Clyde Hill News: Stolen car?
Also: Council meeting to discuss enforcement, land use issues
First, for pet owners: Medina sent out a useful update that June is National Pet Preparedness Month… a reminder for all pet owners to prepare emergency measures that ensure the safety of their pets, along with a link to information about preparing an emergency kit for your pet.
One more item before our disclaimer: if you find this newsletter useful or interesting, please forward it to your Clyde Hill neighbors and friends. Thank you!
Disclaimer: while I am a councilmember 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. The 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.
What’s the news?
From a resident point of view, here’s what I think will be of interest at next week’s City Council meeting. The agenda is available here (link).
Petition discussion
There is no scheduled discussion on the agenda about the petition to change the form of City government. Residents interested in offering comments about this issue can do so during the regular public comments section.
For context, the petition going around the community involves putting an item on the ballot asking Clyde Hill residents to vote on whether
to change to the same form of government used by Medina, Mercer Island, Kirkland, and Bellevue (“council-manager”), or
to continue with the current form of government (“mayor-council”).
Currently, Clyde Hill’s City Administrator is accountable to the part-time Mayor. The Mayor is elected directly by residents of Clyde Hill.
The proposed change would result in the City Administrator becoming accountable directly to the City Council. The Mayor, as in Medina, Bellevue, and other council-manager cities, would be a councilmember selected by the City Council. The role of the Mayor is to run Council Meetings and attend other meetings on the City’s behalf.
Last week I reported that the draft agenda for the June Council Meeting included “time for public comments regarding the petition circulating in our community to change Clyde Hill’s form of government.” I also reported that at the most recent City Council meeting, “the Council agreed to dedicate time to listen to residents on this issue at the June 14 City Council meeting.”
While both those statements are true, I wanted to make sure residents knew that the actual June agenda does not have dedicated time to listen to the public on this topic. It’s reasonable to expect that there will be a dedicated time for this at a subsequent meeting.
Code Enforcement
Code enforcement continues as a discussion topic. From the June Enforcement Discussion Overview document (link):
Code enforcement is the job of the Administration.
For well over a year, the City Council has consistently asked questions, provided feedback, and expressed concerns about the Administration’s code enforcement policy and execution.
The Administration’s response has been, at the very least, disappointing….
Looking at the Administration’s communication and actions, there is plenty of evidence of denial and avoidance and not much evidence of taking the community’s or the Council’s concerns seriously.
For context, City Council and residents have been clear and consistent in their feedback and concerns regarding unclear and inconsistent enforcement of City code. As an example, Administration enforcement of plants residents have on their property in a right of way by a public road has been confusing and unpredictable.
This section includes a document with an updated timeline (link) of the feedback and responses behind the statement above, as well as more feedback to the Administration on how to address problems with code enforcement in the short term. Hope springs eternal.
Land Use Committee
At the previous City Council meeting, Cm Friedman asked about the Administration’s plans for addressing Code Enforcement problems in the short term.
The Mayor’s response was that the Land Use Committee meeting (which had just been postponed) was an essential discussion to have first, in order to enable progress on short term enforcement issues (link).
For context, the Land Use Committee was initially formed in January. Its initial goal was to identify which parts of the City Land Use code might be better off left unenforced in the short term because of code ambiguities, inconsistent enforcement to date, and expected upcoming changes in the Land Use Code (aka Title 17) review. The Administration attempted to shut it down. The Mayor claimed that the memo describing that effort was privileged; it wasn’t. The City made the memo available here (link). The Land Use Committee was reconstituted and met for the first time last week to review the Administration’s new priorities and approach to the Title 17 review.
The public discussion connecting the latest reset of the Title 17 review to the ongoing short term enforcement conversation should be interesting for residents.
Mayor’s message to Staff
The Mayor sent an email to City employees (that you can read here, link) after City Hall staff read about the police investigation of allegations of harassment at City Hall (covered in a previous newsletter, link).
In writing this newsletter, I try to focus on news of interest to residents and “what does this news mean for residents;” I’m noting this item here because some residents who read the Mayor’s email in the context of the police report expressed surprise in trying to make sense of the Mayor’s intent. I’m leaving room for readers to consider her message on their own and not offering any interpretation around it.
Budget Process Discussion
Last month, the City Council recommended the Administration consider changes to the City’s Budget Process this year.
As a path to figuring out what adjustments made sense, the Council encouraged the Administration to consider feedback from previous Budget Advisory Committee participants. For example, the City’s annual objectives were not actually discussed at any point in the previous process. The Council recommended getting consensus on this and other similar issues. (link)
This month, the City is sharing the results of its survey. I’m at a loss at what else to offer beyond a link to their survey results (link). I’m not sure what they’re going to do with this information.
Public Hearings
There are two: one relating to stormwater standards and the other about the City’s Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP).
The TIP describes how the City will spend almost $5m over the next six years to improve streets and sidewalks. On the one hand — yay, improvements to sidewalks, bike lanes, and streets. At the same time…
The Administration hasn’t provided the community (or the Council) with the information about which improvements are planned or the time to process that information in order to provide thoughtful feedback ahead of the vote.
Posting information on a Friday night for a public hearing on Tuesday night, with the vote scheduled immediately after the public hearing immediately seems, well, not tragic but certainly not good.
The other hearing involves changing the municipal code around stormwater requirements. There’s not really a choice here, as the change is basically mandated by the state. It’s not entirely clear, from the documentation provided, what the impact on residents will be as new houses work through their drainage issues.
That stolen car…
While misunderstandings can be a great source of humor, they can be awful in the context of a stolen car. We’re fortunate that Clyde Hill PD has deliberate and committed professionals.
You may have noticed the cameras at the entrance to Yarrow Point… well, those cameras alerted
an officer of a stolen vehicle in the area.
[The] Officer located the vehicle later and detained the driver. After questioning the driver, [the] officer determined that the driver was the registered owner’s son, who had permission to drive the vehicle.
The license plate on the vehicle had been taken off a different stolen vehicle and swapped for one of the not-stolen vehicle’s license plates.
The driver was not aware that the plates had been switched before leaving. Driver was released from the scene and Kirkland PD was notified since the License Plate was stolen there.
You can read the rest of Clyde Hill’s Police activity here (link). Also, maybe check your license plate when getting into your car.
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Dean Hachamovitch