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Key takeaways:
- The Edmonds City Council agrees to add two analysts, two IT specialists and a webmaster as part of the city’s mid-biennial budget update.
- Councilmembers thank city staff for their 2026 budget work.
- The Council thanks outgoing City Clerk Scott Passey for his service.
The Edmonds City Council finished its review of the 2026 mid-biennium budget modification proposal Wednesday, Oct. 8 and voted 6-0 to approve directing the city attorney to draft budget ordinance for a Dec. 9. vote. Councilmember Michelle Dotsch was absent from the meeting.
Also on Wednesday night, the council discussed positions in human resources, city administration, finance and IT as part of the mid-biennial budget adjustments
The Oct. 8 meeting was a continuation of the council’s Oct. 7 meeting to finish work on the budget.
The city administration asked councilmembers to fund a full-time human resources department analyst.
Acting City Administrator Todd Tatum said there was a need for this position, noting the city’s recent huge staff turnover, the need to hire more employees, improve the on- and off-boarding process, and work to coordinate interviews and new union contracts.
“Job descriptions are not updated. We have position descriptions that have mayor signatures from two mayors ago,” Tatum said.
Councilmember Chris Eck agreed. “Even if more staff should not happen… there are enough open positions, that it’s justified,” she said, referring to the $14.5 million levy proposal before voters on the Nov. 4 ballot. Most of the funding for the budget modifications are contingent on the levy’s passage. Mayor Mike Rosen has said he will present a revised budget if the levy fails.
The city also proposed adding an administration management analyst.
Tatum said this position will address the long-range planning and goal setting the public is asking for. “We don’t have a coherent collective set of KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] that we are setting ourselves against,” Tatum said.
“We have programs. Are they being run efficiently? Are they achieving their goals? What’s missing?” Tatum said. “These are things we need to think about that cross department lines. How do we do it? What information do we need?”
The administration management analyst would do this work, Tatum said.
“I envision, in 2026, a series of conversations about our strategy and how we are measuring our success. It’s a continuous improvement process. We communicate out to the public and us in this room,” he concluded.
“This will help the entire city,” Councilmember Will Chen said in supporting the proposal.
Two new IT positions were requested to manage cyberthreats and maintain technical and network systems up and running at the wastewater treatment plant and utilities.
The administration also proposed adding the position of webmaster.
“Does this mean we will get an updated website?” asked Councilmember Jenna Nand. “Yes,” said Brian Tuley, IT manager.
All proposed positions were approved as part of the budget update that will appear before councilmembers for a final vote on Dec. 9.
Councilmembers thanked city staff for their hard work on the budget.
“Now that [the community] can see the packet, it will better inform their vote [on the upcoming levy],” said Councilmember Vivian Olson.
“It’s a great deal of behind-the-scenes work to update the way we do work. Previously this was done on the fly from the dais,” said Councilmember Niel Tibbott.
“I’d like to see a forecast for the next six years, looking back,” Chen said.
The final work at the meeting was a farewell and thank you to City Clerk Scott Passey, who leaves the city after 12 years. He is taking the position of City Clerk for the City of Kenmore.
Great timing for the council to recommend additional full time, salaried positions – while presenting no alternative budget should the levy fail. Seems like they’re really approaching the current financial situation of the city with full tact and logic. Very smart, serious people in charge.
I just received my voters pamphlet. Why isn’t Proposition 1 included? Timing I suppose. So how are the good people of Edmonds going to be educated on the impact this Proposition will have, pass or fail? There’s not much time between now & November 4. The clock is ticking.
Beth-
I believe the Voters’ Pamphlet we all received was for Washington State elections, not the Snohomish County elections. I believe in the next 2 weeks we will receive a separate Voters’ Pamphlet for all the Snohomish County elections, including the Edmonds’ Council elections and the $14.5M tax levy lift ballot measure. The City is sponsoring a couple Town Halls to advocate for the tax levy, but unfortunately they are not allowing the opposition (https://www.KeepEdmondsAffordable.com ) to have equal time to present their Vote No! case. Check the website to see when they will be holding educational sessions.
You might also check out the recording of the EdmondsCivicRoundtable discussion between the ‘pro’ and ‘con’ groups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHaMWA0dmOM …. and the MyEdmondsNews article recapping that meeting: https://myedmondsnews.com/2025/10/speakers-explore-pros-and-cons-of-levy-lid-lift-during-monday-event/?mc_cid=4ed3e5affe&mc_eid=20737d041c . And finally – be sure to fact check what each side says, and read the MyEdmondsNews articles and LettersToTheEditor and all the Reader Comments. Good luck!
Thank you, Bill. I’ve come into this issue a bit late so all of your references are very helpful.
Hard to understand why another administrative person is needed to set and measure Performance Indicators? Setting performance goals and measuring success should be the job of every supervisor/manager and should be fundamental to Edmonds’ government culture and employee practices. Council should ensure that efficiency/productivity goals along with zero-based budgeting are required from every manager and every department for every budget cycle. Adding another administrative person to do this is neither good governance nor effective management.
Hiring an ‘administrative management analyst’ is yet another waste of money and abdication of individual managers’ responsibilities. When is the City going to reform the culture and require more fiscal discipline, accountability, transparency, and common sense? When is the City going to implement a culture of stretch goal setting combined with mandatory measuring and managing performance and reporting on results every quarter? When is the City going to demand more from line managers and stop shifting line responsibility to staff? Why does the City not embrace best-of-breed high standards of corporate/business excellence? When is the City going to put taxpayers first? I suggest the Council carefully review how its lack of accountability, fiscal discipline, accountability, and transparency filters down to all City employees. It time for major organizational reform, not for window-dressing changes.
Just received the cities levy marketing pamphlet from the mail. Why would we allocate 45% or $6,525,000 for Police? Anyone actually review trending crime stats, or just heard about the headcount number?
Sure some $$ to police, but not 45%? I want the money to go towards Parks, Streets & Sidewalks. Many residents of 99 have spoken up, they feel left out. Put the money towards the 99 neighborhoods.
https://sno911.org/public-records/annual-report/
On top of the proposed levy lift egregious tax, there is also Sound Transit that is going to increase property taxes by 1 % in 2026…
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/sound-transit-weighs-property-tax-hike-ease-30-billion-shortfall/281-e8cd355d-4094-4600-aba1-c49e41169b07
…just sayin’
LQQKy==>Levy Lift Tax + Safety Sales Tax + Cultural Sales Tax + Sound Transit 1% tax increase + Education levy tax=TAXageddon $$$$$$$$$$$$
Houston…we have a problem!!
…Just sayin
Mr. Williams, I like your typing skills. Did you see the reader comment on a different column this weekend? Their family calls the Prop 1 proposal the Buzz Light Year tax – to infinity and beyond !