patrolling our parks.

And then a lot of it too is 54 playgrounds across our entire system get replaced.

Restrooms is another big one for us- - [Kristi] Right.

Yeah.

- Is accessibility of our restrooms.

"How long the season of the restrooms are open," we hear a lot.

Like, "My team is playing at Comstock Park."

- It's locked.

Yeah.

- "We don't have a restroom, and I have a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old."

The other two is around trail head improvements.

And just general lighting pathway improvements as well.

And so it's a really widespread investment package that we really haven't seen in decades.

- Yeah.

Tell me about some of the projects you're excited about on the school side.

- Yeah.

Well, we really think this is an historic opportunity for Spokane, where we're touching so many projects in so many different neighborhoods.

And, you know, Garrett and the parks system did a great job of reaching out and listening to the community.

And the school district has done that same thing, both before the '24 bond and after, of listening to what do people really want and what do they wanna see from their school district and from their local government.

And so this project, you know, really does so many different things.

By working together, we actually added 30 projects.

And so in the '24 bond for the school district, we were planning on replacing Adams Elementary on the South Hill, Madison Elementary at Franklin Park, and then doing a modernization to Gary Middle School, doing a modernization to North Central, the oldest parts of the school that we've not yet touched.

And then doing some updates to accommodate first increased enrollment at Chase.

And what's been just so amazing about this partnership is rather than the school district just going off and doing their own thing, or the parks department just gonna go and buy themselves, do a levy.

Together, those initial plans was 31 cents per 1,000 for the community.

By working together, we've added 30 additional projects, and actually reduce the cost to 29 cents per 1,000 by sharing land, spaces, resources.

So, in our partnership that we are proposing, we'll rebuild Adams Elementary.

But we really stepped back and said, "Maybe we're not just building schools anymore.

Maybe we're building community centers."

Spaces that can do a lot of different things.

So, the new Adams Elementary will also be the South Hill location for the Boys & Girls Club, a part of the city where there isn't a lot of youth program.

In fact, I'm guessing the employees at Target would say that Target feels like the youth center on the South Hill.

We need places for kids to go.

What to do positive activities?

Then in the north, we're really excited.

The New Madison Elementary at Franklin Park will be a new elementary, but also a Boys & Girls Club and a five-court field house.

We have historic demand for court spaces, field spaces, as we are really encouraging our Engaging in Real Life initiative as a school district.

We want every kid every day doing something after school.

Off the screens, out of their homes, being active.

And the response has just been unimaginable.

But now we need more space- - [Kristi] Right.

- To meet that demand.

And then we'll also be modernizing the oldest parts of North Central High School.

You know, as part of that project we'll be adding some all-weather fields, with lights for adult and youth programming in the central part of the city.

And then we'll be doing some modernization to Gary Middle School.

Not at the scale that we had originally planned.

As part of this partnership, we've had to make some adjustments, so they'll get a really critical single-point of entry as we'll be moving the office to the front of the school.

In addition, we'll be doing some updates to Chase in their commons and libraries to really address that growth.

- [Kristi] A lot of stuff.

- [Adam] A lot of stuff.

- A lot of stuff going on.

And I like the idea of thinking outside the box and how maybe parks and the schools can build something that everyone can take advantage of, right?

- Yeah.

And I think what we heard from the community is community doesn't care whether it's operated by the school district or by the city.

It's a public space.

And we want to be able to utilize that 365 days out of the year.

And I think one huge benefit of this partnership is when we were under our master plan, we had top priority tiers, second priority tiers.

And financially, we were very burdened to even touch those second priority tiers around all-weather fields, an indoor aquatic center, indoor field house, because we're seeing historic demand just from outdoor youth sports.

Spring and fall are our highest capacities for outdoor sports.

But, unfortunately, in Spokane, it gets dark a lot earlier in spring and fall and the weather is very unpredictable.

- Right.

- So, when we look at the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex, we want to be the destination for families and out-of-towners around tourism, economic development, of bringing the tournaments to Spokane.

And so in this partnership, we'd be looking at doubling the capacity of the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex to provide up to additional eight all-weather lit fields, which then puts Spokane on the map of being that regional and state hub for outdoor recreational tournaments.

- [Kristi] Right.

That'll be awesome.

- Yeah, it kind of gets back to the saving money where we can for our community.

You know, we have a lot of families that travel out town for tournaments.

That can be extremely expensive.

Let's host those tournaments here in Spokane.

Let's keep those families here.

Let's allow the families that maybe can't afford to travel out of town to give them an opportunity to participate.

