Clyde Hill News: Council rejects balanced budget, approves record deficit in 3-2 vote
Also: Opportunities for residents to volunteer
The city council authorized a record $229,000 deficit as part of Clyde Hill’s final 2025 budget in a 3-2 vote Friday afternoon.
That vote came after the council voted 3-2 against a budget with no deficit.
The two votes followed several public comments from residents repeating their requests for a balanced budget and citing campaign promises from council members about listening to residents and addressing the city’s financial problems:
A look at Friday’s budget discussion below, but first: the city is looking for volunteers for its “Financial Sustainability Task Force” (link) to help the city address its budget issues, as well as applicants for an anticipated council seat vacancy. The deadline for eligible residents to apply is January 3. Details on all opportunities are available 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.
Final Budget 2025
The short and optimistic version:
The city has an approved budget for 2025.
Residents asked for, and got, the council to vote on a balanced budget and explain their thinking.
Mayor and council repeated their commitment to really address the problem next year and asked residents to “Hold us accountable.” (link)
Balanced budget amendment
The council started by considering an amendment to the proposed budget. Cm Steve Sinwell explained that “in plain English… the amendment gets us to a balanced budget.” (link)
Specifically, the amendment eliminated the budget deficit by reducing over $229K of General Fund expenditures.
The council’s discussion noted that, because the Mayor has the authority to shift spending as he sees fit between items in the General Fund, which particular spending items the amendment struck were not significant.
Effectively, the amendment created the “forcing function” that residents had previously petitioned for (link).
Justifying another deficit
The amendment to balance the budget failed by a 3-2 vote.
Council seat 2
Explaining his vote against the balanced budget, Cm Sinwell said “I’m not voting for a deficit… I’m voting for the journey” (link) in reference to the sustainability effort he is leading with Mayor Steve Friedman. He went on to emphasize that “I’m not voting for a deficit; I’m voting for a process.” (link)
Responding to earlier questions from residents about the evolution of his position on the budget since the first budget public hearing on October 7th, Cm Sinwell added that
“the Mayor, you know, decided to engage, which is fantastic…. I didn’t see it on October 7th but I see that today.” (link)
Council seat 3
Cm Kim Muromoto offered that “I think it’s semantics… a bit of a shell game” (link) as “work still has to be done” in voting against the balanced budget.
Council seat 4
Cm Ryan Olson, the third vote against the balanced budget, noted that the city’s reserves are its “rainy day funds” and said it is “raining in Clyde Hill and… we can use this reserve to smooth out these anomalies in the [city’s] income.” (link)
Cm Olson expressed appreciation for community involvement “and the passion that people that have shown up here have displayed, and it’s made a huge difference,” (link) before equating Cm Sinwell’s efforts to Elon Musk’s and referring to Cm Sinwell as “The Clyde Hill DOGE doing his work for government, cutting any wasteful budgets.” (link)
Council seats 1 and 5
Cm Lisa Wissner-Slivka and Cm Dean Hachamovitch voted for the amendment (citing resident feedback) and then against the unamended budget with a deficit.
After voting against the amendment, the other three council members voted for the unamended budget with a deficit.
The 2025 budget deficit appears to be a record for the city:
Sustainability journey ahead
You can read more about the financial sustainability journey ahead on the city’s website here (link). Information about how to apply is here (link). At a meeting earlier this month, Mayor Friedman said that “Cm Sinwell and I ultimately select the committee.” (link)
Cm Sinwell said he expected residents to “Hold us accountable.” (link)
Friday’s meeting included additional information about the sustainability effort in response to resident questions. For example, the Financial Sustainability Task Force does not replace the city’s Budget Advisory Committee (link).
What authority the new task force has remains “an unanswered question” (link) according to Cm Sinwell.
Some residents have expressed doubts about the effort. For example:
I hate to end on what may be perceived as a sour note, but to be brutally honest and transparent, I have little confidence that this sustainability journey will produce anything meaningful…. (link)
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Dean Hachamovitch