Spokane: Mayor Brown Statement on SREC Board Decision
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~ Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown expressed her disappointment in the decision made by the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications (SREC) Board to remove the City of Spokane from the regional public safety answering point model. In a statement released by her Communications Director, Erin Hut, Mayor Brown stated that she was disappointed in the timing of this decision as productive conversations were ongoing about how to best serve the residents.

According to Hut, over the past year, Mayor Brown's team has been assessing SREC's governance and financials. However, they have faced unreasonable deadlines and an artificial sense of urgency from SREC. Additionally, their questions have been met with uncertain answers, highlighting flaws in SREC's user-fee model. This has complicated the review process and created tension between regional partners.

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The City of Spokane has made efforts to find solutions and move towards a resolution, such as jointly identifying a neutral facilitator. However, SREC has been uncooperative and unwilling to consider their recommendations. The City also proposed maintaining the status quo for another year while clarity is sought on user fees and service-level agreements are crafted to ensure the needs of Spokane residents are met. Unfortunately, this request was rejected by SREC.

Mayor Brown emphasized that community safety is her top priority and she supports efforts to improve services for all residents in the region. However, as a representative of the City of Spokane, she must perform her due diligence for taxpayers. The decision made by SREC will now force the City of Spokane out of its regional communications system.

The Mayor's office hopes that this decision will not hinder future collaborations between regional partners and that they can continue working towards providing efficient and effective emergency communication services for all residents in the region.

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