Clyde Hill News This Week, #4
Election, Reflection, and a Correction
Three main topics this week, with more detail further down, including progress on the City’s legal representation as well as informing changes to the Land Use code.
Election: King County will mail ballots out next week on October 13. There are three races for Clyde Hill City Council seats:
In Position 1, an incumbent (Steve Friedman), whom I strongly endorse;
In Position 3, an incumbent (Kim Muromoto, whom I strongly endorse) against a challenger Nitin Mittal (I can’t find a website for him);
In Position 5, Dean Hachamovitch (me, my endorsements here) against John Schwager (I can’t find a website for him).
Reflection on Budget. Last week’s newsletter reported that the City is on track to run a deficit (revenues less than expenditures) and balance the budget using reserves (savings from past years). There are two levers: spending less and, well, taxing more. Some thoughts on that below.
Correction: last week’s newsletter referred to a Public Hearing about City Policy issues. I was wrong. There’s just the usual public comment period at the start of the meeting.
More details about Tuesday’s meeting below (for example, Clyde Hill Police responded to four domestic violence calls in September 😔).
In terms of the week in review:
The City put out a Request For Quotes for Legal Services on Friday afternoon, and “emailed the six law firms listed on the MRSC.ORG page for Legal RFQ’s.” This is 30 years in the making (see item 2 here), and two months after the City Council clearly signaled its preference that the City do this. More information here if you know a good lawyer.
The City has opened applications “to request to have the Land Use Code (Title 17) or the Comprehensive Plan changed.” The deadline is October 31. These requests cost $500. The Land Use code covers stuff like zoning, trees & views, and accessory dwelling units; you can read it here. This item wasn’t in the Weekly Administrator report. I stumbled across it on the website. What do you think about having to pay $500 to give feedback? More information here.
Thank you!
Dean
Election: why does it matter?
The City Council’s job is, as a Council Member recently described, “to set policy and to provide oversight of the administration of that policy.” Policy, here, effectively means local laws: ordinances and resolutions that can modify the Clyde Hill Municipal code, which governs the operations of the City.
Who is on the council matters because they’re the bridge between you, the Clyde Hill resident, and how the City operates.
If you think the noise ordinance is too weak, it’s up to the Council to take feedback and decide what changes.
If you want the rules on view preservation and trees to be simpler to understand and follow through on, or think that having to pay for the City’s legal fees if you appeal a permit (!) is unreasonable, you care who is on the Council.
(The Council does not get involved in resolving specific administrative issues. It does ask questions about specific projects that the City has funded, like the 17th Street stormwater abandonment.)
Over the last year, I’ve actively attended City Council meetings as a member of public, sat down individually with Council Members and the Chief of Police to understand their points of view, and met 1:1 with many frustrated and some “just curious” residents.
This election is about returning two experienced, thoughtful, effective Council Members to office — and choosing whether the new person on the Council is an active, forward-looking, engaged member of how the world is changing and accelerating, who cares about listening to residents and communicating what’s going on.
Reflection on Budget
OK, back to the budget… last week I wrote that ultimately, the City will need to increase revenue or reduce service levels.
In the very short term, there are some “tweaks” (as a Council Member termed it) to get by. It doesn’t change the fundamental issue that structurally, costs are going up faster than revenue is coming in. (This is related to how much of the City’s budget goes to payroll, and that much of that payroll has cost of living adjustments built in.)
On expenditures side, as the City delivers services, there aren’t any egregious “pork barrel” projects going operationally year after year.
On the revenue side, the main reason the City is not in distress now is that it is flush (read: millions of dollars) with reserves; see this newsletter issue that goes into detail with charts like this one:
Longer term, it would be good to have clear principles, like transparency (or, not hiding and tucking away taxes and fees), and agreement on who should pay more (for example, new construction).
I sat down with a City Council member to go through the options:
Property Tax. The State limits hikes in property tax to 1% a year. A city can put a Levy Lid Lift (“lifting” the levy (tax) on property above its 1% limit) out to vote; Medina did this recently. The City could raise the property tax by more than 1% if the State changed its limits (see Legislative Agenda, below).
Unrestricting funds. Another path, also via legislative relief, involves removing restrictions on how the City uses REET (real-estate excise tax, the money the City collects when a property changes hands) revenue.
New construction. Charge new construction more to happen.
Stormwater utility. This has the benefit of transparency — and as a very experienced council member pointed out earlier this year, it is super, super complex operationally in terms of setting up billing, etc.
Sales Tax. This has been very important during covid with people shopping online. The City gets to the collect sales tax when goods are delivered to a Clyde Hill address.
Investment income, fines, wireless communication facility leases, and utility and franchise taxes aren’t going to save the City budget shortfall.
There is also a Facilities Master Plan to reconsider. Our neighbors in Hunts Point, Medina, and Yarrow Point share a facilities problem that Clyde Hill has budgeted funds to address: in-person and on-line meetings. Is it possible to share a solution rather than spend to build a special Clyde Hill one?
City Council Meeting
Pulling out a few of interest here:
Legislative Agenda (link). These are subjects and request for the State Legislature from cities. Related to the budget discussion above, adjusting the property tax cap of 1% to take into account cost of living changes and more flexibility (that is, fewer restrictions) on what cities can do with particular revenue sources. Being able to use REET (revenue to the City when a house sells) for operational not just capital spend would be super helpful.
Premium pay to the City’s essential workers. This is a way to use the ARPA funds (see previous newsletter’s coverage of ARPA) to cover the operational and not just capital spend.
Police. As always, a lot of training. In September Clyde Hill PD responses included:
Four domestic violence/disturbance calls
A welfare check on someone in distress
Three burglaries
Three motor vehicle prowls
Five thefts and one motor vehicle theft
A package theft and malicious mischief (mailboxes broken into)
They recovered a stolen vehicle as well.
Thank you again. Please subscribe and please forward to your friends and neighbors in Clyde Hill — and know that feedback always welcome and 🙏