Will you chip in to support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation today? Yes, I want to support My Edmonds News!
This story has be updated to include links to a video of the event and a document compiling the notes made by participants during the breakout sessions.
More than 130 residents — with especially strong representation from the Meadowdale neighborhood — packed the main banquet room at the Edmonds Waterfront Center for an event hosted by the Edmonds Civic Roundtable (ECR) Monday evening. Those in attendance heard new Edmonds City Council President Michelle Dotsch’s goals for 2026, and then during breakout groups wrestled with how Edmonds can rebuild trust between residents and their elected leaders while addressing current challenges.
In small breakout groups and then as a full room, participants shared concerns that ranged from city finances and economic development to the proposed Lynnwood Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion, returning again and again to three core themes: transparency, fiscal responsibility and meaningful public engagement.
ECR Chair Gil Morgan opened the event by welcoming attendees, which included Councilmembers Paine, Eck, Barnett and Olson. Also present were former Edmonds Councilmember Neil Tibbott and former Edmonds Police Chief Al Compaan. Morgan went on to reaffirm ECR’s mission to empower neighbors through information, and its overriding value of maintaining civil dialog.
Event facilitator Pat Moriarty of Edmonds Civic Roundtable’s program committee then introduced Dotsch.
“Michelle was chosen to be the council president just a month ago,” Moriarty said. “She comes tonight in her capacity as the new council president. We’ve asked her here with the understanding that this will be a listening session and an opportunity to hear from the community.”
Dotsch began by describing her deep roots in Edmonds, particularly noting its “special sauce” of community, culture, friendliness, natural beauty and its many longstanding local businesses.
“I am a local Edmonds girl, born and raised,” she said. “I love this city, its local charm, its clearly identifiable character, its natural beauty and location, energetic arts and culture scene, destination-worthy festivals, its parks and local businesses.”
But Edmonds has its challenges as well. Dotsch highlighted aging infrastructure, state-driven pressure for faster redevelopment, the constraints of a mostly built-out city, environmental stewardship and the need for fiscal responsibility to ensure that “our residents and businesses can thrive without overwhelming taxes.”
“As your new City Council president, I will be guided by three foundational pillars: clarity, communication and community,” she continued. “These share the common focus of clearer goal-setting, better-structured meetings, and more transparent information-sharing between city hall and residents.”
“For the past few weeks I’ve been taking a close look at how we structure city meetings, looking for ways to make them more focused, meaningful and easier for everyone to follow.” she added. “We’re working to improve how we can share more complete information between the administration and council and – just as importantly – how it’s shared with the public. My goal is allowing residents to see and be part of the process as it happens, clearly and throughout the journey, not only at the final vote or decision. That’s the kind of transparency that builds trust.”
She noted that according to the lunar calendar, the year 2026 will be the Year of the Horse, a year traditionally characterized by hard work, bravery and resilience.
“Horses move with purpose, but they move best together, and that spirit of strength, direction and unity is exactly what our city needs,” Dotsch said. “This Friday, our seven councilmembers will come together for our annual City Council retreat to chart a productive and focused path forward for 2026, and I see tonight’s Edmonds Civic Roundtable program as a great first step. It’s a chance for all of us to connect and share our concerns and priorities for 2026 and beyond, and I’m looking forward to bringing your input from this evening back to the full council. So let’s use tonight to start that dialog and move forward together in the spirit of the horse, steady, resilient and ready to go the distance.”
Following Dotsch’s presentation, attendees broke into small groups, where they shared and recorded their concerns, ideas and hopes for the city, before presenting these to the full group. Their ideas were collected by Civic Roundtable staff and will be compiled and presented to the City Council in advance of the Council retreat scheduled for Friday, Feb. 6. (The agenda and packet for this meeting will be available on the City’s meetings and agendas portal later this week).
Overriding themes emerging from Monday night’s discussions consistently centered on rebuilding trust between residents and the City through greater transparency, earlier and clearer communication, and more meaningful opportunities for public input. Multiple groups voiced frustration with the current format for public input — three-minute comments at regular Council meetings — and called for earlier, more substantive engagement. Residents said they often learn about major issues only days before votes, when agendas and packets appear online. Some noted that crucial information is buried in the Council’s extended agenda, accessible only after several confusing clicks, making it difficult for the average resident to track what’s coming.
