Clyde Hill News: Defunding the police? Public meeting on proposed budget ahead
Also: Applications for open seats on planning, civil service commission
Public comment from residents will kick off the special city council meeting about the budget on Friday, October 25. The first question on the draft agenda (link) is whether to accept the 2025 budget as is or make changes to address the record deficit.
Also, residents reacted strongly to administration plans to reduce police staffing in response to pressure to address the city’s budget deficit.
Details and more information on these topics below, as well as how to participate in the meeting. But first, the city announced that
solicitation of applications for open seats (as of January 2025) on the Planning Commission and Civil Service Commission will begin early next week
in the Administrator’s Weekly Report (link). You can find more information about the positions and how to apply at the city’s website 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.
Defunding the police?
Facing pressure to address the budget deficit, City Administrator Dean Rohla and other officials discussed reducing Clyde Hill PD staffing from seven patrol officers to six as a cost-saving measure, according to multiple sources.
Clyde Hill Police Chief Kyle Kolling explained the risk to the community of this change in a memo last year. The memo is included in the materials for next Friday’s council meeting on the budget (link). In the memo, the Chief explains that:
“Under the current labor agreement, in order to have one (1) officer on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 7 positions are required.”
“The minimum staffing levels of seven officers in addition to a Lieutenant [re-leveled to Commander] and Chief are imperative for public safety.”
“Operating fully staffed with the seventh officer, puts the City of Clyde Hill and Yarrow Point well below the already low state average….”
Residents I’ve spoken with responded to the possibility of fewer patrol officers with alarm. One long-time resident and reader asked “Who in their right mind would suggest this?”
Police officers I spoke with over the last two weeks expect to be short-staffed soon. A current Clyde Hill officer is in the process of accepting an offer from another agency.
In the past, Clyde Hill’s city administration has asked Clyde Hill PD leadership to delay filling an open position because of short-term budget benefits. As the memo linked to above explains, there are also negative consequences to this approach.
Budget 2025: the short version
Here’s the short version of where we are on the 2025 budget, from a resident’s point of view:
City of Clyde Hill expenditures have exceeded its revenues for several years.
This year, residents and council pushed back on the city’s “business as usual” approach to the budget deficit at the public hearing about the preliminary budget on October 7.
The city council will hold a special council meeting on the budget on October 25, in response to the resident feedback it heard at the public hearing.
The city council seems to have two options with respect to acting on the budget in front of them:
Spend the city’s reserves (“rainy day” savings) en route to an unspecified tax hike, or
Ask the city’s full-time professionals to seek efficiencies — while also reducing their budget, bringing spending more in line with city revenues.
The conversation has brought out a lot of emotion because neither option — increasing city revenues or decreasing city expenditures — is easy.
Increasing city revenues comes down to a property tax hike, and decreasing city expenditures comes down to reducing the number of people on the city’s payroll, according to discussion during the public hearing earlier in October.
You can read the material for yourself at the city’s website. The meeting agenda is here (link). You can attend the 1pm meeting in person at City Hall or online (link). You can send public comment via email in advance, or reach out to your elected officials via email at 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>
On the agenda
The meeting on October 25 is focused on a near-term problem: Clyde Hill is facing a legal deadline to enact a 2025 budget. The “DRAFT Council Workshop on 2025 Budget” (link) asks a key question in its first few lines:
Does the council
support proceeding to the November [council] vote with the preliminary budget as presented, or
prefer to discuss possible adjustments and changes to the 2025 preliminary budget?
With this decision, the council chooses between approving the budget as presented on October 7 and spending reserves to pay for a record deficit, or adjusting the budget and reducing the funds available to the administration.
Residents’ agenda disappointment
Some residents expressed disappointment to me about the meeting agenda.
I think they were expecting an interactive workshop to explore out of the box thinking to solve the problem… for example:
What services can be shared among the Points Communities for more efficient spending? Can we build rental properties on top of City Hall to generate operating income? Can residents go through the budget line by line to see what can be cut? What great ideas can Clyde Hill adopt from neighbors? For example, neighboring Yarrow Point does not have a city administrator… their Mayor does a lot of the work herself, with a very small number of full-time employees and many more contractors. According to Medina’s preliminary budget hearing, “Staff is proud to present a balanced budget for 2025” that “complies with all City Financial Policies.” (link) How did their community approach increasing taxes and spending more responsibly?
Those residents are right. That meeting should totally happen. The city is doing this meeting first.
Budget Decision
If there’s council support to proceed with the budget as proposed (and spend reserves to fund the deficit), then there’s not much else to talk about at the meeting… it’s just on to the 2026 budget process.
Alternatively, if at least three council members express a preference “to discuss possible adjustments and changes to the 2025 preliminary budget,” then we are in new territory for Clyde Hill.
The agenda suggests some policy questions ahead of specific adjustments to the budget. For example: “Does the council support using reserves to fund the deficit?”
Unanswered resident questions and math camp
Some questions that residents asked at the public hearing that the packet does not yet answer include:
“Financial runway”
On the city’s current trajectory, when does the city run out of money?
How long the city’s ~$3.2m of uncommitted reserves and $1.9m of committed reserves will last depends on the rate of spending in excess of revenues, the city’s success in securing grants, and many other factors.
“Per household burden”
To maintain current spending levels, what is the marginal “per household burden?”
It’s dangerous to speculate in the absence of an official financial projection from City Hall. A rough, back of the envelope estimate of ~1,100 households covering a ~$500K budget gap pencils out to ~$450/household every year, subject to a variety of factors. For example, assessed as part of property taxes, every household would pay a different amount based on its relative value to other homes in Clyde Hill.
“Big picture”
For residents who want a very “big picture” view of the 2025 budget, this excerpt might be helpful. The proposed budget has a deficit of ~$828K, mitigated down to ~316K (see bullets 2 and 3 below) with the city’s first use of its “rainy day” reserves for operational costs:
Proposed expenses exceed revenues for a deficit of ~$828K.
Proposed transfer-in of $337K from the Criminal Justice and City Streets funds.
This amount reflects what the city has in these funds today.
It’s not clear from the public materials presented what revenues the city can expect in these funds in future years.
Proposed transfer-in of $200K from the Special Projects fund.
This money is part of the city’s reserves (or “rainy day funds”). It was exceptional one-time revenue that the city committed to the “Special Projects” fund.
This seems to be the city’s first use of its reserves for recurring operational costs. There’s little additional communication about this proposal in the public materials.
Proposed transfer-out of $25K to the Equipment Replacement fund.
A net “deficit” (from a layperson’s point of view) of $316K.
How the budget process is “supposed to” work
Residents and readers have asked me about the “roles and responsibilities” of a mayor and council in developing the city’s budget. I defer to the guidance from MRSC, the non-profit organization that supports local governments, linked to below.
State law leaves room for every city to do things a little differently. Ultimately, a successful budget requires collaboration between a mayor (and their administration) and the council:
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Dean Hachamovitch