SNOHOMISH — Mayor Linda Redmon’s State of the City speech Saturday in the Carnegie Building placed a spotlight on nonprofit partners the city government relies on to help fulfill local needs, and featured updates about major infrastructure projects such as its First Street plans.
The theme of this year’s speech was “the Power of Partnerships.” The city is fortunate to work with partners such as the Snohomish Community Food Bank; Take the Next Step, to administer a rent relief help program to residents in need using a sliver of city sales tax revenue; and Volunteers of America. “As a small city,” Redmon said, it relies on partners to accomplish a full slate of needs, and Snohomish uses its Community Navigator staff member to connect people to those needs.
Redmon highlighted other partners, such as the volunteers who run the Kla Ha Ya Days festival and Snohomish Pride. Redmon said Pride “has proven to be one of the biggest economic draws to our downtown businesses by an event offered in town,” based on visitor spending data.
The event also functioned as a food drive for the Snohomish Community Food Bank. City Hall, 116 Union Ave., is accepting food donations now.
The speech delved into major city projects including First Street and the future city campus, and tried to quell social media rumors about these.
“The First Street Master Plan is happening because we have 100-year-old pipes and other aged infrastructure that we need to replace before we have a significant failure” that would be catastrophic, Redmon said. “This project is not based on a predetermined plan nor any desire to change the character of First Street,” but if it rips up the area for new pipes, what replaces it now needs to meet modern rules.
Redmon revealed that the city will be forming a public First Street plan advisory board soon.
The future city campus is meant to consolidate city hall, public works and the police department in one spot.
The campus is a multimillion-dollar project which would partially be paid for by issuing bond debt back funded through city revenues. The City Council last month agreed with city administration to prolong the project time frame because of the rocky financial picture in the bond financing market and at the national level.
When Redmon became mayor in 2021, “I found that a lot of things that needed to get done had been avoided over the years,” she said, adding “the city had fallen into a pattern of fixing things as they broke.”
Redmon put $75 million in infrastructure projects into her most recent budget. The funding for those projects are in place.
Looking at other projects, though, “the economic chaos created by the Federal administration is having impacts at the local level,” Redmon said. “We will take as many pauses along the way to make sure that the funding that is available goes toward the most critical needs of the community.”
Other highlights were:
• Some parks workers are getting arborist training and playground equipment installation certifications to have these abilities in-house.
• The city will move forward with annexing the North Lake area.
• The city is completing a comprehensive emergency management plan.
• Snohomish has increased cybersecurity and risk management, as well as public records digitization efforts and increasing the public's ability to look up city records by computer.
Redmon finished the speech by saying: “We will continue to work with our community partners to meet the needs of the Snohomish community. This is how a community should function in uncertain times, and this is what makes Snohomish special. I encourage all of you to continue to reach out to others, work together, and be good to one another. That’s how we thrive and that’s what makes us stronger.”
The speech transcript after introductions-
The theme of this State of the City is The Power of Partnerships. The people I introduced a few moments ago are a few of our amazing community partners who each contribute to the well-being of Snohomish. As a City, we are so fortunate to have community partners like these as we all work together to serve Snohomish. It was important to me that we highlight the variety of partnerships that make Snohomish such a strong community, not only to celebrate them but also to encourage prospective partners to join us. The Snohomish Film Company captured this spirit of partnership, and I am pleased to present for the first time The Power of Partnerships.
(shows video)
Thank you, Brian and Samantha Harmon, for your work on that wonderful video.
I want to point to this final screen. This is the first use of our new logo created by Snohomish’s own Pickled Flower Collaborative. Realizing that we needed a more consistent and recognizable ”brand” for wayfinding, entryways, and park signage, the City asked the Pickled Flower team for a design that honored the historic feel of Snohomish while providing a friendly and welcoming vibe. This logo, reminiscent of stained glass, is centered upon the river and acknowledges the agricultural past and the street grid from the founding of the city. The new branding will be phased in at the entryways to the City, as we replace signage throughout the city, and for signage for the newer parks, such as Pilchuck Julia Landing.