It really aligns closely with that vision of every member of the community, either saving money or receiving an asset that is worth that tax dollar that they're gonna invest.

- It's not just a partnership between parks and schools, though.

You have some partnerships outside, community partnerships, right?

That's an interesting take.

Explain some of that.

- Yeah.

Well, you know, we've been working on this study for almost 18 months now, and we've tried to engage as many community partners and are still engaging community partners.

And I don't think when we set out, we ever imagined that the scale of this would grow.

And one of the reasons it's grown so quickly and is touching so many different parts of our community is the partnerships.

We're partnering with the MAC to, you know, collaborate around storage so they can expand square footage for our local history in their museum.

Hoopfest is contributing a million dollars because they wanna promote court space.

Spokane Youth Sports Association is contributing up to $5 million because they want to see field space expand, The Pacific Northwest qualifier, which is that large volleyball tournament, two weekends out of the year, they are gonna be purchasing the playing surfaces inside of the field house.

The Boys & Girls Club will be contributing dollars to open those two new locations.

So, it's really been able to grow and evolve as more partners have come to the table.

And they've said, "This fits the vision for Spokane.

This is smart, efficient way for us to all meet the needs that exist.

And how can we be a part of it?"

And so it's been a really great experience watching these partnerships grow.

- Yeah.

And I think to as a community coming together, just understanding of we can't do anything on our own anymore.

I mean, it takes a collective group to really see that positive impact.

And for us, I mean, this is just at the start of, you know, that pledged $11 million, and we want to reach out to even additional partners.

We're working with some additional soccer clubs or other club organizations that have been looking at purchasing land or building fields outside of the city.

And then really just coming together, looking at how do we limit the duplications.

And when we have infrastructure at the site- - [Kristi] Right.

- Like Ferris High School, when we have parking, we have restrooms.

Let invest in those areas that we already have that control, we have that infrastructure, and it's really able to stretch that dollar even further.

- So, let's talk about cost.

It sounds like the way you're describing it is people of Spokane are getting more bang for their buck, kind of, right?

So, you mentioned that with the collaboration, it's a little bit cheaper, right, as far as tax costs.

- Yeah, because we're sharing and exchanging land.

So, the school district will be transferring land to the city at the old Joe Albi site to expand Merkel.

The city will be transferring land at Franklin Park under this proposed study for us to build the elementary school and field house.

We have community partners like Spokane Colleges that are gonna be allowing us to access their mothballed indoor aquatic center that they weren't using, for free.

The school district and the city will work together to update it.

The city will operate it.

Every second grader in the city will get swim lessons during the school day.

- [Kristi] Yeah.

- It's those types of collaborations that have created so much synergy for this project.

- Yeah.

So, if someone you know, is watching this and they're like, "Well, how is this going to affect my tax bill?"

What do we tell them?

- Yeah.

I think, you know, we have a great website that was launched when we had our launch event at Togetherspokane.org.

And you can go on the Cost tab, and you can go on there and put exactly, you know, this is my assessed value of my home that's tied to the county's website and assessor's website.

And it'll tell you exactly what is going towards schools and what is going towards the parks portion.

And I think a part of this too is being really transparent on showing exactly every 200 projects that are on there, what that investment looks at.

And then also, so giving enough information for the citizens to say, "Where's my investment going?

And what is that value proposition to my family?"

Because I think that's really important for us is to really show what that investment is going for.

And I think for us too, when we were just looking at the parks alone, that was a 29 cents per 1,000 initiative and ask when it went in front of city council.

And now we're able to achieve that, plus the school projects, plus the 30 additional projects- - [Kristi] Right.

- For that same value.

And we think that's a huge positive impact for the Spokane community.

- Yeah.

- And we know that, you know, times are tough and everyone is feeling the impacts of inflation in one way, shape, or form.

So, it is no small thing to ask for a tax dollar.

And we understand the strain that many members of our community are under.

And our job is to continue to look for ways to make our community as strong as possible and present opportunities.

And this is an opportunity for the Spokane taxpayer.

And through the website that Garrett mentioned, where you can look at that tax calculator, see exactly what impact will be to your tax bill.

For the average homeowner- - [Kristi] Right.

- Less than $8 a month.

- [Kristi] Yeah.

- And to look at those projects to, again, present an opportunity to each taxpayer and ask the question, is there a project in there that might save you some money?

It could be through childcare, it could be not traveling for tournaments.

It could be access to a public space that you've been having to pay to access in a different way for your recreation of choice.

Or, is there something on that list where you say, "You know?

