An estimated 120 people filled the Edmonds Waterfront Center ballroom on Thursday evening to hear Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen reflect on the challenges, surprises and events of his first three months in office.

Sponsored by the Edmonds Civic Roundtable, the event moderator was Ray Liaw, an attorney specializing in land use, environmental and municipal law. She also serves as president of the Edmonds Public Facilities District Board.

The format consisted of Liaw posing a series of questions to Rosen in an interview format. Questions touched on civility in government, communications and engagement, the city’s budget, the Growth Management Act, the Comprehensive Plan, infrastructure and more. This was followed by an open question-and-answer session with the audience.

Rosen began with introductory remarks, stressing his gratification for the level of engagement by Edmonds citizens on many levels, and the respect he’s seeing for the office of mayor, “regardless of the feelings you may have for me.”

“Tonight, I want to start off with an apology to all of you on behalf of the city,” he said. “Our city has not been good at having straight-out conversations about what’s going on, trusting and respecting our citizens with that information, and having faith in their ability to interpret it and make decisions. I firmly believe that whether the news is good or bad, you need it all.

“We’ve also been bad at managing expectations about how decisions are made and how you can be part of it,” he continued. “And part of this is the need for all of us to realize that we’re in this together and no one gets everything they want.”

Then it was time for the first question.

“This one will be an icebreaker to get us going,” Liaw said. “Mr. Mayor, how much sleep are you getting these days.”

“I get no emails (so far) between 2:30 and 4:30 in the morning,” he responded with a laugh.

Liaw: “This is your first elected position. You were engaged as a volunteer before, but this is different, and I want to get your take on several things. First, our city staff – what can you say about them?”

Rosen: “Our staff is so bright, and so dedicated to what they do,” he began.

He went on to describe conversations with wastewater facility staff who, during the mayor’s recent tour of the plant, universally said that “our job is to put the cleanest possible water into Puget Sound and into our municipal system.” He found the same attitude among public works staff who maintain our roads  – “we want them as safe as possible.”

“I see this everywhere I go,” he added. “Police, public works, parks – they all have this attitude. Many of our employees’ parents worked here too – it’s their family business, a multi-generational commitment. They could go anywhere, but they choose to work in Edmonds.”

Liaw: “Did you see any surprises with respect to services?”

Rosen: “The depth of service is remarkable, and the variety of things going on is staggering,” he said. “You see the impact of staff’s commitment everywhere — when trees blow over, the parks crews clean it up right away. The sheer volume of work that goes on is pretty amazing.”

Liaw: “What about our built environment, the stuff we own like the Log Cabin?”

Rosen: He explained that the city owns a lot of buildings, but that 63% of these are more than 23 years old and things are starting to break down. None of Edmonds’ buildings are considered in excellent to fair condition. All ranged from fair to poor.

“We need to take care of these,” he stressed. “The longer we let it go, the worse it gets. It may be easy to say in the moment ‘well, the building hasn’t fallen over yet, so let’s spend the money on something else and deal with the building next year,’ but the longer we let it go the more it will cost to fix. The same thing with our roads – potholes don’t get smaller or cheaper to fix with time.”

He also referenced the Public Safety Complex (home of the Edmonds Police Department, Municipal Court and Council Chambers), noting that it was designed for what was needed at the time it was built — and that we need to ask if it fits with our realities today. “It doesn’t even have a sprinkler system,” he added.

He stressed that these are examples of why we must decide what our core needs are – and that once we decide this that we can look to the future and make decisions about what kind of staff and facilities we’ll need to meet these.

Liaw: “You pledged during the campaign to bring more civility to local government. What have you done to address this?”

Rosen: “That was what I meant by stop the crazy,” he began. “I worry about this a lot, and about the effect on civility of the kind of stress we’ll be experiencing this election year. I believe that for much of Edmonds we are moving away from that – there will still be the small percentage of our population who will try to nudge us into political polarization, but I believe the rest of us will say ‘not here, not us, not where we want to be today.’ Nothing against the past, but I think our community is ready for a change, and ready to move away from this.

“I see too much of jumping to the assumption of ill intent on the part of people with whom we do not agree,” he continued. “Have grace with each other. We all have a story, and none of us walk in the other’s shoes. Again, we’re going to have a nuts political year – don’t be pushed to extremes. It’s not Edmonds, it’s not who we are.”

Liaw: “How about on council. Could there be more consensus on what happens in that room?”

Rosen: “That room is for policy making and having the debate and conversation in front of the public,” he stated. “The meetings could be more efficient — council sometimes goes down rabbit holes discussing things that have nothing to do with policy. Part of what is needed is providing council with the best information, and we’ve had co-retreats with staff aimed at addressing this. It’s up to staff to provide good information so that council can make the best decisions.”

