Edmonds mayor talks fiscal emergency at Q&A

EDMONDS — Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen discussed the city’s fiscal emergency at a Q&A session with residents Monday.

About 100 residents attended the discussion, hosted by Edmonds Civic Roundtable, a community nonprofit that holds monthly nonpartisan events. Rosen gave a brief recap of his State of the City speech before answering audience questions.

The event comes two weeks before Edmonds residents are set to vote on annexing into South County Fire on April 22. Most voters received their ballots in the mail last week.

At the end of 2023, the regional fire authority informed city officials it would terminate its contract at the end of 2025 due to the increased financial demand of servicing the city. Edmonds is the only city that has a separate contract with the authority. Currently, residents pay $6.5 million to the city for fire services. If annexed, taxpayers would pay the fire authority directly, but the City Council has stated it intends to keep charging residents the $6.5 million and place that money in its general fund.

One pre-submitted question asked what the benefits are to annexing now versus signing a temporary contract with the fire authority. A one-year temporary contract could buy the city time to explore other service options, the question said. But waiting a year would cost the city $15 million, Rosen said.

“So, if we wait a year, I don’t know what would be different at the end of that year,” Rosen said.

Some residents have suggested using that year to go back to the table with South County Fire to negotiate a less expensive contract, Rosen said. According to state law, the regional fire authority is not allowed to charge Edmonds significantly less than other cities for services.

“They cannot give us a better price than anyone else, so that isn’t negotiable,” Rosen said.

One audience member asked why the city is not pursuing separate fire and emergency medical services. In his presentation, Rosen shared that 84% of South County Fire’s calls in the past year have been for emergency medical services. Chief Bob Eastman said the authority sends its closest units to an emergency, so fire often responds first to emergency medical calls. South County Fire would still need as many firefighters to serve the area, plus Edmonds would pay more for other services.

Other questions centered around the sale of city parks. Last week, ideas from council members to sell Hummingbird Hill Park and the Frances Anderson Center drew public outcry. More than 60 people spoke at a City Council meeting, urging members to take those sites off the table.

A submitted question asked how the council’s ideas align with the city’s 2022 Parks, Recreation & Open Space plan, which states the city will need 125 more acres of open space by 2035 to meet its growing population. Rosen said it’s not just about acreage but the accessibility and quality of existing parks.

“How we think about parks has changed, and it’s very much different here in Edmonds,” he said. “It’s not about acres per 1,000 people. It’s about equity.”

Edmonds resident Mark Oberlatz asked about how the city could take advantage of selling property by inviting development that would increase property taxes.

“The downside is, once it’s gone, it’s gone,” Rosen said. “Another downside is we have a structural problem. We have a structural imbalance. So selling assets buys us instant cash — and we are cash poor — but that doesn’t help us with our structural problem.”

Resident Brenda Brown asked if federal cuts are impacting Edmonds directly. Rosen local representatives have asked the city for an inventory of these impacts, but it’s “not significant yet.” The city is worried about losing funding for the next phase of Highway 99 Corridor development.

Resident Annie Crawley asked Rosen, “How and when do you see us balancing the budget? I mean, I don’t see an end.”

Rosen said the city and residents may have to make some difficult choices. For example, the HVAC system at the Frances Anderson Center is in need of a $9 million replacement, and Yost Pool will need a $27 million replacement by 2030, he said. On May 9, the City Council is having a retreat to discuss more than 100 ideas of ways to increase revenue and decrease spending. Some ideas include introducing a fire impact fee and increasing the dog license fee.

“I do believe we are going to get out of this,” Rosen said. “We love this place, and we aren’t gonna mess it up, but it is gonna be about choices.”

Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; jenna.peterson@heraldnet.com; X: @jennarpetersonn.