Will you chip in to support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation today? Yes, I want to support My Edmonds News!
By a vote of 4-3 Tuesday night, the Edmond City Council approved a resolution telling the South Snohomish County Fire and Rescue Regional Authority that the City of Edmonds officially intends to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of annexation.
Edmonds currently contracts with regional fire authority (RFA) for fire and emergency medical services. Voters in nearby jurisdictions — including Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Brier — in recent years have voted to join the RFA.
The City of Edmonds sold its city fire department assets (fire trucks and equipment) to Snohomish County Fire District No. 1 (now known as South County Fire) in 2009, and all employees became fire district employees. Edmonds joined several other nearby municipalities who at the time were contracting with South County Fire for fire and EMS services
City of Edmonds Administrative Services Director Dave Turley, who presented the resolution, said he has received several questions asking why the city is looking at annexation right now, since the city’s latest contract with South County Fire — for 10 years — doesn’t expire until 2030.
“For quite a while our contract was pretty flat,” Turley explained, displaying a graph of fire contract cost history in the council chambers. From 2014 to 2021, the cost varied between $6 million and $8 million and wasn’t of concern to either previous city councils or city administrations. “It didn’t really fluctuate a lot,” he said.
However, starting in 2022, costs have increased from $8 mllion to a projected cost of $12.5 million in 2024. “So folks we just got about a 50% increase in our fire contract over about a two- or three-year span,” which amounts to $4 million, Turley said. “And that’s $4 million this year and next year and the following year and we have to figure out how we’re going to handle this because this kind of an increase is not sustainable for the city.”
While the city does have a contract until 2030, South County Fire could cancel that contract at any time with two years’ notice, Turley explained. “While we think we have a whole decade to deal with this, we really don’t,” he said.
He stressed that passing the resolution doesn’t commit the council to doing anything in terms of annexation but it does open the door to begin a discussion with the fire authority — and also to obtaining the data the city needs to begin doing its “due diligence.”
Councilmembers proposed a couple of language changes in the resolution via amendments that were approved. One, from Teitzel, replaced the word “will” in a phrase related to annexation benefits with the word “may,” as the benefits are currently unknown. The other, from Chen, replaced a phrase stating the city is requesting annexation with one stating the city is requesting information about annexation.
Prior to passage of Chen’s amendment, City Attorney Jeff Taraday noted that Chen’s change may raise concerns because the RFA requires very specific language in the resolution, but councilmembers approved it anyway by a 4-3 vote.
When it came to the main motion, Councilmember Olson said she wondered if 2024 would be the best year to investigate the RFA annexation since the council will be dealing with the 2024 Comprehensive Plan update, onboarding new councilmembers and experiencing first year of biennial budget. She ended up voting no on the resolution, stating she’d prefer to wait until 2025. Councilmember Diane Buckshnis also voted no, stating she agreed with Olson on waiting and also said she believes there needs to be a more transparent, public process prior to considering the matter further. Will Chen also voted no.
Councilmembers who voted in favor of the resolution — Neil Tibbott, Dave Teitzel, Jenna Nand and Susan Paine — said it was important to start the process now so that the council can ensure it gets all the information it needs — on both the costs and the benefits — so that Edmonds residents are fully informed.
Addressing a question from Tibbott, City Attorney Taraday noted that even with council adoption of the resolution, several steps must occur before any annexation question would go before voters. Once all the information is gathered, the city council has another chance to review the proposal and could chose at that point to walk away from it, he added.
In other business, the council heard a report from the Edmonds Salary Commission, which directed the city to give raises for the mayor and city councilmembers, starting in 2024. The binding recommendations were developed by five Edmonds volunteers appointed to review the salaries and determine whether they should be increased or decreased.
Commission Chair Bill Taylor said the group met seven times and identified 16 Western Washington cities to use for comparison — all of them with mayor/council governments “plus or minus 50%” the size of Edmonds for population and assessed valuation.
A consultant assisted the commission in determining the current salary paid to the mayors, city councilmembers and council presidents of those cities, including all related benefits and perquisites. The analysis also looked at time requirements for comparable cities’ councilmembers.
In addition, the commission examined inflation since the last salary decisions were made, as well as the cost-of-living increases provided to non-represented city employees during that same time period.
In the end, the group determined that the salary of the Edmonds mayor will increase — effective Jan. 1, 2024 — by 14.6% and the city councilmembers by 20%. The council president will also receive a 20% increase.
The commission report noted that the average annual salary for mayor among comparable cities was $141,400 and the median was $130,464. Edmonds’ mayor is paid $136,211, a rate in effect since Jan. 1, 2021. According to the commission report, an annual salary of $156,123 is “a reasonable amount in comparison to other local cities.”
City councilmembers are now paid $17,000 annually — a rate in effect since January 2021. The report stated that the average annual salary for councilmembers was $14,602 while the median was $14,400.
“A salary amount based upon comparisons to other cities, and also a salary amount based upon the pattern of increases to non-represented employees would still result in councilmember salaries less than the State minimum wage,” the report said. “Thus, out of respect for this important service to our community, we decided upon a salary of $20,462, which is a 20% increase above the current level.”
The report also addressed the commission’s consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion issues related to council service and its proposal for a $6,000 “low-income supplement.”
This supplement “was included as the one clear step the commission could take to address the perceived economic barrier that might prevent a broader cross-section of our city residents from running for office,” the report said. Noting that councilmembers can also decline city health insurance and receive an “in lieu of” payment of $11,056 annually,” the report said that amount — coupled with the low-income supplement — “could meaningfully address” this concern.
“Under those circumstances a ‘low-income’ council member could earn the basic salary of $20,462 plus the low-income supplement of $6,000 plus the insurance “in-lieu-of” payment of $11,056,” the report said. “This would result in an annual total compensation of $37,518.”
At the end of the presentation, councilmembers applauded Taylor and the four other commissioners — Kathy Ehrlich, Gary Holton, Brook Roberts and Angela Zhang — for their efforts and in particular for working to broaden the accessibility of council service to more residents.
The council also:
– Heard a report from the Edmonds Sister City Commission, with a summary of their visit to Hekinan, Japan earlier this year. The visit marked the 35th anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Edmonds and Hekinan, and a 12-member Japanese delegation will be coming to Edmonds in late October.
– Received a proclamation regarding Arbor Month, which was received by Edmonds Tree Board member Kevin Fagerstrom. The tree board is planning several events in October to celebrate, including tree plantings and giveaways.
— By Teresa Wippel
Real first and last names — as well as city of residence — are required for all commenters.
This is so we can verify your identity before approving your comment.
By commenting here you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read our code at the bottom of this page before commenting.