Mukilteo needs to show how federal covid aid being used

Published 1:30 am Thursday, January 13, 2022

We now have the city’s 2022 preliminary budget online and it does not include covid-19 federal relief monies. The only entry is in EMS for $42,000 non-grant assistance in 2020). It has been half a year since the covid-19 money was allocated by the federal government, yet current council members who joined in 2020 have no idea how much we’re getting and what we can spend it on. These are current questions from people who have been on the council the duration of the pandemic.

I am hoping to spread the word about the need for Mukilteo residents to require our elected government officials do their due diligence and appropriately use the federal covid-19 money that is meant to sustain city functioning. There is separate government assistance for businesses. The City of Seattle put $16 million of federal covid-19 relief money to work in October 2021.

Please follow the Mukilteo City Council’s actions on the coviid-19 money and ask them to inform the public on the basics: how much we are getting, when it comes, and what we can spend it on. These are questions that should have been answered six months ago. If all of the covid-19 money was being put into reserves because Mukilteo was doing so well that would be one thing. But this money isn’t even being budgeted and planned for. We deserve due diligence from the people we elected, at the very least. Ignoring huge aspects of governing, whether due to politics or incompetence, is unacceptable. Where is this money?

Kristina Melnichenko

Mukilteo