In a meeting lasting more than four hours, city department heads finished their 2025 budget presentations to the Edmonds City Council, again highlighting the difficult choices ahead for addressing the city’s budget woes.

The council also honored Edmonds native Hermona Girmay, who was crowned Miss Washington 2024 in July and will compete in the Miss America event in Orlando, Florida Dec. 31-Jan. 5. Girmay, who attended Holy Rosary School and graduated from Edmonds-Woodway High School, is a 2023 cum laude and departmental honors graduate of the University of Washington. Her Community Service Initiative, “SHECAN: Support Her Education, Change A Nation,” encompasses her 10-plus years of girls’ education equality activism inspired by her family’s journey to the U.S. as refugees.

And the council unanimously approved a 1% increase in both a property tax and emergency medical services (EMS) levy, the maximum allowed annually under state law.

Girmay’s appearance was a bright spot during an evening of detailed budget discussions. In his Oct. 1 budget address, Mayor Mike Rosen proposed a combination of staff reductions, job furloughs and revenue-generating ideas to close the city’s projected $13 million budget gap in 2025. Rosen has asked city staff to address half that gap with $7 million in budget cuts.

Tuesday night’s presentations were from information technology, municipal court, planning and development and public works departments. Other city departments had shared their proposed budgets to the council during earlier meetings. All of the budgets included proposals for essentially doing more with less — including not filling vacant positions and laying off some existing employees. The cuts combined with proposed job furloughs for nonrepresented staff will mean increased workloads for those remaining — but councilmembers and department directors also acknowledged the human cost of the budget cuts.

“It’s very hard to hear that again, one of our staff members is up for elimination,” Councilmember Jenna Nand said after Information Technology Manager Brian Tuley proposed cutting the part-time position of Jerrie Bevington — a familiar face in the council chambers who operates the video cameras for Edmonds City Council meetings. Tuley proposed that Bevington’s work could be replaced by selecting pre-programmed camera positions that would be operated by the city clerk during meetings.

Other money-saving ideas from the IT Department: eliminating Microsoft Outlook licenses for boards and commissions and extending the life cycle of existing hardware. Tuley also pointed to the increasing costs of software and licensing, calling it an “era of extreme greed by technology companies.” For example, the city spent $67,000 on Microsoft licensing in 2020; that same licensing cost $169,000 in 2024 — a 152% increase. Adobe’s price went from $4,000 to $21,000 during that same time frame — a 675% jump. By comparison, food costs have increased 25% since 2020, he said.

The Edmonds Municipal Court budget was presented by Judge Neil Weiss and Court Administrator Uneek Maylor. Weiss noted the unique role of the court in city government, with a mission of “providing community access to justice with trust and integrity.” The court represents just 3% of the city’s general fund budget, he added.

As part of its proposed budget reductions, the court will be laying off one of its two probation officers, which led Councilmember Chris Eck to ask how that position will be backfilled in case of illness or vacation. Maylor said that the assistant court administrator is a former probation officer who can fill in, and added she also has been trained as probation officer. However, Maylor expressed concern about overall court staffing and how those remaining employees will absorb the work, especially when staff will also be taking furlough days. Another unknown for the court next year is how the introduction of red light cameras at two Edmonds intersections — which the Edmonds City Council approved earlier this year — will impact their workload. Weiss has proposed additional staffing of 2.76 full-time equivalent employees — funded through the red light camera revenue — to cover the added work the cameras will bring.

Councilmember Michelle Dotsch asked what impact the city’s new school zone cameras have had on the court and Maylor replied that it was a staffing strain to process the citations generated. To address that extra work, the court has cut its passport services to one day a week — and may need to eliminate them altogether, she added.

Weiss also spoke to the possible elimination of the Highway 99 Neighborhood Office, which has hosted community court for those who may find it difficult to access the municipal court building in downtown Edmonds. “The loss of that space does not mean the loss of our community court,” Weiss said. “If that space does not continue to have funding…our community court will continue. We’re still looking at other alternatives about where that could go and what that would look like.”

Shane Hope, acting director of planning and development, spoke to her department’s planned budget cuts of 4.5%, which include not filling an existing planner position and moving a full time administrative assistant to part time. The department would also cut its professional services budget, reducing by $50,000 the money allocated for waterfront visioning and by $62,000 the budget allocated for neighborhood action planning by $62,000.

Hope reminded the council that the department does generate significant revenues from permits, with approximately $1.4 million collected annually from 2020 to 2023.

The presentations concluded with the city’s largest department: public works and utilities. Acting Director Phil Williams said that the department has a $72 million budget with 95.25 FTEs. Much of its funding comes from ratepayers, so just $5.82 million — or about 8% — is in the general fund. Among the budget savings mentioned:

The facilities maintenance division, which maintains city-owned buildings, plans to lay off one of its custodial staff. The division also cited range of other cost-saving efforts that include:

– Increasing use of energy conservation devices 

– Using energy auditing to identify savings measures

– Centralized waste pick-up

– Reducing cleaning and sanitation intervals at city buildings

– Reducing custodial operational hours by 28% at many locations

– Eliminating deskside trash and recycling pick up at all city buildings

– Increasing lighting and electrical conservation devices to minimize utility consumption and comply with new energy codes.

Engineering will eliminate its student intern program, the ORCA commute trip reduction program and partially reduce overtime, along with other cuts.

The street/storm division: Street maintains and improves 133 miles of rights-of-way, including streets, roadways and alleys, while storm staff conduct system maintenance, street sweeping, emergency flooding response, creek maintenance, and minor capital improvement projects. Street/storm had several vacancies this year, due to both long-term medical and retirements, Williams said. There is also a vacancy in operations that has not been filled, he added. Such staffing shortages, while beneficial for budget savings, are likely to impact the city once winter weather arrives — resulting in slower response times and more selective road plowing.

Supported by ratepayers, the water division includes operation, maintenance and delivery of potable water to customers. The sewer operations division is responsible for the repair, maintenance and operation of 14 pump stations, 3,200 sewer manholes, and over 186 miles of sewer mains. The sewer division’s treatment plant operations provides wastewater treatment to 80% of Edmonds residents, all of Mountlake Terrace, all of Olympic View Water and Wastewater District, and much of Shoreline.

Fleet provides vehicles and equipment to support city operations, and includes the following proposed budget savings:

– Extend replacement intervals

– Reduce outsourced labor costs

– Reduce overall fleet assets

– Minimize material costs

– Maximize efficiencies to increase turnaround time

– Extend maintenance intervals

In addition, the division has identified $77,000 in expense cuts.

In other business, the council also held a public hearing on the city’s 2025-2030 Capital Facilities Plan and Capital Improvement Program. Just one person testified: Edmonds resident Joe Scordino suggested that the city consider having employees scheduled for layoffs due to general fund challenges to instead work on capital projects, “and keep some of the great people we have in this city.”

Due to the lateness of the hour, a council discussion on a 2024 budget amendment ordinance was postponed to next week’s meeting.

The council will hold an interactive public hearing on the budget during its Tuesday, Oct. 29 meeting, with Mayor Rosen and Finance Director Kim Dunscombe answering questions from the public. You can learn more here.

— By Teresa Wippel