Slideshow: *Some of our Community Partners
What you see on the screen are just a few of the organizations with whom we have collaborated over the last year or two on behalf of the Snohomish community. The point is that the City does not work in a vacuum. As a small city, Snohomish depends upon partners like these to address all the needs of our community. Partners like the Food Bank, Take the Next Step, and Volunteers of America help people with food, housing, health and dental care, and other needs. The City doesn’t have the resources to run those types of programs. But we do invest in housing assistance with funds from the affordable housing sales tax. And we invest in a Community Navigator that helps connect residents with community partners that can provide the services they need.
One of the many impact stories our Community Navigator has shared is of a Snohomish mother of two, struggling with an unaffordable lease after surgery and job loss, who received rent help while working with a partner navigator to find more affordable housing options in the city. Our Navigator makes sure that in cases such as these with a run of bad luck, families remain safely and stably housed so they can stay in school and in their community until they can get back on their feet. We can’t do this type of work alone. Today we have a table set up in the back of the room with information from just some of these community partners. Please check out that information after the program so you can use it and share it with others. In some cases, our Community Navigator works with our Community Resource Officer who is here today. Please stop by after the presentation to say hello to Deputy Davis.
Since becoming Mayor, I have made it a priority to better support our community partners because most of the things that excite people about Snohomish are the result of these partnerships. Businesses and organizations of all types depend upon the City’s services. There are also so many events that are put on by partners who are passionate about bringing joy to the community. The Kla Ha Ya Days festival is put on each year by volunteers eager to do the hard work to make sure a long-standing tradition is kept alive. Snohomish Pride is another example of community members coming together to create a newer annual celebration that has proven to be one of the biggest economic draws for our downtown businesses by an event offered in town.
How do we know this? Rather than relying on what we hear on social media, we have data that provides actual foot traffic information to help our businesses with economic development and to understand the impact of events on our business community. We have been working on regional tourism efforts that promote the unique experience available in Snohomish. We’re utilizing smart anonymous tracking methods to determine what’s working, share information with event partners and the business community, and modify promotional efforts based upon real data. We have worked to make the special event permitting process more streamlined and predictable and to ensure that all events have safeguards in place to protect all attendees.
Slideshow: *Campus image
When I started as Mayor, I found that a lot of things that needed to get done had been avoided over the years. Rather than strategically planning to address infrastructure needs, the City had fallen into a pattern of fixing things if they broke. This reaction pattern leads to increased costs, rushed decisions, and preventable compromises. A priority of my administration has been to get out of reactive mode and make more strategic decisions. To that end, we have tackled a number of large projects and key plans since I’ve become Mayor. These projects scare people, which is perhaps why they had not been worked on before. But the need for two projects in particular have been known about for the last few decades, and I wasn’t going to have us ignore the City’s responsibility to begin addressing them any longer.
Slideshow: *Campus slide with cost comparisons
One of these projects is the Public Safety and City Services Campus. You may have seen this discussed on social media, but the information there has not always been complete. We have information available on this project in the back of the room if you want details or have questions at the end. The fact is that our facilities that are spread across the city have outlived their useful lives and now require an amount to be spent on necessary repair and upkeep, removal and relocation, and excess energy costs that comes very close to the cost of building a new facility. And that’s without addressing any of the anticipated future needs of the community or decreasing the costs associated with heating and cooling energy inefficient facilities. Some people have suggested phasing the project, and we are looking at those options, but code requires building the main building first. We have also spent the last few months working with the design team to economize on space layout to save costs while still ensuring we have buildings that will last for the next few generations. This work has resulted in at least $12M being shaved off previous estimates, leaving us with around $40M to finance for the construction of the buildings.
Even with these reductions, with unpredictability at the federal level impacting the bond markets and the country’s financial outlook, we have slowed down on that project until we know that it is financially prudent to move forward.
Slideshow: *First Street Master Plan
The other project that has received a lot of attention and has been subject to the rumor mill is the First Street Master Plan. A big part of that is because we did not do enough at the front end to explain the main purpose of the project or how the planning process would progress. This unfortunately has led to a lot of trepidation in the community. I want to address this and hopefully provide some relief today. The First Street Master Plan is happening because we have 100-year-old pipes and other aged infrastructure that we need to replace before we have a significant failure that could be catastrophic for businesses on First Street and the community as a whole. This project is NOT based upon a predetermined plan nor any desire to change the character of First Street.
