MEDICAL LAKE- At a press conference Sunday, Spokane County Commissioner, Al French, provided documentation of emails that he, and Medical Lake Mayor, Terri Cooper, believe proves Spokane Mayor, Lisa Brown, was involved in a plan to turn Pine Lodge into a homeless facility.
Pine Lodge is an abandoned prison owned by Washington State and located near Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake.
French read from the emails at Sunday’s conference, attended by officials and a large crowd of Medical Lake residents.
French gave all members of the press in attendance a copy of the emails.
French told NonStop Local that Jonathan Bingle, a Spokane City Councilman, forwarded the emails to him.
Monday, Bingle confirmed with NonStop Local that he did send copies of the emails to French.
He said he first learned about Pine Lodge in January 2022.
“I sort of pitched this idea to the previous administration…early on in…my tenure. It didn’t go anywhere. When Mayor Brown came into office… I shared with her ‘Hey, you know, there’s a facility that could be of use to us in addressing some of our region’s biggest issues,” Bingle said. “And [I] shared with her that the most likely use of this facility, for us, if we were to get Medical Lake to support it, would be for, you know, potentially using it as what it was before, as a low-level misdemeanor holding facility or detention facility.”
Mayor Brown’s office told NonStop Local that it was Bingle’s idea to suggest Pine Lodge as a facility to house homeless people.
“I did share… it may also be a very good site for us, as we’re looking at a, you know, regional response to homelessness. You know, [a] facility, not a shelter. But, a place where we could have people come and, you know, be connected to services,” Bingle said.
The Mayor’s office said Brown has never planned on using the facility for homeless use.
All of the emails were sent by Barry Barfield, the administrator of the Spokane Homeless Coalition, which is not a City of Spokane position.
One email that the leaders at Sunday’s press conference focused on was sent to Mayor Brown. She was addressed in that email.
Barfield confirmed with NonStop Local that he had copied Mayor Brown on this specific email and invited her to join a Teams call to discuss Pine Lodge as a potential spot to house homeless people.
He said he looks at many locations as potential homeless shelters.
“I invited Mayor Brown. She never responded to that invitation or to the email. I never have talked to her about this. I just had a thought, ‘Maybe she might be interested. Maybe this might be part of a thing that would interest her.’ She did not come on to the Team’s meeting. I typed up kind of a summary and sent that out and included her, because she was on the original invitation. But, I never got a response from her about it. So, as far as I know, Mayor Brown maybe never even read these, because I never had any contact with her,” Barfield said.
Brown’s office confirmed Barfield’s claims Monday.
Barfield added that he did contact Gov. Jay Inslee’s office about using Pine Lodge as a shelter. He said he made the call on his “own impetus.”
“I think I can take total responsibility for the idea and follow-through of those emails,” Barfield said.
Mayor Brown and her cabinet members toured Pine Lodge last week.
Her office told NonStop Local that their tour was to view it for uses that include a potential jail facility. However, they said the facility was too run-down for it to be used for anything at this time.
They added that the Mayor being copied on an email and pitched an idea does not prove she was involved in any plan to use Pine Lodge as a homeless sheltering facility.
NonStop Local contacted French for further comment but did not hear back.