Suggestions for improvement included:
- Making Council work plans and decision calendars more visible and understandable to the public.
- Posting upcoming decisions in simple formats such as bulletin boards at City Hall to easy-to-find web pages and social media posts.
- Exploring study sessions and conversational forums that invite questions and discussion well before a final vote.
- Encouraging or partnering with a credible, independent journalistic source to vet and share information about city finances and major projects.
Another strong thread running through the discussions was the need for fiscal responsibility — bringing expenditures in line with revenues, addressing deferred maintenance, and pursuing serious economic development (especially light industry) to expand the tax base without overburdening vulnerable residents with higher taxes.
On these themes, one speaker noted that, “We need more economic development, serious economic development, we have to start somewhere, and we have to develop the will to bring light industry in so that we can expand our tax base and help the city grow and help our financial difficulties.”
Another stressed the need for enhanced fiscal responsibility, noting that while the City must “bring expenditures in line with revenues, [it must also] realize that every tax increase impacts the affordability of housing. There are a number of folks in our community who are already on the fringe of being able to afford to stay in their homes.”
A third speaker pointed to the vicious cycle of deferred maintenance, and how unless that is addressed, “the gap is going to continue to grow…you got to keep up with that deferred maintenance, because it’s a killer.”
Residents also urged improvements in governance processes — greater visibility into council work plans, possible use of a Citizens’ Financial Advisory Committee, added study sessions, and better use of new software and dashboards — to make decisions more intentional, transparent and responsive to community priorities.
Regarding the need for improved communication, one speaker said: “There’s a pressing need for increased transparency and a method of communication that’s open and available to all,” with another stressing the importance of “timing and perhaps changing or improving processes to bring these issues up for community engagement at an earlier stage, so that people don’t feel like they’re reacting after the fact.”
A third speaker spoke to the frustration of attempting to raise concerns and getting no response. “We talk to the people, we write emails, and all too often we get no response…no, it’s not acceptable.”
Other common themes centered around governance, citizen involvement and advisory structures.
“I’m wondering if there’s any progress on the Citizens Financial Advisory Committee,” noted one. “We’d also like the Council to really review what the consequences are before they make decisions and implement new plans and procedures, and then have to backtrack.”
Another pointed out that “most of the decisions that are going to be happening are buried in the Council’s extended agenda, which is almost impossible to click and find. Council needs a way to tell us what is on your extended agenda far enough in advance so that we can provide meaningful input.”
Some of the most vocal and impassioned comments came from several speakers who live near the proposed Lynnwood Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion, all of whom raised profound community concerns about this project.
Residents reported Lynnwood’s plant has violated its NPDES permit in prior years, adding that they’re worried about unlawful emissions/effluent and health impacts on families. Others called for stronger City of Edmonds oversight of the expansion, and for it to be the lead agency for permitting, and to request a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Others expressed frustration with poor responsiveness from officials (emails unanswered or redirected to Lynnwood), and asked for better representation, clearer information and more timely public engagement. Some raised fears of losing their homes through eminent domain.
“We are incredibly concerned about the fact that Lynnwood is able to threaten Edmonds residents with eminent domain to take their homes,” said one.
Dotsch closed the meeting by reflecting on what she had heard. She noted that while the themes were not surprising — trust, transparency, communication, fiscal responsibility and concern about Meadowdale — hearing them directly and in detail was valuable.
Taken together, the groups’ input paints a picture of a community that cares deeply about Edmonds’ future and wants to be a true partner in shaping it — insisting on clearer information, earlier engagement and genuine responsiveness from city leaders. Residents are asking the Council to pair fiscal discipline and smart economic development with stronger oversight of major projects like the Lynnwood wastewater treatment plant, and to ground all of this in transparent processes, accessible tools, and inclusive forums. Their message is that trust can be rebuilt—but only if decisions are made in the open, impacts are honestly weighed, and citizens are invited into the conversation from the outset rather than at the end.