For $8 a month, I would gladly have an indoor aquatic center," or, "For $8 a month, I would gladly have a new play set for my kids' park," or, "I would gladly have that field house," or, "I would gladly go to the MAC to see local art and history."

And that's really what this is about.

This is about every taxpayer looking at the cost, looking at the project, and asking themselves, "Is it worth it to me as an individual taxpayer?"

- Right.

So, efficiency is a key theme to this proposal.

What are some examples of how you find efficiencies working together?

We can start with you, Garrett.

- Yeah, for us, you know, I use Shadle Park as a great example.

Shadle High School, we have a library, Shadle Park.

And right now, we have our grounds crews on the maintenance side, both going up there with their mowers, both having this imaginary line of you mow over here, we mow over there.

And so we're combining those resources to find those balances so then we can spend more time on those sites.

So, you know, Shadle Park, if that's all parks and recreation that ends up maintaining these facilities, then that gives us more time to spend on those locations.

Another one is around public safety.

We're looking at collaborating and creating school grounds as parks after hours and on the weekends, giving that, maximizing that access for our community.

And a part of that is creating those safe atmospheres as well.

So, combining our resources around park rangers.

Rather than having two organizations go to similar to locations, now it's a part of a giant network, a part of their district where it can be really more proactive and efficient around the public safety of these spaces.

- Yeah.

From the school's side, efficiencies.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Well, you know, efficiencies is one of the key themes that we've heard from our community.

They wanna see smart government that makes smart decisions that saves as much money as possible in the most efficient way that is accessible.

The downtown stadium is an example of that.

By building the stadium downtown rather than at the Joe Albi site, you know, we're saving almost $30 million in the life of the stadium because the PFD is operating and maintaining it for the school district through other events and venues that they are hosting at that site.

So, it's gonna save us almost $30 million.

Hard to say how much higher inflation will go.

So, at minimum, $30 million.

That's a great example of efficiency.

The stadium was a controversial decision.

Parts of our community supported it, other parts were very frustrated by that decision.

But it did save dollars.

It did create efficiencies.

And we've heard that as a really key, a key value.

And so we've set out to do that again through this partnership.

And there's many really good examples of how we've been able to do that.

The master planning of a park in a school on Latah Valley.

Rather than the park planning to go and build a park there and the school district planning to build a school, why wouldn't we coordinate that effort- - [Kristi] Yeah.

- And do it at the same time?

And let's not bring in the equipment and the contractors in isolation.

Let's try to leverage that efficiency to save dollars.

Another example is we're gonna be relocating our district office to a building in the university district, and we're gonna be moving one of our option high schools there.

So, we're gonna put a high school and a district office together in the same building, which will allow us to sell those former facilities.

It creates efficiencies.

We'll save $300,000 a year just by moving our district office out of the downtown current site.

- [Kristi] Yeah.

- So, we've really tried to have that lens of where are the efficiencies and where are those projects where we can save the taxpayers dollars, and then we can invest those in savings or we can invest them in new opportunities.

- So, people can vote on one, the other.

They can approve one, the other, both.

Kind of explain how that works 'cause that might be confusing to the public.

- Yeah, it could be a little bit confusing.

When we look at the two initiatives, one vision, I think, very simply put, if one passes and another one fails, it's really those 30 additional projects that are not able to be implemented.

- [Kristi] Okay.

- And 'cause when we look at the combination of doing a levee on our side to where now we can bring some operational dollars, and if the school district had the dollars to be able to build the Merkel Sports Complex, but then the parks doesn't have the resource to operate the facility, it's not feasible, we're not able to achieve that.

So, really, it's the gain of those 30 additional projects, what we call feature projects that you would see on our website, that we would not be able to achieve without both passing.

- Okay.

and the public can go on Togetherspokane.org and that's where everything is laid out.

And you can see projects for parks, projects for schools, and then the additional 30 projects.

- Yeah.

They can see, look at each of the over 200 projects.

There's an interactive map where they can drill down, search by neighborhoods.

Again, one of our key objectives is we want maximum transparency.

We want the community to see exactly what is it gonna cost, exactly what am I gonna get so that they can answer that value proposition for themselves.

And so this will be two separate ballot initiatives.

So, there'll be a box, check yes or no for a parks levy, and a box, check yes or no for that school bond.

Both would have to pass for those 30 additional projects.

- What is like the main thing that you want people to know for parks?

- I think for this partnership and working together, one is we can't do anything alone anymore.

I think the community is really total, it's in sync.

You know what?

Government, you need to work together.

You need to find common ground.

You need to find efficiencies moving forward.

