Spokane Valley council elects new mayor and deputy mayor in organizational meeting

Spokane Valley City Council held its organizational business during the Tuesday evening meeting, conducting nominations and ballots for mayor and deputy mayor.

Council members nominated Pam Haley and Laura Padden (both nominated by colleagues) and a self‑nomination. Ballots were collected and read aloud by the presiding official. The read tally shows Councilmembers Yeager, Patton (transcribed alternately as 'Patton'/'Padden' in different lines), Kelly and Merkel voting for the same candidate, producing four votes and a majority; the presiding official announced that candidate as mayor. The transcript contains inconsistent spellings of the winning surname ('Patton' in the announcement and 'Padden' in other lines). The transcript also shows a public apology by the presiding official for a transcription/microphone error during the vote reading.

The council then opened nominations for deputy mayor; after ballots were tallied the presiding official announced Councilmember Hatenberg as deputy mayor. The transcript records councilmembers offering congratulations but does not show any additional formal motions or contested challenges beyond the ballots and the public reading of results.

There was no formal recorded roll‑call motion to confirm committee assignments or other mayoral appointments in this meeting’s transcript; those steps appear deferred to future sessions. The meeting record in the transcript also does not provide an exact calendar date (it identifies the meeting as 'Tuesday, January' and states the start time as 6:00 p.m.).