Following several amendments, the Lynnwood City Council voted 5-2 Monday to adopt the city’s 2025-26 biennial budget. Council President George Hurst and Councilmember Patrick Decker voted no. 

The approved biennial budget of $420 million outlines the city’s projected revenue and expenditures across all funds, including a $158 million general fund budget. 

In an email to the community Tuesday, Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell thanked the staff and councilmembers who had a hand in developing the budget. “With our rapid and planned growth, the City of Lynnwood is at a critical juncture. This biennial budget ensures that our city continues to thrive, creating the future Lynnwood our community members want to see,” Frizzell said.

The approved budget includes the addition of 10 full-time equivalent employees, including one computer support specialist, three municipal court clerks, a municipal  court commissioner, a detention lieutenant, three custody officers (to be hired in 2026), one public works facilities maintenance worker and an information technology computer support specialist. 

The budget also includes funding for 27 full-time positions approved by the council over the past two years. These include multiple police officer positions originally funded through one-time federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants, plus parks maintenance positions that address graffiti and vandalism on city property and the city’s human services coordinator position. Both the parks maintenance and human services coordinator positions were initially paid for with ARPA grant dollars.

The city council also voted 4-3 to adopt a property tax levy of $7.2 million with Council Vice President Julieta Altamirano-Crosby, Hurst and Decker against it. 

During Monday’s meeting, Finance Director Michelle Meyer presented two property tax levy options:

– Option one proposed a $6.2 million tax levy that would have no new positions.

– Option two proposed a $7.4 million tax levy that would fund 13 full-time positions.

After some deliberation from councilmembers, Meyer reduced the staffing in option two by one computer support position, one custody officer and halved the maintenance worker and custodian positions – bringing the number to 10 full-time equivalent positions. The cutbacks will save the city $200,000 per year and reduce the monthly property tax levy increase from $6 to $5.

Councilmember Derica Escamilla initially suggested the reduction, saying that having city employees working remotely  may reduce the city’s building cleaning and maintenance needs. In proposing the elimination of the custody officer position, Escamilla said the city council may revisit adding that position back in the future if the city has the budget to do so.

Council President Hurst said that adding higher taxes is not “feasible” for residents, pointing out that the original proposal of a $6.2 million levy is a 31.22% increase from 2024, and the amended proposal of a $7.4 million levy is a 56.62% increase. He said that the city council should find ways to reduce expenditures rather than increase taxes.

“I don’t think that’s being very [respectful] of the City of Lynnwood residents,” Hurst said. “We have never during these department meetings or department presentations [had] a discussion of…have you looked at what kind of expenditures we could reduce?”

Hurst recalled that Snohomish County had proposed an 8% property tax increase, and “lots of people were upset about that.” 

“The county executive asked all departments to decrease expenditures by 1.5%, and I think that’s a reasonable ask,” he said. “We could fund these additional requests without added revenue, without added tax. We’re asking for a lot of increase here, and we’re not showing due diligence as far as do we look at some sort of expenditure decrease.”

In other business, the council:

– Voted unanimously to adopt the City of Lynnwood 2025 salary schedule, which includes a cost of living increase of 3.24% for non-represented employees. The schedule also removed several positions, including a tourism/project manager, a meter reader/office assistant, a safety officer, three lifeguards, an exercise room technician and a victim services coordinator.

New positions added to the schedule include a lead permit technician, a building inspector and a court commissioner.

–  Held a public hearing with Senior Planner Rebecca Samy and Community Planning Manager Karl Almgren about amendments to two of Lynnwood’s Municipal Codes relating to how the city processes local permits and what fees it charges. The updates will ensure the city complies with  new rules required through Senate Bill 5290, which aims to improve how local governments handle project permits.

The full meeting can be viewed here.

– Story by Nick Ng