Clyde Hill News: $450K deficit in City’s proposed budget
Residents’ Budget Advisory Committee Meeting next week; also, trees, and City clarifies private lane regs
The Administration offered “a first look at the 2023 draft proposed budget” on Friday. That proposal includes a record-setting $458,000 deficit:
The Administration also reported on previous and current budget deficits (link):
The City’s General Fund finished fiscal year 2020 with a deficit of $100,561.
The City’s General Fund finished fiscal year 2021 with a deficit of $50,565.
The City’s General Fund is expected to finish fiscal year 2022 with a deficit of $271,096 (as of 8/31/2022).
There are no comparables in the Clyde Hill packet regarding deficit spending in neighboring cities.
One more item before our disclaimer: if you find this newsletter useful or interesting, please forward it to your Clyde Hill neighbors and friends. Thank you!
Disclaimer: while I am a councilmember 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 from public sources. I welcome email responses — and if the topic is about City business I will respond from my City email account.
“We are not able to deliver a balanced budget”
Next week, Budget Advisory Committee will meet to discuss a proposed budget, available here (link).
On page 10 of the 273 page packet, the Administration wrote:
“Under current constraints, we are not able to deliver a balanced budget, but will instead be delivering an operating deficit budget that relies on utilizing reserves and ARPA grant funds to balance.”
The rest of the packet says, for the most part, what you’d expect the Administration to say. For example:
“The goal of the 2023 Budget process is to deliver to Clyde Hill residents a balanced budget that maintains or increases the current level of essential services that are expected. A further requirement is that the City staff deliver good value and provide responsible stewardship of the taxpayer resources entrusted to our care.”
and
“This budget is a good faith effort at balancing the needs of the residents for essential services with being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
and
“Do not take the 2022/2023 projections as firm final numbers. It is still early in our budget development and we will be spending more time on refining and pinpointing those numbers after this meeting and prior to the next study session.”
The Administration will ask the Council to approve the budget in about two months, on November 29.
A key factor driving increased expenditures and the deficit is paying competitive salaries to City employees. A previous newsletter discussed police officer retention issues that neighboring cities have had (link).
#1 Priority while while running a deficit: “Additional staffing”
At the same time as a record-setting deficit, the Administration put “Additional staffing” as the first bullet under its #1 priority in the “2023 Priorities - Discussion” document (link).
The City's choice to hire more people and increase expenditures when it is already running an unprecedented deficit is confusing and concerning.
New City Hall?
In August, the Administration’s priorities document included the following about a new City Hall and consolidated municipal campus:
Update the Facility Master Plan to include replacement of a new City Hall, Police Department and Public Works Building into a consolidated municipal campus (link)
This updated packet this month pares that back to
Discuss facility needs such as replacement of City Hall, Police Department and Public Works building
Consolidated municipal campus upon completion of Fire Station #5
From a resident point of view, it’s not clear at this time what support there is for a new City Hall in the community or what communication and outreach with the community about a new City Hall (or municipal campus) has occurred.
Trees4Livability
Over the past months, several readers have written in with concerns about tree preservation in Clyde Hill.
In general, both residents and the city government are supportive of trees… for example, the Clyde Hill logo is a tree and Clyde Hill is a “Tree City USA” city (link). At the same time, as a friend explained to me: “I’m all for trees so long as they don’t block my view.”
I wanted to pass along a link (thank you Julie!) to an interesting organization working in Bellevue to preserve trees: www.trees4livability.org.
It’s not clear what the Administration’s plans are on this issue.
City clarifies private lane regulations
Clyde Hill has many private roads, drives, and lanes:
Clyde Hill Municipal Code has an entire section on the topic (link).
Since 2021, the City spent over $10,000 in legal fees (plus staff time) responding to the complaints of one Clyde Hill resident about enforcement of this code. (Full disclosure: I was the resident on the receiving end of this complaint.)
Back in July, Clyde Hill’s Building Official clarified to councilmembers that
“For houses on the existing private roads in Clyde Hill, the City does not enforce or require turnarounds as described in CHMC 17.44.050.” (link)1
Turns out that Clyde Hill has never enforced this code. The City responded to a public records request asking for
All emails, documents, and communications related to plans and plan approvals for turnabout areas suitable for private cars and public safety vehicles on private lanes and easements (as described in CHMC 17.44.050), since January 1, 1999.with two addresses in Clyde Hill, both of which were granted permits and subsequently constructed, and neither of which provides a turnabout area.
In a separate mail, dated August 25, 2022, the City Attorney wrote to the residents:
I have determined that the city will take no further action. I have advised the city of this decision, and the city now considers the Clyde Lane turnabout issue closed.... [T]he city will take no further action on this matter.
The Administration has not commented on its previous decision to pursue this matter for so long at taxpayer expense.
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Dean Hachamovitch
To obtain a permit, the document continues, a house plan on an existing private road must have a sprinkler system. Clyde Hill has worked with Bellevue’s Fire Department (BFD) on this approach. It is accepted that for the current private roads in Clyde Hill, BFD equipment will have to back out of them.