The City of Edmonds is eyeing some large capital projects in coming years, from renovating a portion of its waterfront to improving its stormwater infrastructure to replacing its aging sludge incinerator. The burden of paying for these projects will fall on taxpayers, and that reality appeared to be top of mind as the Edmonds City Council Tuesday night deliberated issues ranging from the proposed 2020 budget to whether to increase the city’s property tax assessment to how much to raise utility rates.

Decisions are still to come on proposed utility rate increases and the overall city budget, both of which drew a range of questions Tuesday night from councilmembers in a meeting that lasted until just after 11 p.m. But the council did approve a motion by Councilmember Mike Nelson to defer a 1% increase in the city’s property tax and instead “bank” it for possible future use — saving the owner of an average residence valued at $594,300 a total of $5.73 a year. The council also unanimously approved a 1% increase in the emergency medical services property tax levy — which will cost that average residence $2.23 annually.

The utility rate proposal — covering the years 2020-2022 — recommends a 5% annual increase in sewer rates, a 4.5% hike in water rates and a 9.5% increase in stormwater rates. Edmonds is also looking to sell bonds to fund $10 million for the city’s portion of a project to replace the wastewater treatment plant’s aging sludge incinerator. (The total system cost is initially estimated at $20 million but the City of Mountlake Terrace, which sends sewage flows to Edmonds to be treated, will pick up the remainder.) If the city chose not to sell bonds and instead followed a “pay as you go” policy — which it has been doing for the past nine years —  the sewer rates would be higher — an 8% annual increase.

Under the staff-recommended rate proposal that includes a bond sale, combined utility rates would rise from an average of $132.23 bimonthly in 2019 to $141.58 in 2020. This keeps the city in the middle of the range, rate-wise, compared to surrounding cities, Public Works and Utilities Director Phil Williams said.

Nelson, who will take over as mayor in January, noted that since 2010, the utility taxes of Edmonds residents have gone up 57% for sewage, 75% for stormwater and 84% for water — not including what the council decides on the latest rate increases. And the total cost of water, sewer and stormwater capital projects over the next five years will total $98.3 million. “I think it’s asking a lot for our citizens and I think we need to re-evaluate how to fund these projects,” Nelson said. “I’m not supportive of this pure pay-as-you go funding policy.”

Council President Adrienne Fraley-Monillas said she can’t support any utility rate increases as they are regressive, hitting those on lower incomes harder than the general population. In addition, she said, the rate increases will disproportionately affect people of color living along the Highway 99 corridor.

Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling noted that “none of us like to pay the additional fees that come with raised rates. On the other hand, we are a city of 129 years old. We’ve gotta take care of our infrastructure.”

The next step in considering the rate increase will be a public hearing on a yet-to-be-announced date.

During the budget discussion, there was a question raised by Councilmember Diane Buckshnis about the proposed pyrolysis project — which involves the thermal decomposition of organic materials at high heat — to replace the existing sludge incinerator. Because Mountlake Terrace also sends sewage to Edmonds for treatment, questions have been raised about the whether Terrace’s projected population growth would overtax the Edmonds plant — something that Edmonds residents would pay for in the long run. Williams replied that if the City of Moutlake Terrace exceeds the limits of contracted sewage flows, it would have to figure out how to manage those flows, including the possibility of sending them elsewhere.

In another item Tuesday night, the council discussed a proposed three-year contract with Lighthouse Law Group, which serves as the current City Attorney. Councilmember Tom Mesaros said he brought the contract forward now even though he and fellow Councilmember Dave Teitzel are still researching how neighboring cities handle their attorney hiring practices. Approving the contract now would ensure some certainty both for the law firm and the city going into 2020,  but the council also has the option of canceling the Lighthouse contract with 60 days’ notice at any time.

City Attorney Jeff Taraday then clarified what would happen under the proposed contract if the city broke the agreement early, which would trigger — as mentioned in our earlier story — the ability of the firm to retroactively bill the city at the firm’s regular hourly rate. Lighthouse now charges the city a flat monthly rate, regardless of workload including any additional litigation — an arrangement it doesn’t offer to any of its other clients.

Under the proposal, Lighthouse could bill retroactively for no more than eight months’ work if the city broke its contract in 2020, for four months’ work if the city broke the contract in the first four months of 2021, and for two months’ work if the contract was broken in the first two months of 2022.

Councilmembers agreed to vote on the proposal at next week’s Nov. 26 business meeting.

In other action, the council:

– Approved by a 5-2 vote an expenditure of up to $4,000 for an informational panel at the old Edmonds High School portico now located in the southeast corner of the Salish Crossing parking lot. Councilmember Dave Teitzel brought the proposal forward as a way of educating passersby about the significance of the 1909-era portico, which Salish Crossing owner Lindsey Echelbarger saved from the landfill when the former high school was remodeled to house the Edmonds Center for the Arts. This proposal generated a fair amount of discussion. Councilmember Kristiana Johnson expressed her strong opposition to the idea, calling it “fake history” because the portico is quite a distance from its original location. Council President Fraley-Monillas said she didn’t believe the city should provide signage for private property, although city staff indicated there are several examples of the city getting an easement to locate city signage on private property.

– Heard the annual report from the Edmonds Downtown Alliance — the business improvement district that represents downtown businesses — and approved its 2020 work plan.

– Approved the transfer of the city’s Frontier Cable franchise to Northwest Fiber.

Two other items on the agenda — authorizing the mayor to sign the Water Quality Stormwater Capacity grant from the Department of Ecology and approving a 30-year Wastewater Treatment Disposal and Transport Contract with the City of Mountlake Terrace — were postponed to a future meeting due to the lateness of the hour.

— Story and photo by Teresa Wippel