April 6 Council Meeting
Council continued the discussion about which tax increases they are going to implement. This is a continuation of the discussion from both days of the retreat, and an attempt to further consensus about when and what taxes will be implemented.
City Manager Killgore provided clarification on a few points:
- All of the options presented assume one councilmanic option; if they don’t implement one, the deficit grows.
- During the February and April special elections, only a single-year levy lid lift can be done. If council would like a multi-year, it has to be in the August or November elections.
- Council loses the councilmanic public safety option after June 2028.
Council was given an array of options and to put postit notes on the measures that they were interested in. CM Culver requested that they discuss beforehand so he could grandstand.
DISCUSSION
CM Culver focused on making his point for KenMORE tax; he believes that it has the best chance of success with voters, and that it aligns with our priorities that he claims are currently being under-funded. While advocating hard for a regressive property tax, he stated he didn’t want sales tax because it’s regressive.
He also advocated against the Metropolitan Parks District stating that “With affordability concerns higher than ever I don’t think we can ask for worse timing”
Culver criticized the city’s spending on policing, citing his “research”, and advocated for bringing our services in-house.
“Climate, affordable housing and human services are our-top ranked priorities - they are absolute bangers at the ballot box… We have heard loud and clear from the community that everyone cares about affordable housing”
CM closed with “I am so confident this will pass… I will personally jump in the lake if the climate measure fails.. You can rub that “told you so” in my face until the Salmon come home”
CM Adman, in response to CM Culver’s commentary, said that it's really difficult to have a crystal ball about what’s going to pass and what’s not going to pass. He likes the public safety levy lid lift (LLL) because it’s easy to articulate the connection between the LLL and the budget challenges. He also thought KenMORE would be easy to articulate, and although he supports it he acknowledged that we still may have to come back for funds on policing. Picking one doesn’t rule out the others.
CM O’Cain Voiced support for the MPD, since it’s a simple majority (not super majority) vote, and offered the alternative of a parks levy. She expressed concerns about spending $100k on a consultant for public safety, and wants to wait until the budget process. She noted the City will have to use funds for outreach for the bond measures.
“I think it’s incredibly important that what we pass for a revenue measure does ultimately start providing some foundation for economic development so that we can diversify our revenue and stop having to continuously raise taxes on our individual tax payers.”
DM Sasson’s mic wasn’t working well, and she didn’t speak much in this meeting. She expressed the desire to include the language of the social justice measures that we advocate for, and said “Taxation is how we finance care for one another, and how we fill this gap”
CM Marshal was a lone voice for responsible spending, and said that “As we’re formulating a plan to raise taxes we should be looking at cutting expenses; that is going to inform [his] decision on whatever the council comes up with..”
Mayor Herbig expressed concern with the KenMORE option not addressing the underlying budget deficit. He asked staff and the City Manager about this several times. City Manager Killgore acknowledged that the KenMORE option does not solve the full budget crisis. Regarding climate, human services, and the KenMORE option, Mayor Herbig said he “would expect people would want to see additional spending in these areas, not just the money we’re currently spending, and it still doesn’t solve the underlying problem we are trying to address.”
CM Loutsis continued to express that he felt that the MPD would be helpful over the long term. He is concerned that multiple, simultaneous, ballot measures would be difficult for the community to accept (and approve). He supports hiring a public safety consultant, and asked CM Culver for clarification on whether the startup costs are included in his estimates since it’s not in the model. Culver said it was. CM Loutsis recently did a report on small cities and their public safety cost, and contrary to CM Culver’s AI research, Kenmore came in substantially below peer cities. In CM Loutsis’ research, Kenmore was the only city that contracted public safety.
Council then put sticky notes on the windows for the measures they supported.
TAX OPTIONS BEING PREPARED
Staff is preparing the following options for council to vote on:
Councilmanic Public Safety (sales tax, 2026)
Councilmanic Transportation (sales tax, 2026)
Metropolitan Parks District (property tax, 2027)
KenMORE (property tax, 2026)
Public Safety Lid Lift (property tax, 2027)
Mayor Herbig expressed concern over raising sales tax twice, but acknowledged that they need a councilmanic option and need more than one measure to “right the ship”.
CM Adman said we’re still below neighbors on sales tax so he’s willing to raise it twice. He said we need different measures.
CM Loutsis reminded council that if we are looking at 2028, that could include new faces on Council and new will.
DM Sasson said that we need a “jewel in the crown” for the MPD, which may or may not be Lakepointe. She pointed to Covington, which successfully did a MPD. .
CM O’Cain said the KenMORE ideas are too amorphous, we should pause and make sure it’s not a rushed measure. She continued to support MPD or a parks levy.
