In action coming at the end of a four-and-a-half-hour remote business meeting, the Lynnwood City Council Monday night failed to garner the supermajority necessary to override Mayor Nicola Smith’s veto of its earlier vote to eliminate the city’s $40 car tab tax.

The council also unanimously appointed Valerie Bouffiou as the City of Lynnwood’s Municipal Court judge. She replaces longtime Judge Stephen Moore, who is retiring. In addition, the council approved — following a public hearing during which no one testified — a property tax levy of $4.5 million, an amount that was already included as part of the city’s biennial budget for 2022. And it agreed, after a lengthy discussion, to send a letter to the Snohomish County Council expressing concerns about the impacts of a new state law that allows the county to levy a 0.1% sales tax increase to help provide affordable housing.

Regarding the council’s attempt to override the mayoral veto, such an action requires at least a 5-2 vote, but the vote was 4-3 to support the proposal, which had been made by Council President George Hurst. The four voting in favor of the override Monday night — Hurst, Jim Smith, Patrick Decker and Julieta Altamirano-Crosby — were the same councilmembers who voted Oct. 25 to abolish the car tab tax, which provides funding for the city’s road maintenance programs. Councilmembers Christine Frizzell, Shannon Sessions and Ruth Ross voted against the veto override.

Mayor Smith was absent from Monday night’s meeting.

The mayor announced her decision to veto the council action in a memo Nov. 3, stating that the council’s decision to abolish the tax without offering any alternative funding sources for road maintenance was rushed and went against the council’s budgeting practices. In addition, the mayor said the council did not follow proper procedure and should have held a public hearing to allow residents the opportunity to provide input on the impacts of eliminating the car tab tax.

Speaking in support of the veto override Monday night, Hurst reiterated his belief that the city could find other ways to fund road maintenance before the car tab tax elimination took effect in 2023. Hurst also repeated his reasoning that eliminating the tax reflected the will of Lynnwood voters, who by a 54% margin in 2019 voted in favor of I-976. That measure would have capped car tab fees at $30 statewide, but was overturned last year by the Washington State Supreme Court, which ruled it unconstitutional.

City Councilmember Christine Frizzell — who is on track to become Lynnwood’s next mayor based on the latest general election results — said she agreed with Mayor Smith that proper procedures weren’t followed in the council’s vote to eliminate the tax.

In other business Monday night, the council spent a significant amount of time discussing a draft letter the council planned to send to the Snohomish County Council regarding state legislation — HB 1590 — that allows the county to levy a 0.1% sales tax for affordable housing. In the letter, city councilmembers said that while they support efforts to develop affordable housing, they oppose “any increase in the sales tax rate in our county and specifically in the City of Lynnwood.”

Council President Hurst noted that the council had received numerous written comments from those opposing the council’s intent to send the letter, including messages from state elected officials and affordable housing advocates. Some of those advocates also offered public comments via Zoom Monday night.

Among them was Lynnwood resident Mark Smith, who serves as executive director of Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County. While it’s easy to vote against taxes, Smith said, he stressed that any vision for Lynnwood “needs to include a safe, healthy and affordable home for everyone,” and the sales tax would assist that effort countywide.

Steve McGraw, CEO of Lynnwood-based Homage Senior Services, said that Snohomish County doesn’t have a mechanism for a housing levy like other counties do, and stressed that the need for affordable housing “is greater than ever and continues to grow.”

After hearing public comments, the council began discussing next steps regarding the letter. Councilmember Shannon Sessions said she was torn about whether to send it, adding it was good to hear from the public on the matter Monday.

The issue, councilmembers said, is that Lynnwood has one of the highest sales tax rates in the state — at 10.5% — and the idea of increasing the sales tax more via this measure — regardless of the reason — would hurt Lynnwood residents.

“Sales tax is a regressive form of taxation, and we appeal to you and to our state legislature to find other forms of revenue to address the pressing issues of housing and mental health,” the letter states. “The intent of HB 1590 is commendable, but the Lynnwood City Council asks to you please refrain from any County Council action that increases sales tax.”

Also an issue for councilmembers is the fact that the county council in 2008 approved a mental health and chemical dependency tax, and it is unclear to councilmembers how that money has been used. Lynnwood staff have asked the county for an accounting of how that money has been spent but so far have not received one.

“It should be criminal…that we are put into a position that either we raise taxes on our people or the county is going to raise taxes on our people,” Councilmember Jim Smith said. “What we are saying is, just hold off a little bit. Do not raise these taxes now. There’s a lot of taxes that have been raised and we don’t know how well they have been spent. We haven’t seen a good plan.”

