Clyde Hill News: “Up to the voters to determine whether or not the administrator… is doing his or her job,” says City Attorney
Mayor: “precedent setting” decisions ahead; stormwater, enforcement called out as major issues for City
Also, a new Clyde Hill Police Department vehicle is coming online… pictured here is friend of police and test pilot Violet, making sure the cart is ready to patrol the trails near the 520 Lid and the Nature Preserves by Yarrow Point:
Now, our disclaimer:
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.
February City Council Meeting Excerpts
From a resident’s point of view, there were two main issues of interest I called out in last week’s newsletter regarding the February City Council meeting: stormwater and code enforcement.
For this week’s newsletter, I’m offering several excerpts on these topics so you can see what happened for yourself. Candidly, as a resident, I’d like to see better.
Precedent setting
The Mayor used this term to describe some of the decisions and issues that the City is facing.
My impression is that to a person, members of the City Council are committed to doing everything in their power to clarify and address these issues. The City Council is responsible for policy and setting laws and approving a budget; the Mayor and Administration are responsible for actually delivering results given that budget approval.
Public trust
I was very surprised at the guidance from the City Administrator about accountability of the City government: “It is up to the voters to determine whether or not the administrator… is doing his or her job.” You can hear it for yourself (it’s at 9 minute 20 mark in the “§7.3 Enforcement discussion” video below).
Explaining what’s going on to friends and neighbors around Clyde Hill is challenging. For example, at the January meeting, the Council approved work to address resident concerns around code enforcement. Right now, because of actions by the Mayor, it’s not clear to the community what the status of this work is. The City Administration should either support the work or be clear to the public what alternative it is offering. (At the February meeting, the Mayor attempted to shut down public discussion of the issue by claiming she’d sent Attorney Client Privileged communication concerning this work. While I am not a lawyer, the absence of the words “client” and “privilege” in that email makes me doubtful.)
Where we are, what’s ahead
The City has spent resources cutting down a hedge and enforcing some code against some residents in unpredictable ways, sometimes citing resource constraints, other times offering contradictory reasons, and sometimes saying that there is no problem at all. The City is actively planning a remodel to City Hall, but doesn’t appear to have resources (time, people, money) to address resident concerns about flooding from stormwater issues in a timely way.
One of the first steps with any complex problem is just getting the information on the table so we can all make sense of it. My hope is that this newsletter in general, and this issue in particular, will help with that.
The Mercia Hedge Removal: “awful”
Councilmember Kim Muromoto asked the Mayor to clarify the reason for the Mercia Hedge’s removal, especially given all the discussion of complaint-based enforcement. His response (lightly edited for clarity):
I'm just… I'm just a little bit surprised again… I'm just a little disappointed considering all of the emails that I saw regarding the hedge. I didn’t see one that anybody complained about it, I didn't think it was a safety issue, and I'm… I'm sorry. I'm just a little bit disturbed that it's… because I drove past it the other day and it… frankly looks awful. I'm sorry. My opinion.
This video is cued up to his response; the video has material both before and after his response so that you can get the full context.
Stormwater
Councilmember Hachamovitch (me) asked how a resident can tell if stormwater equipment shown on the City’s maps (available on the City’s website) is the responsibility of the City or the resident (3:05 mark). After the Mayor says a few words, Clyde Hill’s Director of Public Works responds:
The gist: basically, the city does have an inventory. That inventory is public. And no one is capable of saying who’s responsible for which piece.
Why this matters
Some Clyde Hill residents near 17th have had more than a year of flooding in their homes as the City has moved very slowly in response to stormwater issues after requesting, receiving approval for, and then declining to use several hundreds of thousands of dollars of funds.
In January, the City responded (link) to resident complaints of backyard flooding and reported 12” of standing water in areas around 84th Ave NE.
In February, residents complained about stormwater flooding around 92nd Ave near Aqua Vista; the City sought and received approval for ~$128K in funds (link) to address these problems.
Public Works is the key City responsibility other than the Police Department. (The City contracts out for Fire and utility services.)
It’s also worth noting that the City chose to not communicate previous stormwater problems, for example its non-compliance with its permit from the State. Here’s a link to the State Department of Ecology; this letter was not in any public reports to the City Council or the community.
In contrast to what the current Administration is offering Clyde Hill, here is Medina’s guide to residents (link) about private stormwater systems and Medina’s overall program (link).
City Enforcement: a case by case basis
I asked the Director of Public Works about the policy that was not communicated to residents and doesn’t appear to be written down anywhere. (I didn’t get to the inconsistent and contradictory enforcement.) It emerged that there is no appeals process, either. Then, the interim City Attorney stepped in to clarify.
The City is under no requirement to write down a policy much less communicate it or enforce it consistently. Interim City Attorney P. Stephen DiJulio of Foster Garvey explained that the Mayor and City Administrator decide what to enforce, and how, on a case by case basis (at the 6:09 in the same video, above):
There is no difference between the police exercise of discretion on a case-by-case basis and the code enforcement provision on a case-by-case basis. It’s all under the executive’s administration as chief law enforcement officer for the city whether it’s with respect to speeding tickets enforcement of property rights or other elements of the city code.
City Enforcement: “it’s up to the voters”
I asked what baseline expectations residents should have from the City regarding the City’s enforcement policy. After all, we know the police do not just make stuff up as they go along. His answer (at 8:22):
Yeah there is no baseline. There is a law that is recognized that um cannot uh be enforced uh to against all people at all times. There are limited resources available to the city and it’s up to the executive to determine how to administer that whether it’s through public works department, police department, or any of the other agencies of the city. It’s no different than the police chief or… shift commander saying to the officers today we’re going to do this. That’s a policy determination it’s not written anywhere it’s you know it could come down from the chief it could come down from the mayor it could come down from the shift commander it really is the classic exercise of discretion and it’s up to the voters to determine whether or not the administrator of that function is doing his her job.
For reference, the Mayor is the Chief Administrative Officer of the City.
I wanted to make sure that “there’s no expectation that any of this has to be written down or clear in anyway.” The lawyer responded: “Correct… it’s a nice thing to do but it’s not required.”
What is the City Enforcing?
Earlier in the meeting, Councilmember Scott Moore asked the Mayor for clarification of her administration’s intentions around enforcement. Her answer is quite long; at YouTube, you can bring up the transcript and read along:
Councilmember Moore’s response — “I hope that’s more clear [to] everybody else than it is to me” — is, I think, fair. As a resident, it’s really not at all clear.
Housing Homeless at Kirkland’s La Quinta Inn
At Yarrow Point’s Town Council meeting this week, Mayor Kinney shared a letter from the Chair of the King County Council, Claudia Balducci, regarding the planned use of the La Quinta Inn by Kirkland as housing for the homeless.
Clyde Hill followed that lead, and you can read that letter at the City’s website here.
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Dean Hachamovitch