Spokane Valley council approves staffing additions and master fee schedule changes to address right‑of‑way workload

Spokane Valley — The council on April 15 authorized amendments to the city’s master fee schedule to raise certain right-of-way permit fees and approved hiring a full-time right-of-way inspector plus two full‑time engineering positions to support the Pines Road grade separation and other complex capital projects.

Gloria Mancilla, City Services Administrator, and Erica Amston, CIP Engineering Manager, told council the city issued roughly 1,000 permits in 2023–24 and had only one full-time permanent right-of-way inspector; rising permit volumes and inspection needs had required overtime and consultant contracts (staff said a consultant contract in 2024 cost about $135,000 to cover eight months of inspection coverage). Mancilla said the recommended fee adjustments would allow the city to recover inspection costs and offset the additional inspector’s salary, avoiding a general-fund impact. For the Pines Road grade separation — described as one of the city’s most complex and expensive projects — staff requested two additional full-time engineering positions for project administration, funded from the project budget for the duration of construction.

Council discussed the fee increases and staffing needs. Council Member Patton asked whether contractors would accept modest fee increases in exchange for faster permit turnaround; staff said the increases are relatively small in absolute dollars (examples cited include an $800 increase for some multiuse underground work permits) and that the cost of hiring an in-house inspector would be comparable to continuing to use consultants and overtime. The council voted to approve the staffing changes and the fee schedule amendment and then adopted a separate resolution amending the Master Fee Schedule.

Quotes in this article are from Gloria Mancilla, Erica Amston and city manager/engineering staff as recorded in the April 15 meeting transcript.