Clyde Hill News: 2021 Year in Review
Also, new this week: an interim legal services agreements, plus Police promotions
So much to celebrate! I’ve pulled out just a few items from the public record of Clyde Hill City Council Meeting agendas, minutes, and recordings as well as Weekly Administrator Reports:
Number 1: State Accreditation of Clyde Hill Police
The Clyde Hill Police Department was awarded state accreditation by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. This is a very big deal.
Number 2: Stronger team
Many, many awesome new people in City Hall including Lisa King (Finance Manager) and Shaun Tozer (Director of Public Works).
The City appointed its first Detective, Beatus Swai, and promoted two officers (Nate Cobrea and Mike Humphreys) to Corporal. These new roles are effective January 1, 2022.
Number 3: City Legal Services
The City put its legal services contract out for bid and just hired, last week, an interim firm until that new contract is in place.
Number 4: Police Officer Labor Contract
Also, the City signed “a 4-year police officer labor contract with the Public, Professional & Office-Clerical Employees and Drivers Local Union No. 763” (October City Council Agenda).
The City also authorized premium pay to the City’s essential workers using ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021) funds.
Number 5: Recognition
The City presented gifts to John Young of Public Works as well as Police Chief Kyle Kolling for 20+ years of service to the City (April), and also
recognized outgoing Councilmember Bruce Dodds for his many years of service (December) as well as outgoing City Administrator Lyman Howard for his efforts (January)
expressed gratitude to Lt. Dawn Hanson for 10 years of extraordinary service to Clyde Hill and recognizing her demonstrated leadership, compassion, and certifications. (October)
Also: some “works in progress…”
Number 1: Stormwater Issues on 17th
The City continues to investigate and plan what to do about the stormwater problems affecting 17th Street residents.
In July, the Mayor and Staff requested and received approval for this stormwater repair work. Then in August, the Mayor and Staff informed the City Council of its plans to abandon the repair work. In parallel, the City started an effort to create a new tax in the form of a City stormwater utility. (Earlier, in March, the City entered into a contract for some stormwater pipe camera services.)
Number 2: Enforcing City code while revising it
The City referred the first wave of Land Use Code (Title 17) chapters on to the Planning Commission for review in December. This work is part of kicking off the process for the mandatory updating of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, and followed (1) a great deal of discussion of the Comprehensive Plan & Land Use Code (Title 17) Updates at the March, April, May, October, and November City Council meetings as well as (2) appointments to the Planning and Civil Service Commissions (January, December).
One question that came up repeatedly during 2021: enforcement. In this newsletter, I noted that it’s not clear how the City will balance enforcing code more aggressively while it is modifying that same code. You can see video of the Mayor describing how Clyde Hill has “a lot of non-conformity… against our codes in our community” and “we would better need to hire a boatload of people and you’re going to have a lot of disgruntled residents that are going to be forced to have to make significant changes in order to bring it up under the current code.” The Mayor also noted that the City has “a lot of work to do to clean up those ordinances — a lot of work.”
The Flag Code is a separate issue that I will cover in another newsletter.
Number 3: Budget, Deficit, Property Tax Increase
The City passed a budget running a deficit, funded by reserves accumulated from previous surpluses. It also raised property taxes 1% at the same time in December. It’s not clear if the City thinks this is a problem. While the deficit is small, it is not sustainable in the long term.
Some good things along the way: the Budget Advisory Committee process ran smoothly, starting in June, and the City updated its Investment Policy in September.
Number 4: Metro Bus 271
As a community, we might be losing Metro bus service.
In September, the City shared that Metro / Sound Transit plans to reroute Metro bus 271 “so that it avoids Clyde Hill and Medina entirely by running from Bellevue, up Bellevue Way to SR520 and across the lake.”
Number 5: Transparency
The City had compliance issues that it hasn’t shared with the public.
This raises questions about transparency and trustworthiness.
I couldn’t find any mention of the compliance problems on the City’s website after finding out about the problem from Washington State’s Department of Ecology. Last week, the City sent me documents in response to a public records request from August.
Here are some excerpts from the State’s compliance evaluation report to Clyde Hill:
And everything else…
Several other noteworthy events!
Police. The City entered into (1) an Interlocal Agreement between local law enforcement agencies in the nearby vicinity to form a regional, independent force investigation team (January) and (2) an Interlocal Agreement with King County for Jail Services (April).
Public works and other services.
Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP, or the annual repaving of a bunch of Clyde Hill streets). July had a public hearing followed by immediate approval of ~$400K for the project.
Facilities Master Plan. The City made a “commitment of $1,978,036 to the Facilities Master Plan” in July, and the City “signed the Letter of Intent with the City of Bellevue regarding the redevelopment of Fire Station #5.” Planning for changes to City Hall proceed.
Traffic. The City discussed analysis of traffic data in August and December and authorized contracts for traffic light maintenance and a contract for more speed limit sign data analysis as well (March, June).
Building Code. The City amended Section 15.04.020 of the Clyde Hill Municipal Code, part of the City’s Building Code.
Other services. The City (1) entered into contracts for solid waste hauling services with Republic Services (May) and (2) approved budget for 911 dispatch (NORCOM, the North East King County Regional Public Safety Communications Agency) in November (3) entered agreements for on-call engineering and design services (March), on-call architectural consultation services (November), and maintenance of wireless communication facilities in Clyde Hill (December).
Finance & Administration
The City accepted grants from (1) the WA State Office of Financial Management regarding the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) in November; (2) the King County Flood Control District for stormwater projects in 2022 in December; and (3) the King Conservation District for Arbor Day events in December.
The City continued to fund A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH) in January, and to accept the ARCH 2022 Budget and Work Plan. (November)
In order to streamline buying infrastructure for its public records management needs, the City entered an interlocal agreement with the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative in November.
In January and April, the City put equipment no longer needed for sale as surplus.
Process & Reportings
Executive sessions. The City’s non-public meetings happened for two reasons: for the contract negotiation with police (January, October), for potential litigation (March), and both in April and June.
Process. City Council Agendas show Discussion about Rules of Order (June), Roles & Responsibilities (July), and the Agenda (October).
Recurring Reports. Each month, City staff and Councilmembers reported back publicly with information from many other meetings.1 I’ll put the 2022 Legislative Agenda (October) and 2022 Legislative Priorities (November) here.
Acknowledgements. The City also recognized the members of the 2022 Budget Advisory Committee for their service (John Schwager, Amy Kwan, Alan Dashen, Chuck Nelson, Dean Hachamovitch, Sandy Edpao, and Mike Foley). (December)
The last issue of the year, still under construction, is a “Preview of 2022”. What matters to you? Please forward to your friends and neighbors in Clyde Hill and then reply with what you think and what matters to you.
thank you —
Dean
Disclaimer: while I am a council member-elect 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. The information and references here are public and the resources used to generate the letter are entirely my own.
Clyde Hill internal reports: the Administrator's Weekly Report, Building Report, Public Works Report, Financial Report, and Police/Fire Report.
Clyde Hill external reports: SR-520 Related & Points Cities Mayors' Meeting and Emergency Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) link; Eastside Transportation Project (ETP) link; Sound Cities Association (SCA) link; Metropolitan Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee (MSWMAC) link; Lake Washington/Cedar/Sammamish Watershed (WRIA 8) link; North East King County Regional Public Safety Communication Agency (NORCOM) link