Councilmember Ruth Ross agreed, noting that “everybody raises our sales tax and we get the blame for it being so high.”

Councilmember Decker said it was a “false binary narrative” to compare the Lynnwood council’s rejection of the tax to a rejection of affordable housing. “This is all about priorities,” he said. “There are so many priorities that are needed for the City of Lynnwood, that I think it’s our responsibility as a city council to make sure that when funds are siphoned off our residents, when money is taken out of pots of the residents of our city, that we make sure that money is being spent well and wisely.”

The council’s letter, he added “is not binding, it’s advisory, but it expresses our concerns.”

After more discussion, the council approved an amended letter that specifically requests that “a representative, ideally our County Council Representative Stephanie Wright, present to our council a transcript and explanation of all revenues and expenses for the past 5 years from the mental health and chemical dependency tax that went into effect in 2008. We further request that we receive a plan of action of implementation of HB 1590 funding and expenses prior to the county council vote on this issue.”

You can see the final revised letter here.

Regarding the approved $4.5 million property tax increase, the current assessed evaluation for all real property in the city is $7.95 billion. Finance Director Michelle Meyers noted that as the assessed evaluation goes up, the levy rate in Lynnwood decreases according to the state’s property tax laws. Last year, the city levied $4.3 million, which equates to 54 cents per $1,000 of assessed evaluation. For 2022, the city budgeted $4.5 million in property tax revenue, which Meyer said would drop the rate to 53 cents per $1,000 of assessed evaluation.

In other business, the council received an update from city staff regarding proposed amendments to the city’s 2021 Comprehensive Plan, all related to highlighting the development of affordable housing in Lynnwood as a priority. This year, the city received three proposals for amendments. Two are amendments to subarea plans and were submitted by staff. The three are:

– An amendment was proposed by Housing Hope and Edmonds School District to change the future land use designation for a portion of the Cedar Valley Community School site — known as the triangle ballfield area — located at 19200 56th Ave. W. The property is owned by the school district and would be used to develop a 40- to-50-unit affordable housing complex to house homeless students and their families. The site is currently designated as a public facility and public use and needs to be changed to accommodate housing, said Planning Manager Ashley Winchell.

Councilmember Sessions offered a strong endorsement of the Housing Hope project, calling it an ideal location and a “match made in heaven” between the school district and city. With this proposal, Mayor Smith “made lemonade out of lemons” after the council decided not to move forward with a plan to renovate the Rodeo Inn motel on Highway 99 to house school district homeless families.

The council is scheduled to vote on all three comprehensive plan amendments during its Monday, Nov. 22 meeting.

Regarding the new judge, Bouffiou has been serving as a City of Lynnwood hearing examiner and also as a judge pro tem, filling in for Moore in his courtroom as well as in other Snohomish and King County courts. She also is a part-time instructor at Edmonds College, where she teaches students in the paralegal program. During the council meeting, Bouffiou extended her thanks to mayor and city council for their thoughtful questions during her interview last week.

The council also:

– Issued a city proclamation recognizing Nov. 11 as Veterans Day. In comments after the proclamation, Gary Walderman of the Lynnwood-based Heroes Cafe thanked the city for its support of veterans. The Heroes’ Cafe is a network aimed at supporting veterans across South Snohomish County.

– Discussed a request by Councilmember Shannon Sessions to hold an executive session next week to discuss accusations against Lynnwood City Council candidate Josh Binda. A college student in his first try for public office, Binda is facing allegations of improper campaign spending that have been filed with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. Binda is leading opponent Lisa Utter in the race for council Position 3, and Sessions said she has asked the city attorney to research how the allegations against him could be viewed by the city’s Ethics Board. Council President Hurst said he would look into scheduling an executive session on the matter.

– Agreed to remove the city’s Strategic Plan from the council consent agenda and work on it more next year. The idea is to give councilmembers additional time to review the plan, and also allow newly elected councilmembers to weigh in.

– Voted to approve a reclassification for a civil engineer position as part of the city’s salary schedule, but rejected a proposal to reclassify the city’s public affairs officer position. Councilmember Jim Smith said that “a case has not been made” for reclassifying the job, which Human Resources Manager Lori Charles said absorbed the job responsibilities previously handled by the intergovernmental affairs position. The job now also includes overseeing and managing the newly created race and social justice coordinator position. Councilmember Patrick Decker said he would like to see a statement listing the roles and responsibilities between the current and reclassified public affairs job to justify the change, which involves a salary increase. As for the civil engineer position, Charles noted the city has been unable to recruit or retain qualified civil engineers based on its current pay rate, which she said was 21% less than comparable positions.

— By Teresa Wippel