It's a big election year with many seats, local and national, up for grabs. Election announcements are spilling out like Seattle rain, never ending - we're looking at you 3rd Legislative District!

The official candidate filing begins next week on Monday at 9 a.m. Candidates who are serious about running will lay down the cash ranging from $421-1,740 for a chance on November's ballot.

Potential candidates have until Friday at 4 p.m. to lay their claim to this year's political spectrum.

Seats available for re-election this year range from the President of the United States to State Rep. in District 3,4,6,7 and 9 and even congressional.

When a candidate files, they can either do it in-person or online. Going in-person has a sense of fanfare to it so after filing time closes, we'll get a list of who went down there in person. 

It seems like Thursday's Cliff-Cannon neighborhood meeting is going to be a bit busy with agenda items. The items of discussion are out, so in case you haven't seen them, here they are sent via email.

The group will be hosting Taylor Bressler with the City of Spokane parks and recreation department so he can talk about the city's parks and all his memories with the department. Sounds like the kind of conversation perfect for a fireside chat, or Roosevelt Elementary where the meetings are held.

On another note, Bressler once explained to me the kind of phone calls he gets regarding Cliff Park. Local wiccans always call to ask if the park has willow trees. 

Also on the agenda, there will be an update for the South Hill Coalition, Land Use Committee and the Spring Clean Up event coming up later in May.

Interested in attending? They meet the 2nd Thursday of the month at Roosevelt Elementary starting at 7 p.m. I'll be there taking notes, so if you can't attend, we'll have a recap of what happened the next day. However, it's always nice to attend these meetings to get to know your neighbors and have your say in decisions made.

Imagine a meeting where neighbors bounce from discussing same-sex marriage, sidewalks to the border patrol.

That was the action witnessed Wednesday night at Sacajawea Middle School. Spokane City Council hosted their open forum discussion at the school followed by a joint meeting with the South Hill neighborhood.

To start, there was no agenda, so neighbors made it up as they went along asking the questions they’ve been pondering and council president Ben Stuckart and councilman Mike Allen was there to answer.

We were there observing the meeting and collecting feedback through Twitter. Here’s a recap of the tweets and the neighborhood discussion curated through Storify.