Clyde Hill News: City council pushes to balance budget
2025 deficit down to $291K; next special budget meeting November 7; city hires public works director
The city council unanimously agreed to continue work toward “a balanced 2025 budget” on Friday afternoon at a special budget session. Key to the decision was the progress made earlier in the week to reduce the deficit by ~$200K during a two-hour meeting.
The deficit of the revised preliminary budget reviewed at Friday’s meeting stands at ~$291K.
Councilmembers Lisa Wissner-Slivka and Steve Sinwell will meet with city staff again next week to see how much more they can reduce the deficit by working together. A public meeting to review their progress is scheduled for Thursday November 7 at 3:30pm.
More information on making sense of the budget deficit, below, as well as news about the city’s new Director of Public Works and a story about a city that faced bankruptcy and recovered by outsourcing everything but the police. But first: please vote.
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 2025: the story so far
City expenditures have exceeded revenues since 2020
Since 2020, Clyde Hill has spent more each year than it has taken in.
One-time revenues, like the ~$1m grant the city received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”), have helped the city fund its deficit spending:
Delayed public scrutiny for 2025 budget
As in past years, the city’s mayor and city administrator (Steve Friedman and Dean Rohla) developed the budget, working closely with city staff.
Unlike past years, the development of the 2025 budget occurred in “stealth mode:”
The city’s 2023 calendar shows six public meetings and discussions of the budget by October 2023 during the development of the 2024 budget: one in each of January (link), February (link), April (link), July (link), August (link), and September (link) 2023.
The city’s 2024 calendar shows no such public meetings during the development of the 2025 budget. The budget meetings that did happen during 2024 circumvented public notice requirements by including only two council members, not the full council as in past years, and a small group of residents.
Pushback at October 7 Public Hearing
Residents and the city council pushed back on the record deficit in Mayor Friedman’s 2025 preliminary budget and the city’s “business as usual” approach to budget deficits at a public hearing on October 7. (link)
At the meeting, Mayor Friedman said he was surprised at the magnitude of the deficit before asking the council to approve (“enact”) the budget as presented. (link)
In response to resident requests at the public hearing for alternatives to the record deficit, Mayor Friedman declined to offer any other options. (link)
The city council scheduled a special council meeting on October 25 to consider its options.
Action at October 25 meeting
At its October 25 meeting, the council unanimously agreed to pursue deficit reduction rather than accept the preliminary budget as presented.
The goal: bringing the city’s 2025 spending more in line with its expected revenues.
Councilmembers Lisa Wissner-Slivka and Steve Sinwell volunteered as an ad hoc committee to work with staff on the details.
The council also unanimously agreed on a statement in support of “fully funding the 2025 police budget” (link) at the meeting in response to community concerns. An October 23 document (link) from the city’s administration announced that
“The Mayor and City Administrator believe that meaningful discussions with Council about expenditures must include considerations of public safety cuts”
and also mentioned “reducing staff in police.”
The city council scheduled another special council meeting for a week later, on November 1, to review progress of the subcommittee’s work with staff.
Progress between public meetings
On October 28, city staff and the council members held a two-hour meeting that
“yielded an approximate $200,000 benefit to the General Fund when compared to the amounts presented at the October 7, 2024, meeting.” (link)
With this revision to the October 7 preliminary budget, the General Fund’s “gross deficit” dropped to ~$628K (from ~$828K) and the “total deficit” dropped to ~$291K (from ~$316K). Another improvement: this revised preliminary budget appears to not spend any reserve funds.
Further action at November 1 meeting
At Friday’s meeting, the council reviewed the progress in deficit reduction, and discussed whether this revised budget was “good enough” to accept.
The council then unanimously approved the following statement, committing to make additional progress to bring the city’s 2025 spending in line with its expected revenues:
The consensus of the city council is to seek a balanced 2025 budget, rather than enact the revised preliminary budget as presented.
The council will meet again on the 7th at 3:30, to discuss [progress] ahead of the council meeting on the 12th.
The council discussion noted resident concerns about the budget deficit and resident requests for more action to address it, both from residents attending the meeting and residents who sent email (link 1, link 2, link 3).
City staff asked the council to consider spending between $50K and $75K on
“hiring a consultant with a background in municipal finance to facilitate and support” financial sustainability planning (link)
according to a document in the meeting packet.
In response to resident and council pushback, Mayor Friedman explained that hiring a consultant was not intended as a recommendation, and that the document was purely informational.
Review of progress expected at November 7 public meeting
Residents interested in talking with their elected representatives or providing public comment ahead of the next meeting can email these 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>
There is no information available at this time about how to attend the November 7 meeting online, and no way to sign-up with the city to get that information when it becomes available.
If you’d like me to email you when that information is available, please ‘reply’ to this email and let me know.
City fills Public Works leadership position
The city’s new Director of Public Works starts November 18, according to the Administrator’s Weekly Report. (link)
Video: “The city that outsourced everything”
A resident shared this video (link) with me about how another city dealt with its budget challenges. Two excerpts of note:
“Nobody likes change but if your city is fixing to go bankrupt there may have to be some change.” (link)
“Virtually the only thing Sandy Springs doesn’t outsource are police and fire services.” (at the 4m42s mark in the video)
Clyde Hill is a much smaller city, and in some ways has much less under its local control. For example, most of what Clyde Hill residents pay via property taxes goes to state and county efforts. Clyde Hill is almost entirely residential, with limited additional revenue sources.
For balance, here are other points of view on Sandy Springs and its approach from Wikipedia: link and link.
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Dean Hachamovitch