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Resolution 1570 1 RESOLUTION NO. 1570 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EDMONDS, WASHINGTON, EXPRESSING THE CITY COUNCIL'S UNDERSTANDING OF OPERATIONAL BUDGET IMPACTS FOR 2026 IF GENERAL PROPERTY TAX IS $6,000,000 LESS THAN BUDGETED. WHEREAS, Ordinance 4377 was passed on December 17, 2024 adopting the budget for the City of Edmonds for the 2025-2026 biennium; and WHEREAS, the Council is currently contemplating the optimal amount of revenue required for the City to deliver services for 2026 and subsequent years; and WHEREAS, the adopted budget includes an assumption of an additional $6,000,000 of regular property tax revenue in 2026; and WHEREAS, Council holds the authority to levy property taxes, except that any property tax levy increase of more than 1% requires a simple majority of voters to “lift” the total levy amount; and WHEREAS, Council could potentially decide not to place a levy lid lift proposition on a future ballot, or a levy lid lift proposition of any determined amount could potentially be not approved by voters; either scenario would result in $6,000,000 less general property tax revenue than budgeted for 2026; and WHEREAS, the administration and staff presented the tangible operational impacts of this $6,000,000 budget reduction during the May 9, 2025 Budget Retreat, and Council further discussed these during the May 13, 2025 council meeting and the May 20, 2025 Committee of the Whole; and WHEREAS, the other options for raising significant revenue, which were also discussed at the May 9, 2025 Budget Retreat, would have a long enough ramp up period that they aren’t considered viable sources of revenue to fund operations in 2026, even if the city council ultimately decides to pursue them; and WHEREAS, any one-time savings or one-time revenue sources would not be appropriate for funding operations in 2026 and beyond, especially where the City still needs to repay a loan to its own utilities and where it needs to replenish its reserves to meet the level set forth in its reserve policy; WHEREAS, the City Council seeks to be as transparent as possible with the City's residents about the City's likely future financial needs and ability to provide services; 2 NOW THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EDMONDS, WASHINGTON, HEREBY RESOLVES AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. The Edmonds City Council acknowledges the dramatic operational impacts of a $6,000,000 reduction of the City budget if less regular tax revenue is collected than is budgeted for 2026. Section 2. If the scenario in Section 1 occurs, the impacts that would be immediately implemented in 2026 are detailed in Attachment 1, which is attached hereto and incorporated herein as if set forth in full, and can be summarized by the following: a. Elimination of Human Services; all programs, services and staff; b. Elimination of Cultural Service Program; all services and staff; c. d. Deep reductions to street maintenance programs that enhance driver and pedestrian safety;Reduction of Police Services by over $3,600,000; Patrol staffing will be reduced to minimal contract levels, elimination of problem solving and proactive crime prevention units including animal control, traffic unit, special operations, Community engagement and Domestic Violence coordinator; e. Reduction of Parks Budget by over $1,870,000; closure of Frances Anderson Center for recreation programming and solely used for leased tenants at market rate; closure of City Park Spray Pad and Yost Pool , closed restrooms, litter pickup ceased in parks and downtown public spaces, Holiday tree decorating and lighting ceremony discontinued, elimination of wintertime downtown white tree lights, lack of vegetation management and irrigation throughout city. Elimination of special events support and permitting for Summer Market, Edmonds Arts Festival, 4th of July Parade/Race, etc.; f. Reduction of Community Services and Economic Development department by 74%; elimination of economic development and tourism programs, public information/communications, intergovernmental lobbying, limited city-wide project engagement and community events; g. Elimination of Executive Assistant to City Council. h. Deeper reductions of Facility building maintenance, Public Works, Finance, HR and IT city-wide services. i. Elimination of Edmonds Stream Team funding. Section 3. The city council hereby finds that the above and attached description of impacts are an accurate description of the factual conditions that would most likely occur if the city’s property tax revenues in 2026 are $6,000,000 less than budgeted. 4 Attachment 1 Impacts of No or Failed LLL SCENARIO #3 NO OR FAILED LEVY LID LIFT CURRENT ELIMINATIONS Misc Legal services $5,708 -$5,708 Description: Eliminates small reserve for specialty legal support Impact: Increased cost from existing legal services for services outside of their expertise. Human Services $176,397 -$176,397 Description: Eliminates Human Services Division - all programs and staffing (1FTE). Impact: There has been a significant rise in cost-burdened households in The City of Edmonds; those at risk of becoming homeless are often senior citizens struggling to secure necessities such as food and medication, single parents and domestic violence victims. The Human Services staff discretely assist our neighbors in navigating the complex social services system by helping to connect them to healthcare, shelter, food, medicine, employment services, childcare and more. This program’s one staff member, who is an expert in navigating the systems, would no longer be able to connect 400+ residents to critical services each year. Further, coordination of cold weather, warm weather, and overnight shelters, coordination of Narcan distributions, and community court participant resource navigation would be eliminated. Finally, the urgent needs program which supplies first