Clyde Hill News: Final vote on 2025 budget deficit Friday
Also: City action on rat problem likely two months away; city council vacancy expected in January
Residents have a few more days to lobby the city council about balancing the 2025 budget ahead of its vote this Friday, December 20, at 2pm.
The council deferred its vote on the budget at Tuesday night’s regular city council meeting last week so that all five council members could be present for the discussion and vote. The proposed budget has a record ~$229K deficit. At the meeting, Cm Steve Sinwell thanked residents for their petition asking the council to balance the budget this year and offered to “get that done next year.” (link)
The city announced it anticipates a vacancy on the city council in January, as sitting Cm Kim Muromoto will be moving away from Clyde Hill. The deadline for eligible residents to apply is January 3. The city also extended its deadline for residents to apply for open positions on the Planning Commission until Tuesday, December 17. Details on all vacancies are available here (link).
As a horrendous rat issue enters its third month, city officials explained that action is likely at least two months away. After the city attorney described the “current ordinance [as] ineffective or unenforceable” (link), the city council passed an updated nuisance law that provides the administration authority for abatement. In this case, abatement would involve bringing in a contractor to address the rat problem.
City officials did not answer a resident question about when the city knew that the existing code was inadequate. The city attorney offered that “Ultimately, this is the mayor’s decision” (link).
More details on these topics, and more, below, but first: Cm Ryan Olson took city staff to task about spending at Tuesday’s meeting. You can watch that here: link. Also, the city updated its website. You can find out more about that here: link.
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.
Budget vote Friday; task force next year
Here’s a recap of where things are: link. If you want to contact elected officials with feedback ahead of the vote, you can reach them at these email addresses:
"Mayor Friedman" <Mayor@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Wissner-Slivka" <council1@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Sinwell" <council2@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Muromoto" <council3@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Olson" <council4@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Hachamovitch" <council5@clydehill.org>
The city did put out a call for volunteers to serve on a “Financial Sustainability Task Force” (link) starting in January. According to the city’s website, the task force is “an off-shoot of the City’s Budget Advisory Committee.” It’s not clear if the new task force replaces the previous committee.
“The journey of a balanced budget”
Cm Steve Sinwell described the task force as “going to get us on the journey of a balanced budget.” (link) He added that
what’s a real nice change from two months ago, you know, the mayor is actively engaged and he’s committed to it…
I know some of the residents say “Well, my God, we’ve had deficit for the last five years, you know, how how do I know this is real?” and I would… my response is these three pages, and you ought to hold us accountable. (link)
The three pages are here (link).
Rats
Briefly: city officials set expectations that action to address a long-standing rat infestation issue in Clyde Hill is likely at least two months away.
Resident Wayne Burns, in a public comment included in the council meeting packet, wrote that he is
extremely disappointed and frustrated by the fact that after 75+ days the City does not seem able to hold the owner/resident accountable for dealing with the rat issue. (link)
He added that he has “lodged six complaints for this exact issue over the last four years with the last being on 9/23/24.”
At Tuesday night’s meeting, the city council passed an updated nuisance law that provides the administration authority for abatement. The city attorney explained that changes since 1993 (when the city last updated the law), “have made parts of our current ordinance ineffective or unenforceable” (link) and that “we did as much as we could under the current ordinance; we issued a notice of violation recently.” (link)
City officials did not answer the resident’s question about when the city knew that the existing code was inadequate.
“What is the plan?”
The gist of the response to Mr. Burns’ question — “What are you doing about abatement? What is the plan?” (link) — involves issuing notices of violation en route to going to a judge to get a warrant to permit the city to abate the issue.
The soonest an abatement action seems possible is about two months from now. The process involves giving the homeowner more opportunities to address the problem, which is visible on maps:
The city attorney offered that “Ultimately, this is the mayor’s decision” (link).
Other topics
Comprehensive Plan
City staff will come back to the January council meeting with revised draft language for the Comprehensive Plan based on the council’s feedback Tuesday night.
Middle housing ordinance
At January’s meeting, the council will consider the next step on a proposed ordinance responding to state requirements to permit “middle housing” (link).
Police contract
The council approved the new contract with the union that represents Clyde Hill’s police officers.
Allegations on Nextdoor
Cm Steve Sinwell responded to allegations that a resident raised on Nextdoor.com (link). You can watch that here (link).
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Dean Hachamovitch