I think for us, it's really, there is something for everyone everywhere.

And from a Park City perspective, this will be the first time that we've done a widespread investment packages.

Not that Riverfront Park was a great investment, but that was that one location in one investment there in like our outdoor aquatic centers, but this is a widespread investment.

And overwhelmingly, through our master plan process and surveys and outreach, that's what the community's been asking is, "I want our neighborhood invested in."

And I think that's the biggest takeaway for us.

- Yeah.

And tell me about like some of the other successful, you know, bonds or levies that the people of Spokane have benefited from, you know, in the past?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we're a large school district.

We have 58 schools.

And we set out in the early 2000s to have a long-range plan.

Some communities they can wait 30, 35 years, run a bond, fix up their four school buildings, and then they can wait another 35 years.

We're in a different circumstance, where we can't wait 35 years and then think we're gonna be able to afford to update all 58 buildings.

And so that plan of every six years, running a bond, taking a few schools at a time, and having that steady-as-you-go process to make sure that those public assets are being well-maintained, they're good spaces for learning, and they become a community resource.

And that's something we are really trying to lean into.

And we heard that from our community feedback.

They want our schools to be community centers.

They want to be able to use the gym.

They want to be able to use the auditorium.

They want to be able to use the common spaces for different types of programming.

So, we've really tried to lean into that.

And, and as Garrett said, and we've heard it on the school district side, people want smart government.

- [Kristi] Yeah.

- They wanna see collaboration.

They wanna see us work together.

They want us to provide them with the best plan and best opportunity to make a decision towards.

And we feel like we've done that.

And I think that is further demonstrated by the bipartisan support that was present at our launch, where you saw both local Republicans and local Democrats sharing a stage together, talking about this partnership and the value.

And I'm not sure when's the last time we saw that in the Spokane area.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So, we're in the educational phase of this, right?

The letting the public know what this is all about.

But it's up to, there's a process that has to happen, right?

Tell me about that.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So, now, you know, we've performed this study, we have it launched, and so we're gonna work with our respective boards and then city council of presenting that study.

And then ultimately, it's up to our boards and city council to prove a ballot resolution to put it on a ballot at a later date.

So, we'll be taking the next couple months of working with our boards and city council.

And then we're thinking that end of April, beginning of May timeframe as a resolution to be presented, and then would be proposing, putting on the November 2025 ballot.

- Okay.

We'll wrap up.

I need to ask you kind of what the key takeaway is that you really want the public to walk away from with this.

- Yeah.

Really, just the historic opportunity to really reshape our community.

And to set a vision that in Spokane, we believe on being active and together as a community.

Whether that's in art and culture or sports or other types of recreation, we believe as a community, the best way for us to be strong and to be healthy is to be together, not isolated, in our homes, on devices.

It's to create opportunities to create that sense of belonging.

And I think the investment across so many projects, every neighborhood really provides that historic expo-like moment for our community where we can say, "Here's the future, here's where we're headed, and this is why it's important."

And we think that there's this, you know, touches a lot of different key parts of what makes a community really strong.

And we're excited that we can be a part of that.

Not the whole solution.

- [Kristi] Yeah.

- Not all the solution, but a key part of it.

- [Kristi] Any final words?

- No, I think this is a great opportunity.

And I think, again, it's great to see.

A lot of times, you'll plan or have a master plan and you listen to the community and it sits on a shelf.

This is exciting for us because we're in that implementation phase, and this is really that next step.

And again, it's our job, as Adam and I, for the next few months to just respond, be transparent, gather information from the community members, respond to questions.

And again, I think it's really about that transparency piece that every citizen knows exactly how their dollars would be invested.

- [Adam] Yeah.

- [Kristi] Right.

- And the voters are wise.

The voters are wise.

And, you know, we listen to their feedback.

We came up with a proposal.

We will share it with them.

Try to make sure everyone's operating off the same set of facts.

And I think that's probably the thing that we worry the most about is the disinformation that happens on social media and other spaces.

And really, our hope is let's make sure everybody's operating off the same set of facts.

The voters are wise.

If they decide this is the right plan, then we'll move forward.

If they decide it's not, then we'll keep working- - [Kristi] Sure.

- On a different plan.

- [Kristi] Right.

- And listen to that feedback.

And that's our role and that's how we become strong as a community.

- All right, well thank you both for the information today and your insights.

And if you want to learn more and do some more education for yourself, you can go to the website, it is Togetherspokane.org.

And this is a proposal, possibly for November 2025.

Again, visit Togetherspokane.org, and thank you so much for joining us.