responders and employees in the field with need-based care kits and essential contact information would also be eliminated. Cultural Services $228,465 -$228,465 Description: Elimination The Cultural Services Program – all services and staffing. Impact: Edmonds has long established itself as an arts destination. Cultural Services is the staff lead and liaison to the Edmonds Arts Commission (now in its 50th year). The program manages our public art collection, conceives, bids, and installs public art projects funded by grants, donations, or the 1% for Art fund. The program manages our long-term cultural and arts planning processes. The program is a critical element of support for our economic development efforts due to our high concentration of arts, artists, and creative industry businesses. The program is also responsible for running a revenue positive writer’s conference, which is now in its 40th year. The elimination of funding for this program has several key impacts: • City’s public art will not be maintained • Art collection at risk of deterioration, damage, loss, theft • Creative district program grants cannot be received or managed • Creative District (or just collaborative) cross-promotional marketing efforts cannot be staffed, organized, funded, and executed 5 • Lodging Tax supporting arts will need to find a new staff liaison/coordinator • No clear advocate for the creative economy internally, or at the state level • 1% for Art has no lead, or credible leadership • The city’s myriad art organizations will have no POC for which to coordinate unique public art processes within the city. Signage is a small example of this…we would have no process to allow cultural/artistic signage in the city. Misc memberships $75,000 -$75,000 Some if not all of this will need to be put back in as it includes memberships to Association of Washington Cities (AWC) Pensions and other Benefits $12,007 -$12,007 Description: LEOFF Transfers to the RFA Impact: N/A Premium Benefits $6,600 -$6,600 Description: LEOFF Transfers to the RFA Impact: N/A Reimbursement Benefits $5,000 -$5,000 Description: LEOFF Transfers to the RFA Impact: N/A Pensions and other Benefits $89,267 -$89,267 Description: LEOFF Transfers to the RFA Impact: N/A Misc. $30,000 -$30,000 Some if not all of this will need to be put back in as it includes items like Amazon Prime, an AWC Insurance program to help reduce industrial insurance costs Professional Services $2,500 -$2,500 Description: Eliminate this resource for professional services Impact: Removes ability to access short term expertise to respond to unanticipated needs. Ambulance Fees $75,000 -$75,000 Description: Transfers to the RFA Impact: N/A Edmonds Stream Team $5,000 -$5,000 6 Description: Elimination of partnership funding for the Edmonds Woodway High School Student Saving Salmon program. Impact: Loss of program funding will impact the High School’s ability to implement their environmental education program. Intergovernmental Services $20,500 -$20,500 Some if not all of this will need to be put back in as it includes items such as ILAs with WRIA8 Housing authority 7 REDUCTIONS Police $19,836,852 -$3,620,157 Description: Elimination of all ancillary services and proactive units and reduce patrol to contract minimum: Animal control, Traffic Unit, Special ops (PSET), Community Engagement, and DV Victim Coordination will be cut. Training will be reduced to one FTE, No BLEA staff, reduce commanders to 2. Patrol will be staffed at contract minimum +2 per squad; Detective staff will be reduced by one FTE. Impact: 911 calls will be prioritized. All non-priority services (animal complaints, parking, proactive homeless work, non-crime issues, property crime calls) will be handled as time and resources allow. Only the most severe cases will be assigned to detectives for follow-up. Staff from eliminated units and detectives will be re-assigned to patrol creating “bump’ scenarios and reduction in rank for some supervisors. Anticipate layoff of approximately 7 commissioned staff and 3 civilian staff. Any extended leave or mandatory training will require overtime to fill the void(s) up to mandatory levels. Likely to expect staff to leave for other departments. OT costs will be extremely high. Parks $5,425,709 -$1,871,635 Description: A 33% budget cut, following a nearly 25% cut for 2025, would force a significant reduction of programs and services, specifically reducing up to 11 employees. Impact: This will decrease or eliminate recreation programs and an additional reduction in parks maintenance services, deferred maintenance and capital projects related to city-wide parks system likely resulting in the closure of some parks, parks and recreation amenities and buildings. • Park restrooms – cancellation of temporary (17) and closure of permanent park restrooms (6), drinking fountains turned off. • Closure of City Park Spray Pad and Yost Pool. • Delayed vandalism responses (damage, graffiti, biohazard waste, etc) • Removal of garbage receptacles downtown and parks. • No litter pick up in parks and downtown public spaces. • Significant lack of vegetation management - mowing, edging, weeding, trees, shrubs and perennial trimming, in the parks, rights-of-way, streets, Interurban trail, SR104 medians and ferry lanes, etc; lawns, grass areas, landscape beds will be overgrown and invasive plant species unmanaged. • Park vegetation failure due to lack of irrigation. • Interurban trail maintenance discontinued. • No special event support (park preparation, public restrooms, litter and garbage services, etc.) • Closure of park amenities and equipment as they become damaged due to lack of repairs or replacements (playgrounds, picnic shelters, boardwalks, tables/benches, fishing pier, etc.) • Downtown white tree lights eliminated. 