The Airway Heights City Council unanimously approved a pair of measures at its Feb. 2 meeting expanding Municipal Court functions — functions the city has contracted with third parties to perform in the past.
Council passed an ordinance establishing a Prosecutor’s Office within the Municipal Court, a move that should help the court get reimbursed for fees and costs associated with prosecuting misdemeanors and civil infractions. The Washington State Patrol requires an Originating Agency Number (ORI) from an agency in order to reimburse it for these costs.
According to the city staff report, generating an ORI required amending the city’s Municipal Code to establish a Prosecutor’s Office, allowing the court to seek reimbursement from WSP. While Airway Heights has contracted with third parties, such as the city of Spokane, for prosecutor services in the past, the city hired a full-time prosecutor about two years ago.
According to the State Patrol’s website, use of the ORI for reimbursement documents dates to 1972. City Manager Albert Tripp was uncertain why the Patrol suddenly decided to demand it formally for reimbursement.
“Previously, the ORI was not an issue,” Tripp said in an email. “The catalyst for the ORI may have been triggered by an internal WSP policy change.”
Council also passed a measure establishing a public defender position in the Municipal Court. Airway Heights has historically contracted with third parties for public defender services, approving contracts totaling $145,000 for two public defenders in June, 2025.
A staff report indicated the city is “routinely recruiting to maintain provision of this required service” due to frequent turnover among contracted legal counsels. Population growth, changes to the state’s public defender system taking effect at the beginning of the year and a need to find budget savings led staff to make the proposal for the public defender position.
The position will be paid for by using $85,000 from the city’s Public Defense Contract Amount fund. According to the Zip Recruiter website, the city began advertising the position on Feb. 7, with an annual salary range of $72,373 – 86,417.
Tripp told council the city will carry a supplemental public defender contract to cover time off such as vacations for the permanent public defender. In response to a council question, Tripp said the permanent contract does have some flexibility.
“I would expect you will see this evolve over time,” he added.
Part of that evolution involves recent changes in state standards regulating public defender workloads. In June 2025, the Washington State Supreme Court issued an order adopting recommendations from the state Bar Association to reduce public defender annual caseloads for felonies from 120 to 47 and misdemeanors from 400 to 150.
Implementation of the order went into effect Jan. 1, 2026. How this will impact local courts is something counties and cities are monitoring over the coming months.
The court order allows for a “phased approach to implementation,” declines to mandate a method for case counting but encourages use of case weighting and requires an evaluation of the progress and impacts after three years.
Council accepts Spokane Tribe grants
At the Jan. 20 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved $195,000 in Impact Mitigation Fund grants sent from the Spokane Tribe of Indians Impact Mitigation Committee to three Airway Heights departments.
The Fire Department received $75,000 while the Police Department received $100,000 from the committee for “community safety initiatives” that are outlined in both department’s original grant application. The Airway Heights Municipal Court was also awarded $15,000 from the Tribe impact grant fund.
According to its IMF grant application, the Police Department responded to 21,155 total calls for service from October 2024 to September 2025. The department requested $457,400 in funding from the Spokane Tribe to help with items such as upgrading aging patrol vehicles, providing Special Response Team equipment, investigative and analytical equipment along with less-lethal response capabilities, protective equipment and armored response vehicles.
According to its application, the Fire Department intends to put the $100,000 award towards purchase of a backup emergency generator for the new fire station. Any additional award amount would go towards purchase of two apparatus needs: a new ladder truck, estimated at $2.5 million, as the current truck cannot reach upper levels of the Tribe’s Northern Quest Casino Hotel and a new wildland (brush) fire truck, estimated at $150,000.
The Municipal Court requested $35,000 in IMF grant funding, $25,000 to help establish an electronic home monitoring system (EHM) and a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM) program as well as $10,000 to support the Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) for indigenous individuals under court ordered supervision.
South Easy Street plat, Garfield water line
The red square on the accompanying map indicates the location of a proposed 10-lot duplex development recently approved by the Airway Heights City Council.
At the Feb. 2 meeting, council approved an ordinance and a resolution allowing a residential development along South Easy Street and 6th Avenue to move forward to construction. The resolution approves a preliminary long plat with conditions for development of a 1.83-acre parcel owned by TCF Properties at 596 S. Easy St. into a 10-lot duplex subdivision, with the ordinance providing an accompanying Planned Unit Development (PUD) also with conditions for the site.
According to the site map, lot sizes range from 6,005 square feet to 6,215 square feet, with two units per lot for a total of 20 units for the development. The project includes two new, private streets accessible from Easy Street, something Airway Heights Principal Planner Heather Trautman said is allowable under current codes, and an upgrade of a 3,609 square foot open space tract at the corner of Easy and 6th.
At the Jan. 20 meeting, council approved a request from the Public Works Department for a work order adding a waterline crossing to the design of the proposed roundabout at U.S. Highway 2 and Garfield Road. Century West is currently working on design of the roundabout.
The $22,405.92 work order will add design of a potential 12-inch polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipe to the construction that will run under U.S. 2. The waterline will be installed 5 feet below the surface to match an existing waterline.
The current design did not include water utility infrastructure improvements. The cost of the work order will be paid for out of utility fee revenues.
“Typically, during projects that will cause disruption to a significant corridor such as a highway system, addressing all the needs at once is the least disruptive to the traveling public, rather than coming back to the same location to address the needs separately,” Public Works Director Katherine Miller noted in her report to council.
