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Spokane County seeks federal earmarks for crisis stabilization center, energy upgrades and IT security
Summary
Spokane County announced April 1 that it is pursuing congressionally directed spending requests to fund a crisis stabilization center expansion, county-campus energy-efficiency upgrades and justice-system IT security improvements.
Spokane County staff and Commissioner Waldorf updated the board on federal funding requests they are pursuing in Washington, D.C., including requests to U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and to U.S. Representative (district office) for projects the board previously prioritized.
Jeff McMorris summarized recent outreach and said the board has submitted or prepared requests for three primary projects: an expansion of the county’s crisis stabilization center to add sobering beds, energy-efficiency and infrastructure upgrades to county campus buildings, and upgrades to justice-system computer security for several court and justice systems. McMorris said Senator Murray’s office has received the crisis-stabilization request and that Senator Cantwell’s staff expressed interest in both the crisis center and the clean-buildings energy upgrades; Representative Baumgartner’s office was briefed on the justice IT security upgrades.
McMorris said staff learned of a technical glitch affecting prior submissions and that Cantwell’s office had in fact been supportive of the crisis center in the prior cycle; he recommended submitting both the crisis center and clean-buildings requests to Cantwell as well. "It seems to make sense that we would submit both," he said, describing Cantwell’s staff as engaged on behavioral-health and opioid-response issues.
No formal board vote was required; commissioners authorized staff to proceed with the outreach and submissions and discussed next steps. McMorris said the county can submit multiple requests and that the offices indicated different levels of interest; staff will continue to follow up with congressional offices and submit the Cantwell request by the end of the week.
Commissioners and staff said the projects align with prior county priorities for behavioral health, energy upgrades and justice-system resilience. No federal award was secured during the meeting; the requests are pending with congressional appropriations offices and subject to the congressional appropriations process.
