Clyde Hill News: The state of the city
Also: Mercer Island’s goal to be a “premier wine destination”
This week’s newsletter looks at the big picture of being a small city like Clyde Hill. From a resident’s point of view, how is the city doing across its many responsibilities (public safety, budget, stormwater, and more)? What is a fair assessment of the quality of Clyde Hill’s government?
But first: Mercer Island’s comprehensive plan update includes an “economic development” goal to “establish Mercer Island as a premier wine destination:”
As Clyde Hill nears the end of its comprehensive plan process, it’s interesting to see what other cities nearby are considering.
Disclaimer: while I am a council member on the Clyde Hill City Council, I write this newsletter in my capacity as an individual resident. Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the position of the city. City information and references here are from public sources. I welcome email responses — and if the topic is about city business I will respond from my city email account.
How is Clyde Hill doing?
Short version: Mixed
From a resident’s point of view, it’s easy to see a mix of both more and less successful efforts of Clyde Hill’s local government. Among those efforts, some are clearly improving; others, less so.
For a quick example, public safety is both strong and getting even better, while progress (and improvement) on budget issues and land use code are not yet clear. I’m not sure how many people would assert that the city’s overall planning and execution are “good enough.”
Part of the challenge in evaluating the city’s performance is the fact that there is no standardized rating system.
Towns and cities don’t have an equivalent rating system to King County’s Public Health Department. Walking up to a restaurant in King County, you can expect to see a poster representing something between “Excellent” and “Needs to improve” with appropriate color and graphics (image above) reflecting some established criteria, communication, and training.
At some level, the answer to “how are things going” emerges from how residents vote. Residents elect a mayor and council members to provide oversight over full-time civil servants, to set the city’s laws and policies, and to approve taxes and budgets.
Key issues
One approach to answering how Clyde Hill is doing involves looking at issues that are important to its residents. For example:
Balancing the budget
Public safety
Land use code and enforcement
One reason to use these three issues is they reflect the city’s “2025 Mayor’s Strategic Priorities” (from May this year; link) and the mayor’s statement about strategic priorities from the residents’ point of view (link). These issues aren’t new; this newsletter offered a similar list as “likely focus areas” (link) for the city in 2024.
Balancing the budget
Clyde Hill has spent more than it takes in, burning down reserves, for each of the last four years (link). The city’s budget deficit streak is expected to continue with this year’s budget. There’s no public information at this time about next year’s budget.
There’s certainly a lot of awareness and desire to address this issue. Readers looking for more context and background here might enjoy these two posts:
“Residents, the deficit, and the city’s budget priorities” (link)
“How to be a budget optimist” (link)
Public safety
Clyde Hill residents value public safety. It’s rare to not see police on patrol in the neighborhood.
Clyde Hill Police Chief Kyle Kolling acknowledges “the incredible level of support the Department receives from the community.” (link) Spending on police, fire protection, and emergency medical services represents about half the city’s general fund expenditure:
Chief Kolling also notes the challenge of meeting “the increasing complexities presented in our society.” (link) The department is actively meeting that challenge. For example, it recently deployed its first drones; the department also has a plan and timeline to deploy body-worn cameras.
Clyde Hill PD’s monthly updates call out the ongoing training, certification, and re-certification of officers and the state-accredited department; here’s an example from earlier in August, link.
It’s worth noting the contribution of the city’s public works department to public safety. Residents notice this acutely after snow and wind storms; there is year-round work behind the scenes to make that possible.
Stormwater drainage is also an important city responsibility and a recurring topic in public meetings. To pay for improvements and operations, the city has started the process for a stormwater utility tax. The next steps and timing for this new utility are not clear.
Land use code and enforcement
The city’s land use code is important to residents in order to maintain Clyde Hill’s “look and feel” as well as its property values.
Clyde Hill is mostly residential, with a relatively large minimum lot size as well as height and setback restrictions that maintain a “distinctive character and setting” (as the mayor describes it here, link). Residents value both views and trees; the city’s land use code reflects that.
In terms of updating the land use code:
The city has a backlog of proposed updates (link) to its land use code. Some are in response to recent changes to state law, while others reflect long-standing problems with the city’s code (for example, conflicting rules related to the appeals process).
The process, resourcing plan, and schedule for updates to the city’s land use code and development regulations remain unclear. City staff, the mayor, and city council share the responsibility here, and progress depends on the planning commission as well. For more details and context on this topic, here’s an update from the August 2024 city meeting (link).
The city’s comprehensive plan update has had many challenges. (For context, the comprehensive plan is the “strategic framework” of goals and policies that the city’s land use code needs to be consistent with.)
The consulting group (which acquired the consulting group the city initially hired) recently “announced they are folding their planning division and laying off the remaining staff assigned to Clyde Hill,” according to the city (link).
After spending over $260,000 on consultants, the specifics of how the city will finish the plan are not clear. According to the city, “in order to complete the work, Staff will be looking at options” involving additional contractors or purchasing additional software and coming up to speed on it. (link)
How cities fail
Cities that do not deliver on key issues for residents — accumulating debt or not delivering on zoning and land use — typically do not remain cities.
Bankruptcies are not common (link).
Sometimes mergers (“consolidations”) between neighboring cities and towns happen.
One example involves the nearby City of Kirkland. The Town of Houghton merged with Kirkland in 1968 (link) and is now just a neighborhood.
What’s the path to better?
This is the question that keeps coming up when I listen to residents process what’s going on with their city government.
The path to better likely
emerges from cooperation between the professionals the city employs and the residents who volunteer in elected and appointed roles.
starts with addressing the city’s issues around planning, executing, and communicating at the same time.
Below, in support of these suggestions, I want to offer some reasons for optimism as well as some observations about the city’s current challenges.
Reasons for optimism
One cause for optimism is the apparent agreement on the issues between mayor, city administrator, and city council. This improvement is significant in contrast to previous years.
Another related reason for optimism involves the mayor’s extensive experience as a successful executive in the private sector, leading a team and delivering results to customers and investors. The professional experience of members of the council, operationally as well as on boards, is also a reason for optimism.
Challenges
One challenge for the city involves getting two different kinds of work done in parallel:
Execution. There is a tremendous amount of daily operational work involved in running the city. Every week, there is required work involving correspondence, permitting, inspections, finance, managing contractors, and more.
Planning. Examples of the longer-term work (to make the city better, adapt to new requirements, and meet increased expectations) include: the comprehensive plan update, developing new city land use code to comply with new laws from the state, and developing solutions to the city’s budget deficit.
Another challenge involves clarity.
It’s hard to get things done when communication is a struggle. While there’s been improvement here since January 2024, it’s been a long-standing problem:
Reusing an earlier example: the process, resourcing plan, and schedule for updates to the city’s land use code and development regulations have been unclear for a long time.
This city organizational chart (from the city’s 2024 Budget Book) illustrates some of the communication issues:
I remain hopeful for many reasons about the city’s path to better. While drafting this week’s newsletter, I re-read newsletters going all the way back to 2021. There is just so much more clarity and agreement today compared to three years ago.
Thank you for reading! Please forward and share with your friends and neighbors, and if you are not already getting this newsletter, subscribing is both easy and free.
Dean Hachamovitch