Clyde Hill News: Residents push for balanced budget; council defers decision
Also: Kirkland PD commends Clyde Hill officer; city struggles to address complaint re rats and trash
Residents at Tuesday night’s city council meeting offered a clear message to elected officials and city staff for over an hour during public comment: balance the 2025 budget and stop kicking the can down the road.
The council has until the end of December to enact the city’s 2025 budget. The latest proposed 2025 budget has a record deficit of ~$200K.
Several residents expressed frustration that city staff has provided little specific information about the possible impact of decreased spending on city services for residents, just vague warnings about “unintended consequences.”
Resident Brad Andonian simply said “Please don’t hold the residents hostage here.”
Resident Carl Picciotto wrote that the city administrator offered a cost savings measure “as a threat,” and described the administration as “stubbornly intransigent with regards to sharing cost savings options.” (link)
A third resident, Mark Kroese, used the word “troubling” to describe
“what appears to be the City Administrator’s unwillingness to present the Mayor, Council, and, ultimately, the residents of Clyde Hill, with a thoughtful and transparent list of potential budget cuts that would result in a balanced budget.” (link)
Cm Steve Sinwell expressed concern about the “weaponization” of spending cuts (link), suggesting that city staff might respond to a resident’s request by saying:
“‘No, we don’t have the budget [to do that]… city council screwed us. We don’t have the money…’ I call that weaponization without accountability.” (link)
More on what’s ahead in the budget discussion below, along with an update on actions taken at Tuesday’s city council meeting and the city’s struggle to address a recurring complaint about rats and trash.
But first: Kirkland’s police department expressed gratitude to Clyde Hill Police Officer Cameron Hanson in an email to Clyde Hill Police Chief Kyle Kolling, citing Ofc Hanson’s assistance with a UAS (“drone”) during an assault investigation:
The call involved a suspect who, already armed with a knife and a pair of scissors, disarmed a security guard and repeatedly struck him over the head with a baton. I later discovered that the suspect was a convicted felon for Murder 1.
Without any request for outside assistance, Officer [Cameron] Hanson arrived on the scene and prepared his UAS. All officers on scene working together led to the eventual location and safe detention of the suspect, who later confessed to Officers.
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.
Rat, trash complaint lingers for two months
City officials noted there’s “still a ton of garbage present w/ rats” at a home in Clyde Hill after the city granted two extensions to a resident after a September 23 complaint from a neighbor.
According to the city, this complaint is the “sixth time for [the] same house.”
A neighbor offered that the resident has only “moved the trash from the front of his house to the side” and not actually addressed the issue. “It is just unacceptable for me to have to chase the rats off for [my] grandkids to be able to play in the street.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, City Administrator Dean Rohla explained the thinking behind the multiple extensions: “he [the resident] was cleaning it up to just enough and then letting it go again.” (link)
Budget discussion
One proposal for how the city council can move forward on the budget, according a document in Tuesday night’s packet,
“would be to approve a 2025 budget that was balanced, and city personnel would have to figure out rapidly on how to execute against this limitation on expenses. It was further noted that under this approach, additional spending authority could be requested by the city, and council would then consider such a request(s) during 2025.” (link)
That proposal seems aligned with resident feedback. For example, resident Wayne Burns offered the following Tuesday night:
The residents I’ve listened to tonight… everybody wants options. We’ve got no options… I want to know what the options are. I want it to be like a Chinese menu, you know? This cost this, I get this; this cost this, I get this. I don’t buy this, I don’t get that, you know? I got none of that!
I’ve asked one single question… we used to have a lot fewer people and we had the same mission. Now we got more people, we got the same mission. That means unless somebody can tell me the mission’s changed, then we got too many people….
Nobody here has said they want a tax increase. Your [the Mayor’s] communication said the first thing we need to do next year is start working on a levy lid increase. No.” (link)
Residents also noted that much of their feedback and questions from previous meetings on October 7, October 25, November 1, and November 7 have gone unacknowledged and unanswered.
In a comment after Tuesday’s meeting (link), resident Ed Oeltjen wrote
I got the feeling at the meeting Tuesday evening that several Council Members (and the Mayor) are perhaps not listening to the citizens when homeowners say “no new taxes, live within our means.”….
A balanced budget for 2025 sends a powerful message to the citizens that Council is serious about solving this long term issue.
Another path
After hearing extensive resident feedback Tuesday night, the council agreed to meet again on Thursday to consider a different “possible path forward with respect to the 2025 Budget” (link) proposed by Cm Steve Sinwell:
I begin some with preamble and then discuss the idea, which essentially reflects a joint effort by the City and a few Council members to bring forward a detailed commitment that provides action steps necessary during 2025 towards achieving financial sustainability. The commitment… would be in the form of a document that outlines key steps/actions, expected date of completion, who is involved, when they will be discussed at City Council meetings, and be made available for public commentary.
From Thursday’s discussion, this path forward is more focused on future budgets (not 2025) and on process (rather than outcome), according to Cm Sinwell:
“That’s why I’m hesitant to make hard statements about ’25, ’26, ’27… what’s important to me is we’re all unified, we’re going to work our damnedest to do the right thing for the city, the taxpayers, and the results will fall into various years. I don’t know where that’s going to take us.” (link)
Residents can email feedback and questions to their elected officials 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>
Actions taken at council meeting
Tuesday night, the city council took action by enacting ordinances (“passing laws”) after holding the public hearing and listening to public comment about the budget:
The city’s property tax levy on residents in 2025 will be 1% higher. Clyde Hill will collect an additional ~$13K of property taxes from the ~1,100 households in the city. (link)
The city’s utility tax rates will increase in 2025: “the city’s water service rates from ten percent to twelve percent; the city’s sanitary sewer utility rate from ten percent to twelve percent; and city’s solid waste collection services rate from six percent to eight percent. This is anticipated to bring in an additional $85,310 into the City in 2025.” (link)
The city is increasing various fees and creating a new “Alarm Registration Fee of $25 [that] will apply to all residents with security alarms in homes in Clyde Hill. This fee is expected to bring in approximately $12,000 in 2025.” (link)
The council also enacted an update to the city’s enforcement code (link). The council proposed this change almost two years ago, in January 2023; city staff brought it to the Planning Commission a few months ago.
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Dean Hachamovitch