Lake Forest Park Mayor's State of the City Address (Budget Challenges)

Lake Forest Park, WA

April 30th, 2025

Summary of April 24th, 2025 City Council meeting:

The discussion focuses on the budget challenges faced by the city, with a presentation shared from a recent Rotary meeting. Mayor French emphasizes that while the presentation outlines generalities about the city's status, it primarily addresses budget issues and the services requested by the community. The city, described as a small but "mighty" community of 13,600 residents, offers a range of services, including its own police and courts, which are not typically found in similarly sized cities. The speaker acknowledges the contributions of volunteers in maintaining parks and community services, highlighting the need for better resource allocation to support these efforts.

As the conversation progresses, Mayor French outlines the city's financial realities, noting that expenses are rising faster than revenue due to inflation and other economic pressures. The city has made significant cuts in the past, but acknowledges that this is not a sustainable long-term solution. The speaker emphasizes the importance of community engagement in addressing these challenges and the need for additional revenue sources to maintain essential services without making further cuts.

Mayor French also discusses the results of a recent community survey, which showed strong support for maintaining an effective police department and well-maintained parks and trails. The need for safer sidewalks near schools and the potential hiring of a grant writer to stretch tax dollars are identified as priorities. Overall, the speaker encourages ongoing dialogue with the community to find sustainable solutions for the city's future and ensure that essential services continue to thrive.

Full transcript (may contain translation errors):

So, we're going to continue our discussion of the budget challenges and I would like to share with you all um the presentation that um uh the chief and I were gave to the local Rotary group. Um I think it's very appropriate here in this environment to share that with the broader community and um it was well wellreceived by our friends at Rotary and I appreciate their give me a chance to practice and hone my craft so to speak. Um but we have a lot of a lot of discussion coming up for you all here in the coming months. And um and uh so we're going to call this the state of the city, but don't take that too seriously, folks. This is this is more about broad generalities about where we are. Uh and it's by no means inclusive of everything that is going on, but it's more directed at the question of um uh of budget challenges and the services that we provide to our community uh and the services they've requested. Matt, would you like me to was it easier for me to be there or Okay. And do I point it over my shoulder or Okay. Uh here we go. Let's see. There we go. We're we're a city more more like a village of uh 13,600 residents. Um you know, I think a lot of you I'm I'm sure all of you know the history of this community. Um and uh I I always wonder why they wanted to call themselves a city back in the day because it didn't really necessarily espouse the values that they were trying to build into the mix. Um we're barely 3.5 square miles of land and we're very small and you all know this. This is largely for some of our friends who have have um um just joined our community recently or who are watching from other um other uh cities. We're we are mighty uh and this was a a a reference to Linda Hullman who is small but mighty, one of our great volunteers in community parks and has been volunteering as a master gardener uh teaching master gardening um to residents for many many years.