8 • Holiday Tree decorating and lighting ceremony eliminated. • Downtown flower baskets and corner park planting eliminated. Recreation/Administration • Closure of Frances Anderson Center for recreation programming and solely used for leased tenants at market rate. • No hourly rental of France Anderson Center rooms. • Elimination of use Frances Anderson Center for events such the Edmonds Arts Festival, SpringFest, Write on the Sound, BirdFest, etc. • Elimination of all recreation programs (summer and day camps, adult sports leagues) • Elimination of free sponsored events. • Eliminated athletic field rentals (SnoKing, youth and adult sports groups would lose formal programming etc) • Elimination of contractual agreements, logistical support, additional maintenance services and/or special event permitting for community events such as Farmers Market, Edmonds Arts Festival, Springfest/Art Festival, 4th of July Parade/Race, Taste Edmonds, Car Show and Oktoberfest and many other smaller special events. It could result in the discontinuation of these events. • Elimination of existing community partnerships for organizations such as Sound Salmon Solutions, Edmonds Stewards, Boys & Girls Club, Waterfront Center, Wade James Theater, ARTspot Edmonds, Underwater Dive Park, SnoKing Youth Sports Club, etc. This may result in the elimination of programs, activities, and city provided services such as funding, building and facility maintenance, scheduling of fields, etc. • Elimination of memorial bench, picnic tables and tree adoption program. • Elimination of Community Volunteer program. • Elimination of the ability to apply for and implement capital grants for park acquisition, renovations and improvements. • Cemetery legal transactions and sales of services, plots, niches and related items will become responsibility of the Cemetery Sexton in additional to all landscape maintenance, burials and sales. Facilities* $2,861,323 -$320,000 Description: Reduction of service to building maintenance and janitorial. Two additional staff would be cut in addition to the two we have already cut. This would be one additional Building Maintenance Operator (BMO) and another Custodian taking staffing levels from 11 to 7. Impact: This will result in less frequent professional cleaning of our buildings and more burdens passed on to building occupants. Taking their time away from the duties they were hired to do. This will logically lead to buildings that are less clean, more complaints from both building occupants (employees and renters) as well as visitors and the public. Loss of the BMO means less maintenance on plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, and slower responses to emergencies like power 9 outages, spills, and safety-related issues. More reactive maintenance and less preventive maintenance will be the norm. Public Works Administration* $953,986 -$160,000 Description: Reduction of administrative services for department operations. Loss of one of the two people managing Public Works Administrative functions. Impact: Reception, timecards, payroll entry, phone responses, work order entries required to respond to all the phone calls and e-mails we receive would be significantly delayed. Public Works manages more payable processing than any other department in the city. This will result in delayed work and an increased burden on the Finance Dept. to do the payables we process now, which is also reduced under this scenario. Finance* $1,940,707 -$160,000 Description: Reduction of administrative services for city-wide operations. Eliminate one position impacting city hall reception, business license processing, and event processing. Impact: Would need to rely on self-service for meetings, other staff would need to absorb business licensing and event request processing slowing down response times and other existing work that is already being impacted. City Hall closure to public one or two days a week. Mayor - Executive Assistant - IT - PRR $498,821 -$48,821 Description: Unanticipated consultant work Impact: Inability to secure specialized help, such as the use of Mike Bailey for the Blue Ribbon Panel. Council* $469,644 -$160,000 Description: Eliminate one position - legislative executive assistant. Impact: Would require councilmembers and/or volunteers for administrative support and communications, legislative research, meeting coordination and meeting preparation. This reduction in staff impacts the Council’s ability to gather and communicate information, make timely decisions, and manage their legislative agenda throughout the year. Community Services and Economic Development $942,943 -$692,943 Description: This reduces funding for the Department by 74%, eliminating essentially all programs and services, and reducing staff to one member with minor funding to support a department’s functions. Impact: The department would effectively cease to function. Specific impacts are: 1. Economic development 10 • Any remaining staff will be responsible for legally mandated reporting, such as Lodging Tax and MFTE and ensuring some minor continuity is created in the event a future funding source materializes. • No ability or funding to run a destination marketing program resulting in lower visitation, lower sales tax revenue, loss of marketing network connections and collaborations. Existing efforts would need to be mothballed. Unclear on who would manage intellectual property • Lodging Tax may need to find a new department to manage grants, contracts, process, and state reporting. In any case, there will be a lack of ability to manage and strategically direct the remaining program. There will be zero continuity during vacation or staff turnover. • No liaison with state and county economic development entities, resulting in lost business attraction opportunities • No clear staff liaison with the Business Improvement District. When staff liaison is identified, they will not have time, or the knowledge, to be a collaborator • No ability to write for tourism grants, administer marketing efforts, or coordinate effectively with regional marketing partners • No