16-year-olds could get paid to sit on Spokane’s new climate resilience board

The City of Spokane approved the creation of a Climate Resilience and Sustainability Board on Monday. The board's members, who could be as young as 16, could receive a stipend for participating.

The CRSB replaces Spokane’s Sustainability Action Committee, which was largely unutilized by the last two administrations. Mayor Lisa Brown’s office submitted the proposal to the city council, hoping the CRSB would guide their policy and funding decisions moving forward.

However, the 15-member board lacks many of the typical guardrails dictating who can sit on it. The only main requirement for sitting on the board is that the individual be at least 16 years old.

Otherwise, it states that “membership will consist of diverse and broad representation including but not limited to:

members of impacted communities facing disproportionate environmental and health disparities; individuals with expertise in public health, emergency management, climate planning, or sustainability and resiliency initiatives; business leaders and entrepreneurs with experience implementing sustainability and resiliency initiatives; and students of secondary and postsecondary education institutions within the city of Spokane.”

Councilmember Michael Cathcart attempted to include an amendment that ultimately failed; it would have added strict membership guidelines. The amendment would have increased the CRSB to 17 members while detailing what industry/interest each individual would represent.

He’s concerned that the board’s membership is biased toward providing one predetermined outcome. Cathcart said his amendment would have also required a fiscal and environmental analysis of the CRSB’s recommendations to determine their actual impact on the community.

“Without that, it’s impossible to make a thoughtful decision,” Cathcart said. “It’s impossible to know what the impacts on the community will be. It’s impossible to know what the cost to us will be.”

The creation of the CRSB follows legislation passed at the state level last year that requires Spokane and other cities to add a climate element to their comprehensive plans. The CRSB will also do that, opening the door for everyone, including 16-year-old students, to receive compensation for the work.

The Washington State Department of Commerce’s guidelines for climate planning allow cities to adopt the new climate element using grant funding provided by taxpayers. Those tax dollars could be used as stipends to compensate the CRSB’s members for participation.

“Commerce will make approximately $30 million available in statewide grants for the 2023-2025 biennium with an expectation that additional resources will be appropriated,” according to the Department of Commerce’s website.

Spokane Communications Director Erin Hut confirmed that the CRSB members could receive stipends if awarded a grant from the Department of Commerce, for which Brown acted as the director until announcing her mayoral candidacy last year.

"We are in possession of those funds from Commerce but it's been allocated to our consulting team," Hut wrote in a message to The Center Square. "No set parameters have been defined on if, how or when they will be used as stipends."