Um, right. I was thinking you might have to I don't want to do Oh, there we go. Um, the city provides a variety of things and many residents don't recognize. First of all, we have our own police. We have our own courts. We deeply value the services that both our our public safety uh services provide but also our judicial system here. Um many cities and most cities of our size do not have those kinds of opportunities for the community to be represented locally here uh in law enforcement and and the courts and it's very important particularly to our youth. Um we also have our public works department. We have our environmental protection that we do through uh you know protecting our trees, our surface water. We have our a part two-thirds time arborist on staff. Um and as I indicated earlier, we've been growing our tree canopy for a long large period of times. We also provide sewer to um our our community, large part of our community. Uh the sewer system was was taken over from Ken County in the '9s as I recall. And uh we have some growing pains there. Um but our staff is doing a really great job of making sure that our sewer system continues to function. Uh we have community development. Director Harfman is here tonight planning building parks. Again folks, this is not all inclusive. I know I will miss something. Our municipal uh services department also handles passports as I mentioned. a very successful uh service for our community and also generates a a a a reasonable amount of res revenue that is not insubstantial and really helps out our community. And we do a lot more as well as a city that way. Nope. Give it a second there. Well, it's thinking. Okay. We especially value our natural spaces and wonderful trees. I apologize. So, I should have just had these slide queued up without the animations.
Um, we're thinking uh our city continues to add public spaces to our uh community through grants and other methods largely the the uh waterfront park and and other open spaces that we've acquired over the the last um five, six, seven years, 5acre woods. We've been been working very hard to reimburse ourselves through grants and we thank our friends at the county for um really contributing to that. We are have made application for reimbursement um through CTF for reimbursement for the Rose property that we acquired that's directly um contiguous with 5acre Woods and that's going to be a wonderful amenity to our community going forward.
um Lake Friends Park. We'll just keep going on here. Big thanks to Council Member Dumbowski who's been a huge advocate for us. And you may notice that he and the team at King County just got um awarded uh Kenmore almost $8 million for the acquisition of over 13 acres at Lake Point. So, that's a an extraordinary uh boon for the environment and for our for our region and our community since we're we're um thick as thieves with our friends in Kenmore. We're we're all our success is all interrelated. Trying here. There we go.
Uh we secured the the the 2.1 acre parcel of the Rose property. I won't bore you with a lot of these things. We do have dozens of volunteers like Linda who I've referenced earlier and many many others who keep the city thriving not only our parks and open open spaces but in social services as well from NUSA to uh the senior center to a variety of different organizations and also for the arts the the Shreik's arts um group we have um other other groups that are continuing to help all of us and again this is not an exhaustive kind of list Um, uh, it's volunteers like you all. We had some volunteers here tonight, so that was part of this slide. I left it in deliberately for that, but they're not with us. Hopefully, people are online out there in the nanosphere and can, uh, um, or watch it later. There we go.
Um we a thriving community needs to be well resourced to support our volunteers and we've struggled with that making to to ensure that we have enough resources to support our volunteers. Um it's people like Linda and other folks who have volunteer in the parks and other services that we do the best we possibly can. public works does a fantastic job of providing them resources for taking out uh invasives that they pull, other groups that um the streamkeepers uh stewardship foundation. Many of these organizations do receive support from our public works department. We wish we could provide more. Um and as I said, we can't rely solely on the volunteers to keep our city moving forward and vibrant.
Um the reality is we have challenges.
There's no question. I would like to see the efforts uh and the resources supporting our volunteers to be double or triple what it is right now in the future, but we simply do not have the resources to do that. Uh we have an outstanding police department that's headed by our chief, our friend Chief Harden. Mike does a fantastic job with our community. The department is extraordinarily wellrespected uh in our community and regionally. We have a very low crime rate due to the hard work of our public safety officers, but they also need all of our support. They've been operating on a shoestring bud budget and it's uh it's tremendously challenging for them.
And each year, whether it's a midby or full bianual budget, we know that we're not able to resource them the way we should as a community.
Uh regional growth on all sides of our city have led to more issues including cut through traffic, lots of retail crime and burdens on the chief's team. Uh we recently introduced a we conducted a a very robust community survey uh back in November. We asked our community to weigh in on how they felt the city was doing and what their top priorities are. Um again, I've said this and I know it starts sounding trit after a while, but I mean this very sincerely.
The response to the survey was heartwarming. The the number of respondents was was quite extraordinary and their responses were quite validating of what we're, you know, looking at. Uh the November Whoops. Let's go.
There we go. November 2024 17% response rate uh indicates very strong civic engagement. Other communities get much lower. many cases they're lucky if they get out of the single digits. 79% of the respondents believe Lake Forest Park is moving in the right direction. Um I remember when Deputy Mayor Bod and I saw that number. Uh there was some jumping up and down and and feeling good about all the good work you all and the staff are doing. Um those are the kind of moments you savor sometimes in the in the in the um elected realm.