clear ability to aid developers in attracting local businesses, or to aid the city in business anti-displacement efforts such as connecting businesses to bridge funding. • No clear and credible liaison to the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce. No clear and credible ability to partner with them on business attraction and retention efforts 2. Communications/PIO • No funding for PIO position • Departments will have to manage their own media contacts, social media, and response to media inquiries, resulting in a fragmented and immature communications program with the community • Local media will have no central POC for fielding questions and receiving fully-staffed answers • No ability to centralize city communications, messaging, and important public information • Limited ability to streamline communications in the event of a natural or other disaster • No credible ability to manage ongoing efforts to improve Title VI compliance across the city’s communications 3. Intergovernmental • No funding to run state lobbying efforts. Must rely on AWC or other functional lobbying organizations to inform staff • No centralized reporting or strategizing of lobbying efforts • Mayor’s office must be the central POC for state and federal delegates. This includes running down information, planning visits, coordinating with other governments or nonprofits on letters of support, talking points, etc • No central department which coordinates with intergovernmental agencies to get non-departmental answers. If a department doesn’t clearly own a 11 topic, it will likely slip through the cracks. e.g. who staffs letters of support for non-profit federal grants, or who is the central POC for the Port? • Coordination with staff and our legislative delegates before, during, and after session to answer questions, work on legislation, lobby for changes to draft legislation are all severely compromised. • No effective POC on Port matters, including economic development • No central point for community nonprofits to reach out to for collaboration, coordination, and support. 4. Special projects • This department runs cross-departmental special projects. These are projects which come up routinely, but with widely varying subject matters which do not fit neatly into any specific department. At all times, there is a major special project being accomplished by this department. Examples are: o The creation of the EPFD (ECA building) o Management of ARPA grants and programs o Community survey o Levy support and communications management o Legislative and staff coordination of the Edmonds Marsh effort • Efforts like Community Renewal and Tax Increment Financing will have no clear staff support to run public processes to create (or get to an informed no) 5. Community event management • Items like the Uptown Market, Winter and Holiday Markets, Write on the Sound, Lunar New Year would have to be discontinued • Items like the Community Fair would need to come from another department, although these types of activities will likely not be feasible 6. Board and Commission Support • No staff to manage supporting or liaison functions for the following: o Economic Development Commission o Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Commission o Edmonds Chamber of Commerce o Edmonds Downtown Business Improvement District HR* $1,085,067 -$160,000 Description: This reduction of city-wide HR services is the elimination of one position in the HR Department. The HR staff function as “generalists” so while we all have focus areas, we work in all program areas. Impact: Reducing HR staff further would not only impair internal operations—it would directly impact the public-facing services of every City department. HR is the foundation that allows other departments to maintain adequate staffing, handle emergencies, and comply with the law. Specific cross-departmental impacts include: • Delayed Hiring: Slower recruitment and onboarding will leave critical public safety, utility, and community services departments understaffed. This can 12 delay police readiness, pubic works maintenance, planning and code enforcement, and community programming. • Increased Liability and Risk: Weakened oversight of safety programs, employee relations, and risk management raises the potential for workplace injuries, lawsuits, or costly compliance violations—drawing resources away from public services. • Payroll and Benefits Errors: Reduced capacity to support Finance increases the risk of payroll delays or benefit miscalculations, impacting employee morale and retention across all departments. • Slower Response to Leave and Workplace Issues: Delays in processing leave requests or workplace complaints could lead to longer absences and unresolved conflicts, further reducing departmental effectiveness. • Weakened Organizational Stability: Without strong HR support, other departments are left without expert guidance in handling performance issues, misconduct, or labor challenges, leading to increased management burdens and burnout. • Impact on Emergency Response and Continuity: In a crisis, departments depend on HR to respond quickly to staffing, injury, and policy issues. A reduced HR team cannot meet those demands. Transfer To Fund 111 $400,000 -$100,000 Description: Reduction of street maintenance program; one individual Impact: Public Works currently has only three (3) of the authorized six (6) positions filled due to previous cuts. This would reduce that by one (1) more. This puts street maintenance overall at 67% lower staffing than what has been normal for many years (even at fully-staffed levels, our annual deferred maintenance exceeded $1m/yr) This means less street painting, crosswalk marking, much slower responses to potholes, no alley maintenance at all, very little right-of-way vegetation control, a very slow winter weather response, etc. With only two people and 160 lane miles of ROW to maintain everything would be affected.