Spokane, Washington
| Spokane, Washington | |
 | |
| General information | |
Mayor of Spokane
Lisa Brown | |
| Last mayoral election: | 2023 |
| Next mayoral election: | 2027 |
| Last city council election: | 2023 |
| Next city council election: | 2025 |
| City council seats: | 7 |
| City website | |
| Composition data (2019) | |
| Population: | 210,722 |
| Related Spokane offices | |
| Washington Congressional Delegation Washington State Legislature Washington state executive offices | |
Spokane is a city in Spokane County, Washington. The city's population was 228,989 as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Click on the links below to learn more about the city's...
- Mayor
- City council
- Other elected officials
- Elections
- Census information
- Budget
- Contact information
- Ballot measures
- County government
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Spokane utilizes a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.[1]
Mayor
The mayor serves as the city's chief executive, and is responsible for proposing a budget, appointing departmental directors, and enforcing city laws. The mayor also possesses veto powers and represents the city on the state, national, and international levels.[1]
The current Mayor of Spokane is Lisa Brown (nonpartisan). Brown assumed office in 2024.
City council
The Spokane City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for adopting the city budget, levying taxes, and making or amending city laws, policies, and ordinances.[2]
Six city council members are elected by district, while the council president is elected at large. City council elections take place in November of odd-numbered years.[3]
The widget below automatically displays information about city council meetings. The topic list contains a sampling of keywords that Voterheads, a local government monitoring service, found in each meeting agenda. Click the meeting link to see more info and the full agenda:
Other elected officials
Ballotpedia does not cover any additional city officials in Spokane, Washington.
Mayoral partisanship
Spokane has a Democratic mayor. As of February 2025, 64 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 25 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, three are independents, four identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and three mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Elections
2025
The city of Spokane, Washington, is holding general elections for city council and municipal court judges on November 4, 2025. A primary is scheduled for August 5, 2025. The filing deadline for this election is May 9, 2025.
2023
The city of Spokane, Washington, held general elections for mayor and city council on November 7, 2023. A primary was scheduled for August 1, 2023. The filing deadline for this election was May 19, 2023.
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about the city.
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| Demographic Data for Spokane | |
|---|---|
| Spokane | |
| Population | 228,989 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 68 |
| Race and ethnicity** | |
| White | 81% |
| Black/African American | 2.7% |
| Asian | 2.9% |
| Native American | 1.3% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.1% |
| Two or more | 9.3% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 7.8% |
| Education | |
| High school graduation rate | 93.4% |
| College graduation rate | 32.6% |
| Income | |
| Median household income | $65,745 |
| Persons below poverty level | 14.6% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2018-2023). | |
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | |
Budget
The city's budget process operates by fiscal calendar years running from January 1 to December 31.[4] The mayor is responsible for submitting a proposed annual budget to the city council, who adopts the budget after holding public hearings.[1][2]
Fiscally standardized cities data
The fiscally standardized cities (FiSC) data below was compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to make municipal budgets comparable across cities in the United States.[5]
| “ |
FiSCs are constructed by adding revenues and expenditures of each central city municipal government to a portion of the revenues and expenditures of overlying governments, including counties, independent school districts, and special districts. The allocations to FiSCs are estimates of the revenues collected from and services provided to central city residents and businesses by these overlying independent governments. Thus FiSCs provides a full picture of revenues raised from city residents and businesses and spending on their behalf, whether done by the city government or a separate overlying government.[6] |
” |
| —Lincoln Institute of Land Policy[7] | ||
The tables below show estimated finances within city limits. As such, the revenue and expenses listed may differ from the actual city budget.
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Historical total revenue and expenditure
To see the historical total revenue or expenditures as a rounded amount in this city, hover over the bars.[5]
Resources and expenditures by year
The total resources and expenditure figures were pulled from the city's adopted budget for fiscal year 2021.[8]
| City of Spokane historical resources and expenditures | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiscal year | Budget type | Total resources | Total expenditures |
| 2021 | Adopted | $989,257,219 | $989,257,039 |
Contact information
Mayor's office
Spokane City Hall
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: 509-625-6250
City Clerk's office
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Spokane, WA 99201-3342
Phone: 509-625-6354
Click here for city council contact information.
Ballot measures
The city of Spokane is in Spokane County. A list of ballot measures in Spokane County is available here.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Spokane City, "Spokane City Charter Section 24," accessed February 3, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Spokane City, "Spokane City Charter Article III," accessed February 3, 2022
- ↑ Spokane City, "Spokane City Charter Section 5," accessed February 3, 2022
- ↑ Spokane City, "Spokane City Council Adopts 2021 Annual City Budget," December 15, 2020
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities database," accessed August 28, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities," accessed August 28, 2023
- ↑ Spokane City, "2021 Adopted Budget," accessed February 3, 2022
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