EDMONDS — Equipment purchases and planned projects are on hold — at least until Edmonds City Council votes on a spate of proposed budget amendments.
The council reopened 2022 budget talks early this year, meaning the city has had to pause some day-to-day operations.
“It’s causing a lot of distress,” Mayor Mike Nelson told The Daily Herald on Tuesday.
Staff, like Police Chief Michelle Bennett, have spent their evenings in virtual council meetings on Zoom to reiterate their departments’ needs and justify budget asks.
City Council members continued budget amendment discussions Tuesday, ending the meeting in the middle of a staff member’s testimony. They discussed four out of 21 proposed amendments.
Morale has been low among city staff since budget talks resumed in January, Nelson said.
About one-third of the Human Services division’s allocation and several environmental projects are among the city programs on the chopping block.
The council began voting on proposed amendments Tuesday. One passed with a supermajority — at least five votes — and will be added to an ordinance that will come back to council for final approval.
Council members voted 5-2 to remove plans to hire a full-time Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) program manager and instead contract the manager for three years.
Human Resources Manager Emily Wagener suggested it would be harder to hire a person in a contract role. She added that she doesn’t see the city’s need for the position going away after three years.
Council members also debated the value of a full-time city spokesperson for 20 minutes.
The council voted 4-3 to only fund the full-time spokesperson through the end of March, but the motion failed to get a supermajority.
Council President Vivian Olson argued the description needed to spell out the “need for neutral fact-based communications.” She and Councilmembers Kristiana Johnson and Will Chen said they felt the current spokesperson was at the whim of the mayor’s office, rather than a neutral voice for the city.
Mayor Nelson clarified that the spokesperson follows his direction and issues statements on his behalf.
Councilmembers Susan Paine and Laura Johnson stood behind the need for a full-time spokesperson.
Paine said the amendment would cut off the position “at the knees,” and argued it was “very, very shortsighted.”
And the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers a spokesperson an essential piece of a government’s incident response, Laura Johnson said.
“Government is responsible for protecting communities during an emergency, providing critical information to the public before, during and after,” she said.
A vote to extend the meeting to 10:50 p.m. failed, cutting off Shannon Burley, deputy director for parks, recreation and human services.
Like other city staff who just finished their eight-hour work day, Burley logged into the 2½ hour council meeting to share her department’s needs. Meanwhile, council members considered shaving $200,000 from her department’s budget.
Human Services’ budget is partially funded by American Rescue Plan Act funds.
“When we reopened the portal here in 2022, we received over 100 applications (for household support grants) in the first week,” Burley told council members. “We have since doubled that in two weeks. We will quickly burn through our ARPA funding that’s allocated for 2022, now, in the winter months.”
Department leaders like Burley are wondering if they can move forward with their projects after council votes.
Burley told council members Edmonds’ community partners were watching, wondering what level of commitment the city has to assist vulnerable residents.
“There are real consequences to these things,” Nelson said.
The recent budget discussions at council meetings led Compass Health officials to call the city to make sure Edmonds still wanted a social worker, Burley told the Herald Tuesday.
“Our partners are wondering what’s going on,” she said.
The 2022 budget passed in November, ushering in “green” initiatives, the new police chief’s goals and infrastructure improvements. But a new voting bloc, including freshman Councilmembers Chen and Neil Tibbott, was empowered to crack it open again.
Former City Councilmember Luke Distelhorst asked the council Tuesday to follow the code of conduct. He added, “as far as I’m aware, Edmonds is the only city that has council members trying to defund an approved budget. This is not good governance, and this is not normal.”
Councilmembers Kristiana Johnson and Diane Buckshnis led the effort to dissect a myriad of budget items, like reducing or removing several city staff positions, as well as money for wetland projects.
The two asked for more time to vet the budget. They argued newly elected council members should have a chance to weigh in on city expenditures.
From the perspective of “fiscal conservatives,” Buckshnis told The Herald, the $121 million budget is “bloated.” She said she hopes budget talks will wrap up soon so city business can move forward.
Mayor Nelson shared his budget proposal in the first week of October. The City Council then heard two budget presentations that month, led public hearings and met three times to continue the discussion before adopting the budget.
“There’s been no shortage of opportunities to ask questions,” Councilmember Laura Johnson told The Herald. “Everything is being held up — not only city functions, but also people’s livelihoods.”
Kristiana Johnson and Buckshnis first led efforts to make sweeping changes to the mayor’s proposed budget last fall. Neither council member was present when the council was slated to vote on their proposed amendments.
The Edmonds City Council will likely continue the discussion next week. Any amendment to decrease funding would require a supermajority, or five votes, to pass.
Isabella Breda: 425-339-3192; isabella.breda@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @BredaIsabella.
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