Liaw: “What about campaign pledges? Have you had any moments since the election where you see some of these as unrealistic or harder to accomplish than you thought?”

Rosen: “I’m an impatient person, and my list of 70 things is getting longer,” he began. “I’m forcing myself to decide what needs to be done now, what can be pushed off to next month or even next year. The list just keeps getting longer, and some new things have to be bumped up and given higher priority.”

He also admitted that he “never anticipated the budget crisis would be so bad.”

Liaw: “What about communication and engagement? How are you making yourself available?”

Rosen: “Since taking office I’ve had more than 6,000 emails and been to 300 meetings in 95 days with individuals and community leaders,” he said. “I go anywhere I’m invited – just last week I had the great honor of welcoming everyone to the Easter Egg Hunt!

Liaw: “I want to hear about diversity of engagement. We usually see the same folks at council meetings, writing letters to the editor, etc. What’s on your mind about ensuring broad input from the community?”

Rosen: “At the risk of being a bit crass, I admit we suck at that,” he said. “But there’s things we can, should and must do.

“I don’t like the word ‘diversity’ because too many see it as limited to skin color or ethnicity,” he continued. “We need to reach out to the diversity of our community. We have old, young, people with and without kids, with physical or cognitive challenges, a range of economic statuses, people who live in single- and multi-family situations. We have 130 languages spoken in our community. We’re diverse in a lot of ways, and we need to address the full spectrum of our diversity.”

He went on to stress the need to be available in spaces and in a language where folks are comfortable – and that is not necessarily a podium with a microphone under lights and with cameras running. One way might be to identify community champions who are connected with their community and can help us bring information in a way that resonates.

“And I know too well that I’m an old white guy, and that we’re making decisions the impact of which won’t be felt until after I’m dead,” he added. “We need to engage with the folks who will live with the results of the decisions we make today.”

Liaw: “Let’s move on to address the budget. For those who weren’t here for State of the City, we have a major deficit of about $20 million. It’s not a new problem – it’s been building over time.”

She noted that big decisions including fire and EMS service, taking care of infrastructure, and balancing the budget are looming. This will mean a combination of reducing expenses, increasing revenues, and improving the budgeting process.

We need to make choices

“You’ve spoken about changing the culture to find balance,” she asked. “What does that mean to you?”

Rosen: “We need to make choices,” he responded. “But what does that mean? We want parks, right? Does that mean more parks, bigger parks, tennis courts, playgrounds, hiking trails? Which of these is most important, and how does it weigh against our need for roads and sidewalks? It comes down to having the hard conversations to decide what we want and what we are willing to pay for. That means finding the balance, living within our means, and/or finding extra revenue.”

Liaw: “You also said we’re going to need to do fewer things and do them better. Talk about that more.”

Rosen: “It’s all about choice,” he explained. “We have a long list of things we want to do. What would happen if we do a barely OK job on a lot of things rather than a really good job on fewer things? Remember that doing things not so well is a big part of how we got into this hole. We need to define what we want to do really well, define what really well is, and make these decisions as a community.”

Liaw: “We’re not the only city in this jam. Are you talking to other cities about how they’re addressing this challenge?

Rosen: “The Blue Ribbon Panel knows where the rocks are,” he responded, referring to the panel he appointed in January to address the city’s budget crisis. “They know where to look.”

He went on to describe how panel chair and consultant Mike Bailey devised a model that hundreds of cities – many in worse shape than we are now – have used to attain fiscal stability.

Liaw: “OK, now I’m going to say the G word: growth — and specifically the Growth Management Act (GMA).”

As a land use attorney, Liaw went on to provide a primer on the GMA, growth and what it entails. She explained that the original thrust of the GMA in the 1990s was to control urban sprawl into undeveloped and fragile environments. There are 15 key goals of the GMA, and more have been added over the years, including climate change. She added that some of these are conflicting and some are unattended to.

But the framework remains, and it is a state mandate. That framework includes projected growth levels determined at the state level, which are passed down through regional and county governments, eventually arriving at the city government level. Cities are essentially told what their expected growth will be and given the responsibility to plan for it. Hence the current Edmonds Comprehensive Plan effort aimed at managing this density, the completion of which is mandated by the GMA. This plan is subject to a SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) review to determine if the plan has adverse impacts on environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands, and depending on the results of this, the plan would need to be revised.

Lightning questions

After this quick overview, Liaw posed a series of “lightning questions” to Rosen.

Liaw: “These growth projections come from the State Office of Financial Management and are assigned to individual cities. Can you reject the growth projections assigned to Edmonds?

