Clyde Hill News: Residents speak out at budget hearing
Also: Mayor declines to offer options other than tax increase; police funding plan unclear
Residents made clear their displeasure and concerns about Clyde Hill’s budget deficit and the lack of specific alternatives during a public hearing Monday night at City Hall.
Mayor Steve Friedman stood his ground on running a record deficit in order to not cut services. He told residents that he is “asking for help… so that we can develop a consensus as a group in how we proceed together.” (link)
Reacting to city projections of an increasing gap between city revenues and expenditures, residents asked for the “small group of professionals who understand the budget [to] construct specific options for us.” (link)
Mayor Friedman declined. His exchange with residents continued (link):
Mayor: “I’ve given you the budget I want to proceed.”
Resident: “Did you give one that didn’t have a shortfall?”
Mayor: “No. Because I do not want to cut services.”
(A bunch of resident voices including one saying “You have to.”)
Mayor “No. I know I don’t want to. I ran on that option and I’m trying to stick to it.”
Another resident: “So what are you going to do next year?”
Mayor: “That’s what I’m asking here.”
The city council will hold a budget workshop, open to the public, on October 25 to consider what action to take ahead of the scheduled November 12 council vote to adopt a city budget. Analysis and details follow, below.
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.
The big picture
For the city to continue operations in 2025, the city council needs to approve a budget by December. At Monday night’s public hearing, residents and the city council had more questions and concerns than support for the Mayor’s proposed 2025 budget.
Once a 2025 budget is in place, the city’s three main options involve spending less, raising taxes, or running out of money.
Full-time professional city staffers, the previous and current mayor, and council members have avoided the hard discussion around these three options for several years. After Monday’s meeting, it appears that residents and council are less willing to continue postponing discussion and action on the city’s financial issues.
1. Spend less.
Cm Kim Muromoto made clear during Monday’s public hearing that reducing expenditures really means reducing the number of people on the city’s payroll.
The Mayor and his administration have not offered the council or residents specific “option packages” that show the impact on city services of spending cuts.
2. Raise taxes.
The city has few options beyond raising property taxes to increase its revenues meaningfully.
The Mayor and his administration have not offered the council or residents specifics about how large a tax increase would be needed and how long that increase would permit the city to operate.
3. Run out of money.
The city has used existing fund balances to cover the shortfall between revenues and expenditures since 2020.
Significantly, for the first time, the proposed 2025 budget spends the city’s reserves to cover its operational deficit.
The Mayor and his administration have not offered the council or residents a statement of the city’s “financial runway,” or when it runs out of money on its current trajectory.
Context
For people who are just coming to this discussion, some context:
Since 2020, Clyde Hill’s expenditures to provide residents with services have exceeded the city’s revenues to fund those services.
The city has balanced its budget using existing fund balances. Mayor Friedman acknowledged that “balancing our budget using reserves and one-time money is ultimately unsustainable” in his Budget Message to residents (link).
City projections show the gap between expenditures and revenues increasing even further over the coming years:
“I do not want to cut services.”
Mayor Friedman and Finance Director Lisa King opened the public hearing with a presentation that you can watch here (link).
During the discussion that followed, Mayor Friedman made his position about not cutting city services clear. After hearing residents and council request specific options (beyond deficit spending and not yet specified property taxes increases) for over an hour, the council asked the Mayor
Cm Hachamovitch: “What you’ve said is that in the next eight weeks you’re not likely to be able to come back with a budget that meets some of what [residents are] saying. What would you like to do?”
Mayor: “No, I've said I don't want to come back with a budget that meets those things.” (link)
“A bus, headed towards a cliff”
After the presentation, residents asked questions and expressed many concerns. Many residents focused on the lack of a sustainable financial plan. You can watch the resident comment section here (link), and the council comments (including additional comments from residents) here (link).
Resident Wayne Burns noted that in “future years, every year the operating deficit gets bigger. That’s driving the bus towards the cliff. We need to figure out how to turn the bus around and it’s not going to be just cutting 5% here, 10% there.” (link)
During the meeting a resident estimated the magnitude of the tax increase and declared “that isn’t going to pass” (link). In an emailed public comment, residents Allison Watson and Jon Barwick made clear “quite strongly that we do not support any tax hike.” (link)
Resident Brad Andonian offered “Respectfully, nobody has crafted a budget that fits the actual projected revenues. What we have is a wishlist of what we’d like to spend.” (link)
Asked if there are options other than “take it or leave it,” Mayor Friedman responded:
“What I’ve given the council is a budget that I think works for 2025 and a request to proceed as a group to come up to these answers that I’m hearing everybody wants.” (link)
With about two months left to finalize a 2025 budget, it’s not clear where the city goes from here.
Next step: October 25 workshop
At this point, the city council appears to have the authority to “make such adjustments and changes as it deems necessary or proper” (link) to the budget ahead of adopting it.
Discussion of budget “adjustments and changes” is likely at the council budget workshop on October 25. At its meeting following the public hearing, the council agreed to hold a public workshop ahead of its November vote on adopting the budget. Goals, agenda, and specifics for the workshop have not yet been made available.
As a resident…
Typically, I write this newsletter as a public service to report on what’s going in the city.
Below, I want to share my personal thoughts, so I’m breaking this section out explicitly.
As a resident, I feel some relief after the public hearing. First, the engagement and energy from other residents was simply great. Also, what I heard residents express Monday night is consistent with much of what I’ve heard from other residents. For example, in the absence of details about possible service cuts and tax increases, residents want specifics. Previously, I wrote “For all we know, Clyde Hill residents would be delighted with a big tax hike to keep things going exactly as they are.” After Monday night’s hearing, support for increases taxes is uncertain.
Ahead of the budget workshop, my recommendation to residents is to reach out to your elected officials (mayor, city council members) and ask them to explain what’s going and what they plan to do about it. Here are email addresses for your convenience:
"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>
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Dean Hachamovitch