2024 budget deliberations: Councilmembers say no to red-light ... - My Edmonds News

2024 budget deliberations: Councilmembers say no to red-light cameras; cut climate action, grants manager positions - My Edmonds News

Expressing concerns about the city’s precarious financial situation, the Edmonds City Council Tuesday night voted to cut several items from Mayor Mike Nelson’s draft 2024 budget. Among the cuts were proposals to hire two new full-time staff — a grants manager and a climate action manager. The council also voted to eliminate a proposal for red-light cameras at several crash-prone Edmonds intersections, although expressed support for revisiting the concept after further study.

The climate action manager position was supported by a number of residents who had offered testimony during recent council meetings. Those speaking stressed the need for someone to oversee the city’s efforts to reach its 2023 Climate Action Plan targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Edmonds.

“While this is a worthy proposal, the city’s financial condition does not support addition of a new FTE (full-time equivalent employee) for this purpose at this time, at an annual cost of $145,000,” said Councilmember Dave Teitzel in proposing to eliminate the climate action manager from the 2024 budget. Addition of the position should be revisited in mid-2024 after the city’s budget position becomes more clear, he added.

Edmonds faces an ending budget fund balance of $6.64 million this year, requiring the city to dip into its reserves. The city council earlier this month approved a resolution declaring a fiscal emergency and authorizing the city to use general fund operating reserves for 2023 general fund expenses.

Supporting Teitzel’s motion, Councilmember Diane Buckshnis noted that the State Department of Commerce will be offering grant money next year that could support a climate manager position. Teitzel also suggested there are several things that the city can start doing now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including possible legislation restricting the use of gas furnaces and hot water heaters in Edmonds homes.

“I am really disappointed to see this come forward,” Councilmember Susan Paine said of Teitzel’s proposal. She added that she had identified a funding source in the city budget for the climate manager position, which she had hoped to introduce later in the meeting. “I think this is short-sighted,” she added. “We are in a climate crisis.”

Councilmember Will Chen attempted to table a vote on the amendment so that Paine could share her proposal, but that measure failed.

Councilmember Vivian Olson said she was “very hopeful” that Mayor-elect Mike Rosen’s administration would find ways to focus on climate action with the existing staff. “At this point, we are really weighing — are we taking on a new FTE or are we retaining the ones we have and having people keep their jobs,” Olson said, referring to the city’s budget crunch.

The final vote on eliminating the climate action position was 5-2, with Councilmembers Paine and Jenna Nand opposed.

To address the budget situation, Mayor Nelson in October proposed transferring to the general fund budget $6.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds and $2 million from the building maintenance fund. But councilmembers had expressed concerns about the $2 million transfer, noting that the funds — which are aimed at addressing the city’s significant deferred maintenance backlog — had been generated through bond proceeds that the city will be paying interest on. Councilmember Olson on Tuesday night moved to remove that proposed transfer from the draft 2024 budget, and councilmembers approved that motion unanimously.

Nelson, who lost to Rosen in last week’s general election, wasn’t present at Tuesday’s council meeting.

The council also approved a Teitzel proposal to eliminate a new $183,000 grants manager position. This motion was also opposed by Paine, who noted that the money the position would bring in would help fund it. Nand attempted to delay a vote on the measure but that failed, as did her effort to budget $100,000 to hire a contract grant specialist for a year.

Olson said she would support hiring a contract grants manager position later if there was money available.

When it came time to discuss the red-light cameras — included as a 2024 budget proposal for $180,000 but with revenue estimated at $3.5 million based on fines issued — Edmonds Police Chief Michelle Bennett came before the council with Assistant Chief Rodney Sniffen and Commander David Machado. Bennett delivered a presentation explaining that the city was looking at three to five intersections for a red-light camera pilot program that would begin in May. The intersections were among a group of six identified by Verra Mobility, a consultant that analyzed traffic data on behalf of the police department.

They included Highway 99/220th Street Southwest, 220th Street Southwest/76th Avenue West, 220th Street Southwest/9th Avenue South, 212th Street Southwest/76th Avenue West, Highway 104/Dayton Street and Highway 104/100th Avenue West. All six have high traffic volumes — the greatest being 220th and Highway 99 and 238th and Highway 99 at 20,000 cars per day each — and experienced numerous accidents during the 2020-2022 time frame. The analysis also included input from Edmonds police officers tasked wth investigating the collisions, Bennett said.

Bennett stressed that she viewed the red-light cameras as a public safety issue, not as a revenue generator, and has talked with the mayor in past years about introducing the cameras. This seemed an appropriate year to pursue the idea, she said, since the city already had an approved contract with Verra Mobility to install school zone cameras — and the contract allows for the addition of red-light cameras, pending council approval.

The goal of the cameras, she said, is to reinforce safe driving behavior. Bennett then shared empirical data showing that road crashes are a primary cause of death and disability — and red-light running is a common cause of crashes at signalized intersections.

“The goal here is not to ticket anybody,” Bennett said. “The goal is for people to follow the law.”

Bennett also showed a chart indicating that the City of Lynnwood has seen a 114% decrease in accidents in the past 10 years at its red-light camera intersections.

In introducing the measure to delete the red-light cameras from the 2024 budget, Councilmember Teitzel said that supporting data related to the advantages of red-light cameras “shows conflicting results” and more research is needed to demonstrate the benefits in Edmonds. In addition, Teitzel and Councilmember Jenna Nand expressed worries about the increased amount of staffing that could be required — in both the police department and the courts — to process the violations.

Councilmember Diane Buckshnis added that the issue deserved thoughtful consideration from next year’s city council, with more opportunities for residents to weigh in. Some residents also complained about the public engagement process related to the proposal. A public hearing was scheduled Tuesday night but no presentation was released in advance for people to review so they could comment on it.

During the public hearing, resident Ken Reidy said that any red-light camera proposal should be a legislative matter coming from the council, rather than a proposal made by staff.

Councilmember Will Chen said that while he was skeptical about the city’s estimate of revenue generated by the cameras, he supported them because they would contribute to public safety. Councilmember Paine argued for retaining the cameras in the budget, noting that the council had “heard from over a dozen neighborhoods that traffic safety is a neighborhood need right now…and this does offer some immediate results for these neighborhoods.”

The final vote on the axing the cameras from the 2024 budget was 5-2, with Councilmembers Chen and Paine voting no.

Among the other budget cuts made by council Tuesday night:

– $65,000 to fund an electronic gate in the public works yard.

– $50,000 for a study on emergency waterfront response.

– $50,000 for real estate consulting professional services in support of parkland acquisition efforts.

The council has added a special meeting next Monday, Nov 20, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. to continue its discussion on budget matters. That’s in addition to its regularly scheduled meeting next Tuesday, Nov. 21.

— By Teresa Wippel