Why do we need to look at changing anything at all? Well, if we do the work to replace the pipes, we are required to also make the pedestrian infrastructure ADA compliant. Changes for ADA compliance and a focus on pedestrian safety may affect the form and placement of the sidewalks and possibly parking. So, some basic things may have to change to meet state and federal regulations, but we want to make sure we work to meet the needs of businesses, visitors, and the community at large.
By the way, throughout the city, sidewalks are legally the responsibility of the adjoining property owner based on state law. We know that the sidewalks are an issue and that it is very costly for property owners of historic buildings to replace them. This infrastructure project will allow the City to take on that responsibility and cost. It is something that will benefit the Historic Downtown area as a whole and create a sidewalk zone that is more pedestrian and event friendly while encouraging people to come to hang out and patronize more of the local businesses.
Thinking about how the roads and sidewalks get built back after the underground infrastructure is replaced is what got us to the point of planning a temporary trial of different parking and sidewalk concepts in order to understand how to better balance all of the competing demands. We simply want to test out different options that have been used in similar areas but here, on the ground, in Snohomish, so we can see what parts of the ideas might be improvements that address known issues. Again, none of these concepts are predetermined. This trial is to gather reactions to real world changes, in the actual space, from the people who will be utilizing the space. We want to make sure that we test these concepts out BEFORE we build them instead of designing something that looks good on paper but ends up being a disaster once built.
We have had several meetings with thecommunity and business owners, and those will continue for the foreseeable future. These discussions are providing input that will inform each step of the planning process. Based on the feedback that we’ve received at these meetings, we have decided not to do the concepts testing in June and will be working to reschedule the trial. I also want to assure the community that the First Street Master Plan will not result in less parking. Any drawings that you have seen that show different parking options are just ideas put together as starting points for discussion. What has not been shared as widely are the plans to identity areas in theHistoric Downtown area where we can ADD parking, which has been a priority of ours for some time, even before the First Street Master Plan process began.
This First Street Master Plan process will continue through the end of 2025. The timeline for the design, bidding, and construction stages has not been set, but we’re looking at a project that will take years to fully complete. The Master Plan is simply the first step of a long process. We are committed to listening and learning from all stakeholders at all stages of the process in order to minimize as much as possible disruptions and negative impacts, no matter how temporary. This is why we’ll be forming a First Street Master Plan Community Advisory Board, so look for announcements on how to apply coming soon. There will be staff available to answer questions regarding this effort in the back of the room after this presentation.
I want to read a quote from Addison del Mastro writing in The Bulwark that I think captures the intent of and hope for this effort: “This is not change for its own sake, but change as a natural result of people doing productive things. Change that looks like maintenance and, from time to time, renewal. That’s the heartbeat of places that are alive, the heartbeat you can feel when you read about the history of any eighteenth- or nineteenth-century American settlement that still exists today.” I want us to preserve that heartbeat.
Although we are continuing the planning process on these two large projects, in these uncertain financial times we are carefully looking at the long-range financial picture and ensuring financial stability before moving forward on larger capital projects. I am committed to keeping City services safe and functional and moving carefully one step at a time on any improvement projects.
Slideshow: *Safety and stability
Behind the scenes, safety and stability are guiding priorities in much of the work we have done or have planned for this biennial budget period.
This year we are completing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan to ensure we stand ready to support the community in times of emergency. We want to be prepared to continue essential services, prevent loss of life and property, and get the community back functioning as quickly as possible.
We have increased the City's focus on risk management to reduce risk to taxpayers due to possible litigation.
We have prioritized cybersecurity audits and upgrades and staff training to prevent exploits and attacks on our systems.
And we are working onmonitoring system upgrades to protect our critical infrastructure.
Slideshow: *Transparency and accountability
Another big focus throughout my administration has been on transparency and accountability. There have been continuous improvements in records processes to ensure transparency and accountability and avoid liability. We have been working on digitization of records to improve search efficiency and lead to a publicly accessible records portal.
This year we are conducting a thorough review of the Snohomish Municipal Code to check for adherence to state law and inconsistencies between various sections of the code.