Let's see. Keep going. There we go. Key priorities were identified. Strong, effective police department. We have a very effective the police department and they do incredible work given the resources that they have.
Well-maintained parks and trails, safer sidewalks near schools, hiring a grant writer writer to stretch our tax dollars was something else that was indicated as a priority.
So, this is something that's really important and we're going to be talking about this a lot going forward. Um, there have been charts on poster boards around the city hall for many, many years, but I think this one helps quite a bit, too. Um, the city services paid for the property with property taxes to King County.
Uh, the city receives only 7.7% of property taxes, less than 8 cents out of every dollar that you pay in property taxes. So, the Hudson application today, we're talking about close to $10,000 for the two parcels and a little snippet of of their um where their home resides.
That's that is around $500 that comes to the city out of that nearly $10,000 that goes out in property taxes. And I'm not going I certainly am not going to diminish the need for the taxes that go out into other areas, but we need to recognize as a community that we have very little money that we're paying out out of every dollar that's coming back directly to our community. And this highlights the problem. This is an historic low. Um I think the high was around 11 cents 11 something cents back u maybe in the '9s. Um and it varies because our convoluted um property tax system and very complicated. There we go. That means as of this year 2025 taxes out of every dollar we pay in property taxes, what goes to the city? Okay. 7.1 cents. Um, it's actually 7 uh.71, excuse me, dyslexia of kicking in 367 cents if you're being absolutely um spot on. If you're a numbers geek like me, um, that's a very low number. These are the ch that went backwards. Oh, thank you, Matt. I guess. Okay.
Um, here are here are some of our challenges.
The cost to main city uh services are rising faster than revenue. We all know inflation has been rampant over the last uh number of years, particularly in the public sector. Inflation over up nearly 24% over four years. the city's 1% revenue increase this year, which is optional at the council at budget time by the council when the council votes in our recommended budget. It only amounts that increase only amounts to $34,000 in revenue to the community. And I will just say this, and I've said this before, if this is confusing, please ask not just you all, but to the public, um, it is very confusing. It is very difficult to wrap your head around this. If the legislature passes the potential 3% cap, we're still only talking an additional 60some,000 per year coming to the city. So, it is in the scheme of things, it's very very um I don't want to diminish the fact that any increase is helpful, but it it is a challenge. Expenses have ri risen significantly. insurance by 193,000 uh jail by 197,000. 911 dispatch by $284,000. So when it comes to the public safety sector, we're looking at massive uh increases in costs due to uh inflationary pressures, but also circumstantial pressures. The city made $455,000 in cuts last year, but it's unsustainable in the long term, and it does not address the the growing gap. I will say, and I've said this before, we are in a lot better shape than most of our neighboring cities. And I I don't want to take away from their journey and and this the challenges they have, but it's through the good work of you all and the staff over the years that we are in a place where we are able to have choices and able to have this conversation with a community without having to make emergent cuts and emergent um um decisions that are would be very uncomfortable for everyone. And I hope we don't ever have to get there.
Uh for clarity, this is something that is going to come up as we have this discussion going forward. Traffic safety cameras on 178 are very successful, massively successful. The average speed on 178 has gone from over 31 mph to 23.2. It's unprecedented. And we have actually been the talk of the state because we were one of the first people to do this. And it is hugely successful.
It is not about the revenue, folks.
The revenues, however, from these cameras can only be used for pedestrian bicycle safety. The state calls it complete streets. The RCW is there. You can look up what that entails. But we are going to be dedicating those funds to making sure that our streets and our sidewalks and our pathways are safer for everyone. Sidewalks, crosswalks, and other safety measures will be suff funded from traffic safety cameras.
There is no revenue grab. Anybody out there who wants to say that that there is a revenue grab, I'll say it to their face. There is no revenue grab and they better back it up because it is not true. It is a total red herring. It is not true. State law restricts the use of these fines. We all wish they were zero. They're not. So if people want to misbehave on our streets, they can fund pedestrian and multimmoal safety as well as traffic safety officers officers to make you all and your family safer. We cannot use these funds for operational purposes. They are not eligible to be put into operational uh situations. If you have any questions about this, please reach out to me directly or to Lindsay or to Phil and we can share with you uh the restrictions on these funds.
Uh the fiscal realities are this. The current levels of service are unsustainable in the mid and long term with the reality realities of our labor market and inflation. Labor is very expensive. Inflation continues to be rampant. And we are running about as lean as we can get. Yes, we can cut, but those cuts are going to be very painful.