Rosen: “If we do, according to the law we will forfeit our property tax and sales tax revenues as punishment.”

Liaw: “What is the deadline to update the Comp Plan?”

Rosen: “The end of this year. If we don’t comply, they take the money away.”

Liaw: “What about SEPA review? Doing this is expensive and requires specialized expertise.”

Rosen: “This is a case where I like consultants,” he explained. “Yes, they’re expensive, but we can hire them, use their expertise, and send them away when they’re done. We couldn’t afford to hire someone with this level of expertise and have them hang around all year after the project is complete.”

Liaw: “What about HB 1110, that mandates eliminating single-family zoning to allow two homes per lot, four homes per lot in areas within a quarter mile of transit hubs. How do we fold this into the Comp Plan?”

Rosen: “I’ve asked similar questions, and I’m not really happy with the state for making these decisions,” he said. “The state gave us a target, they said no more single-family zones, and it’s up to us to figure out how to do this. If we don’t, the state will come in and take this over, which could mean higher buildings among other things.”

He went on to address the question of how these numbers are set, explaining that SEPA review starts with a number that makes sense, but decides where you can put this higher density while protecting our environment assets. “So what we’ve done is put a buffer in these numbers – essentially aiming a little higher knowing that some will be cut due to SEPA,” he added.

“This is the poster child of choice,” he explained. “We have to make choices about where this density goes. Of course, there’s the option to do nothing, but then the state comes in and does it for us – and we might not like the outcome.”

Liaw: “Final question: What do you want to be known for as mayor?”

Rosen: “I want to be known for what we see here tonight. A roomful of people who don’t know each other and don’t necessarily agree with each other but share an interest and are here to have a conversation,” he said. “We thrive on being together in this community – we show up early for the Fourth of July parade, we dive into Puget Sound on New Year’s Day. We are a place that is exceptional. We are at the corner of art and nature. We come together, we share a smile, even when we don’t know or agree with each other. There is pixie dust on our downtown streets.”

Then it was time for audience questions

The first came from a citizen wondering if changing work patterns – specifically as more folks work from home – have changed things so that the sprawl predicted by the GMA is not occurring.

Liaw answered that while this has changed traffic patterns, folks still must live somewhere and that working from home has not really changed the sprawl.

The next citizen question asked how we can continue to grow while maintaining public safety, providing enough housing, balancing the budget, maintaining quality of life, and all the other things that make Edmonds special.

Rosen responded by pointing out that change is inevitable, noting that the first residents in Edmonds saw the trees and cut them down to make lots of money, and now we’re residential and folks want more trees.

“As a community we have to do what we can,” he added. “We need to find out how to keep this place true to the reason people chose to live here, not screw that up, and do these other things at the same time we protect our sacred areas.”

The next audience question addressed how zero-based budgeting is compatible with the city’s move to biennial rather than annual budgeting.

Rosen responded that the city’s first step is to move to budgeting by priorities – paying for what is most important to us. This will be done by first identifying the big buckets – safety, the environment, etc. – and decide how much should be assigned to these buckets. The city won’t be starting with what it spent last year, factor in the Consumer Price Index, and use these numbers for the new budget. Rather it will be starting from scratch and prioritizing what it wants, with no assumptions about what has been done in the past.

“The reality is that the next two years it will look more like an annual budget than a biennial,” he added. “It will be painful, but after that things should level out.”

The next question addressed the frustrations many citizens feel when trying to provide input in city decision-making.

“We have a confused system,” the audience member said. “The council is responsible for implementing laws, but the executive side proposes these to council. So who should I be commenting to? The ones who develop the proposal or those who adopt it?”

“This is the perfect statement of the problem,” Rosen responded. “You nailed it. We need to make our decision process very clear, and right now it’s too vague. We need to stop that, grapple with how we engage the community, and make sure everyone gets the same voice. I am absolutely committed to fixing this.”

The next question asked about the regional-vs.-local issues and whether we’re engaging with other cities on the bigger ones. Rosen responded that we are actively working through the Puget Sound Regional Council, other county mayors and officials to address these.

Another attendee asked about the city’s wastewater situation and the new gasification processes installed there to replace the former sludge incinerator. Rosen responded that Edmonds is the first-ever city to install equipment that processes municipal waste in a way that produces a marketable product. Like any new process, it is having some startup issues, he said, but as of the past few days the plant is working as it should. “We’re getting close,” he added.

The final question revisited the issue of creating ways for citizens not comfortable with, or adept at, traditional forms of providing input — perhaps due to language or cultural issues — to have their voices heard. Rosen reiterated his belief that the city needs to do a better job at finding those pockets where folks who represent the diversity of our community gather and provide opportunities there.

— Story and photos by Larry Vogel