Along with full financial reviews completed in the process of producing the last two biennial budgets, we have conducted detailed audits of our financials back to the beginning of my term, with the State Auditor giving us clean audits. We have found and will continue to correct errors that predate my administration. We have instituted a publicly accessible interactive budget page on the City website and are working toward making quarterly reports available on projects happening in the City. A new financial system will be better integrated with all financial processes for better accuracy, accountability, and transparency. We will rewrite our financial management policy to provide better protection and clarity, and to reflect strategic financial goals.
Slideshow: *Investing in service
I have made it a priority to invest back into serving the community, as demonstrated most clearly by the $75M in infrastructure projects included in the last budget. Although that funding is already in place, I want to highlight the economic chaos created by the Federal administration is having impacts at the local level. We will take as many pauses along the way as necessary to make sure that the funding that is available goes toward the most critical needs of the community. We will continue to carefully balance the competing demands of the general fund, which is paid for by sales and property taxes. For instance, the last budget saw a $1.7M increase in law enforcement and criminal justice expenses. As we have not been increasing taxes, we are not keeping up with these increased costs and inflation. This impacts what revenue is available for other services the community needs, such as parks and staff to care for them, which are paid out of the same fund.
Slideshow: *map of North Lake UGA and photo of workshop
After a couple years of public outreach and multiple meetings of the Park and Forestry Board, the Planning Commission, and the City Council, and a lot of hard work by the Planning Director and her team, we passed an overhauled Comprehensive Plan last year. Within that plan were many changes including strategic rezoning that added flexibility in support of a range of housing options and businesses and plans for concurrent development of the utility and transportation infrastructure to meet the needs of that growth.
As a required part of the Comprehensive Plan process, we also looked at whether it was time to annex any of our designated Urban Growth Areas. An Urban Growth Area – or UGA - is an area which was designated for annexation into the adjoining city area as part of the WA Growth Management Act planning process in the 90s. After reaching out and talking with the neighbors in the North Lake UGA and receiving a majority of positive feedback, the City will move forward with annexation of the North Lake UGA this fall. It has also been a priority to streamline the permitting process, and the Planning and Development Services Department has been reviewing the steps of the process to ensure that we can be as responsive and speedy as possible. They are working to ensure that our regulations and codes are clearer and treat everyone fairly. We also restructured the department to remove bottlenecks in the permitting process.
Slideshow: *slide of Homestead Master Plan image
Parks are a highly valued feature in our community. We are working to find cost-effective ways to ensure that our parks are well maintained. Some Parks Department staff are training to be certified to install play equipment and others are getting arborist training. Having this expertise in-house means we can cut a lot of costs from building and maintaining parks and other public spaces. The first example of this will be seen in the upcoming refresh of Fischer Pocket Park this summer. The next park planned for a refresh using our new expertise will be Morgantown Park in 2026. Eventually that expertise could be put to work in the upgrades to Kla Ha Yark Park between First Street and the river and Cady Park. We have also just completed the master planning process for the next community park, Homestead Park, and the image you see here is a rendering of the center of the park, which preserves the existing pond and trees while including an ADA accessible path. The Homestead Park master plan provides the foundation for moving forward with the designing, bidding, and construction phases of the project, which will all be years in the future.
Slideshow: *Sidewalks and trees program
Sidewalks and street trees are legally the responsibility of the adjoining property owners. But people don’t realize this, so they are not maintained well. Many people raise complaints about sidewalk and tree maintenance throughout the City, which leads to the City having to bring enforcement actions against surprised property owners, because we can’t legally ignore the issue. This is obviously not an ideal situation. We have been working to come up with a solution to this perennial issue that would help to improve sidewalk safety throughout the city and allow for better maintenance of sidewalk trees. We are still working through the legal and funding aspects and will be bringing suggestions to Council later this year. Other cities throughout the state will be watching to see what we come up with as we will be one of the first in the state to tackle this issue head on.
These are just some of the many, many things that the dedicated staff at the City are tackling. But we can’t do it alone.
Slideshow: *Thank you
We will continue to work with our community partners to meet the needs of the Snohomish community. This is how a community should function in uncertain times, and this is what makes Snohomish special. I encourage all of you to continue to reach out to others, work together, and be good to one another. That’s how we thrive and that’s what makes us stronger. Thank you for being part of this wonderful community.