And it's going to be at the expense of um positions. It's going to be at the expense of programs. And as I indicated to you when I presented my budget to you all, this is not the time to be cutting back on social programs, community programs, or any of those kinds of things. And this the services this community provides are essential to um to the whole community. Uh operational efficiencies continue to be a top priority. We hear at almost every council meeting, a staff member is requesting um a a change in uh an improvement to a software program or to some sort of situation to help with efficiencies to make them more productive. And some of those investments um are they're absolutely paying off. There's no question about it. And we are going to continue to make sure that we are as efficient as we can in all of our departments.
grants and onetime revenues are not able to be used for general operations and maintenance. It's a fool's errand to go down that that path of trying to use one-time revenues. There has been a move to um loosen the restrictions on REIT one and REIT two and I think that's a big mistake. re one and one and one and two help fund capital programs and and acquisitions of important facilities for this community particularly for environmental reasons parks etc. I think that it's a very dangerous game to release uh loosen the restrictions on REIT one and REIT 2 because they have been the source of um for the acquisition of many different properties that are critical to our community. We can talk more about grants uh later, but this this administration staff and I know you all are looking out for grants that are available. We talk to neighboring communities about what we have, what opportunities we have. We're going to continue to prioritize the needs of the community. First, strong effective police uh department. that is that is clearly delineated as a top priority in in the in the survey and it validates what we've heard from our community for decades. Well-maintained parks and trails. We all wish there could be more things um that are done in our parks and trails. We have a very small staff uh and we uh in public works and they do really great work with what they have and con in conjunction with enormous amount of community volunteers from the stewardship foundations, dreamkeepers, uh the Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts, all those folks. Other prioritization will continue to be safer sidewalks near schools as listed in our safer um safe street study. And prioritization that that was also listed by uh highlighted by the survey was hiring a grant writer to stretch tax dollars. We've had this discussion about what we need to do to find ways to um multitask, if you will, with a grant writer to stretch our tax dollars so we can attract additional additional funding. Uh the most important part of this whole discussion is community engagement. the city council. We know you all are thinking about financially sustainable solutions to maintain our levels of service in Wake Forest Park.
Our resident input is absolutely critical to shaping future priorities and this is really the beginning of a continuing discussion. During our ongoing discussions, we sincerely encourage community particip partic off the screen participation.
Um and the contact information is for the the community can reach out to any of us to have this this conversation.
Any of you all staff myself at any time to have this um this discussion and that is really all I have for this part of the conversation. It really is up to you if there um as we go forward in May um council leadership and and the administration will be talking about additional um conversations that we can have with the community and additional information that can be brought to the four with that. Do you all have any questions for me or for staff?
Council member Gold. Um yeah, uh thanks for presenting that. I'm just curious what sort of reactions or questions did you get when you presented this at Rotary? Oh, I think they were they were excellent questions. Um really the questions were about the amount one of the questions was well I think two of the questions were about the the amount of money that comes to the city and the question uh question was about um was actually sort of rhetorical. So, you're saying that we cannot that the city cannot continue without finding additional revenue sources? Uh, I mean continue on this path without cutting or finding additional revenue sources. It was a very positive and uh unfortunately we didn't have a whole lot of time. I think we had about 8 minutes. Chief, um, can you think of other questions? I I think I covered them. Um on point, uh Council Member Goldman, uh I have made an overture to the to um Rotary to come back for an additional half hour if they have any questions since they had a really busy schedule and and I I didn't have a whole lot of time to answer questions because of their time constraints. But it was a it was a well-received um uh questions and I think that um I think I look forward to additional questions and comments. I think you were starting to raise. Yeah, you have any for Tony. And thank you again for the presentation and for presenting to our local civic organizations. I imagine there will be more of this this kind of outreach in the future. Yeah. One thing, one cautionary tale I did see was uh some of you may have been following what Edmond City Council has been doing. And one of the things they were considering was selling to parks and uh yeah, you should have seen the community outcry from that. I would expect our community to be exactly the same way. So in terms of revenue sources, you know, that's probably not an option. So, we're going to have to really think about this.
Thank you, uh, Deputy Mayor Ferani. I appreciate you bringing that up. I read that with, um, real, uh, surprise and and horror. Um, I think one of the things that's comforting, should be comforting for all of us, that many of the parks that we've acquired have been purchased with grant funds and their and restricted funds. We would not be able to sell parcels. But but that is the reality of the world in many cases and it does illustrate the level to which communities have h are having to go and it's very sad for Edmonds. I really um one of the parks has been I think I think they've had it for 50 years which is very sad. Colleagues, other questions. Okay. Well, I thank you for your time and I appreciate that. Um, Deputy May Ferani only snorred once. So that was that was I guess I kept your attention.