Clyde Hill News: Budget... where does all the money go?
Also, Clyde Hill Police are hiring
The season of great views around Clyde Hill continues… from a walk last week, Mt Rainier as seen from 14th Street:
Apologies for another late newsletter — some surprises this weekend resulted in this special Monday edition.
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.
Police Update
A Clyde Hill Police Officer recently gave notice that he is leaving the department, ending a several-year streak of a fully-staffed police force. Two councilmembers (Steve Friedman and Kim Muromoto) participated in the exit interview process last week.
I’m looking forward to finding out more and sharing what emerged from that discussion. My understanding is that there was candid, honest conversation — exactly what anyone involved in exit interviews would want.
Budget, Part 2: Spending
The newsletter two weeks ago (link) discussed City revenue and how property taxes fit into picture. This week, let’s take a look at expenditures.
One thing to notice is that City expenditures exceed revenues:
In the previous newsletter, I called out a comment from the Administration’s budget memo to the Budget Advisory Committee (link):
[T]he City has been operating at a deficit for the past few years…. It is… the unrestricted revenue stream that is the problem…. Previous Councils and Administrations have not successfully addressed this issue, and further action is required.
General Services, Police and Fire, and Public Works
At the top level, the Administration breaks out spending in three categories. Note that over half the budget is Police and Fire (“Security of Persons & Property”).
Public Works includes storm drain, road and street maintenance, snow and ice response, and the like, and General Government Services covers everything else (finance, record keeping, meetings, etc.):
Why spending less is hard
Let’s look at that $4.7m of spend through a different lens. Rather than break it out by category, here are City expenditures in terms of people-related spend. Specifically, salary, overtime, and personnel benefits across police, public works, and general services make up 64% or almost 2/3rds of Clyde Hill’s General Fund expenditures:
Any effort to figure out how to spend less needs to take into account that ~$3m of the $4.7m is committed to City employees as salary, overtime, and personnel benefits.
While deferring a specific project or a new piece of equipment for budget reasons can make sense, hiring good people is hard and continuity is super important to retain good people.
It’s not clear how much the budget process will dive into the remaining ~$1.7m of non-personnel spend.
September Budget Meetings
The Budget conversation will continue in September; the Administration has not yet published details.
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Dean Hachamovitch