Dotsch addressed the various concerns and comments by sharing a few concrete steps already underway or under consideration:
- Study sessions: She is working to incorporate more study sessions into the council’s process as a way to invite public input earlier and create more conversational settings around complex issues.
- Mayor’s outreach to Lynnwood: She noted that Mayor Rosen has already reached out to Lynnwood to begin a public conversation about the wastewater treatment plant expansion, which could provide a forum for broader community involvement.
- Annual agenda and work plans: The mayor is collecting work plans from each department, and the Council is working to map out an agenda for the year, with the goal of making upcoming decision points more visible and intentional.
- New software and dashboards: The City is in the process of migrating to a new software system that will support dashboards and better tracking of key data, potentially making budgets, projects, and outcomes more transparent and accessible for residents.
Dotsch also acknowledged continued interest in some form of Citizens’ Financial Advisory Committee, noting that opportunities to integrate such a body into the budget and priority-setting process will be part of upcoming discussions between the Council and administration.
Facilitator Pat Moriarty committed to providing video of the event and compiling the notes and breakout-group reports into a single document that captures participants’ voices and concerns. These are now available. View the video here, and download the notes compilation here.
She also highlighted upcoming Civic Roundtable sessions as additional opportunities for residents to stay engaged, including a program on bridging political divides and a follow-up event with Mayor Rosen after his upcoming State of the City address.
Thank you Council President Dotsch, for your Monday event. You are off to a running start by reaching out to give all Edmonds constituents, not just those in the Bowl, a chance to be protected, represented, and heard. Our grassroots organization, the Community Alliance to Protect Edmonds (CAPE), looks forward to working with you and other electeds to solve a challenge with generational financial, health, and environmental impacts: Lynnwood’s proposed mega-expansion of its sewage plant in Edmonds’ Meadowdale neighborhood. CAPE comprises a growing alliance of people with salient technical skills. We are actively organizing people and data and looking forward to working with you and our other electeds to address this challenge as a community.
Thank you Larry for another excellent job of reporting. This was an important event with important input.
Council Prez Michelle understands the residents’ frustrations with the Mayor and Council’s litanies of mismanagement and taxpayer abuse. She and residents are being disrespected by the partisan Council majority who refuse to back her in the good governance reform that has been demanded by 11,000+ voters (59% super-majority). Instead, the entrenched partisan majority on the Council simply ignore taxpayer input and/or claim that the 59% super majority only spoke to the enormous tax levy lift – and aren’t critical of the bogus 2026 budget, the outrageous doubling of the utility tax, the highest sales tax in Washington, the 78% increase in fire/ems services’ costs following RFA annexation, the outrageous legal and litigation spending, the unjustified 61% increase in police budget between 2021 and 2025, the lack of Council support to dissect the 2021 – 2025 excessive spending and eliminate it in the 2026 budget. Michelle and Erika Barnett are the only non-partisan tried, true, and trusted good governance leaders. The partisan Council majority gives lip service to the good governance principles and deludes themselves into thinking they have done a wonderful job managing the City budget. NOT! Citizens need to demand reform from the Mayor and partisan Council majority and support Michelle and Erika in a relentless focused effort to rebuild trust and take corrective action starting with the Citizens’ Financial Advisory Commission.
I agree that the prior council had issues in properly informing taxpayers of some of the fiscal decisions made last year. However, it was fairly clear that annexation to the RFA was the least expensive choice. However, the bi-annual budget had lines items for continued payments to South County Fire District under the old agreement. Rather than being crystal clear that this money was not going to fire services if the RFA annexation was approved, the city moved the money as if these were now unrestricted funds. It felt a bit like a game of three card monty. However, this does not mean joining the RFA was not the correct choice. It did however make the most recent levy lift difficult. I hope that the city can put forth a clear and transparent levy in the near future.
The key issue in the future regarding taxes is not the rate but rather the tax base. Compared to Shoreline and Lynnwood, Edmonds has a much smaller tax base, especially along route 99. Both of the other cities have at least half a dozen new large apartment complexes, many of which are subsidized housing of some type. Zoning regulations along route 99 need to be addressed to provide significant development in retail and housing units.