Call to Order and Roll Call
STEINMETZ: All right. We’re ready to call the August 26, 2026 Des Moines Citizens Advisory Board meeting to order. And if we can do a roll call — Sarah, can you do a roll call?
STAFF (Sarah?): You want me to go down the line, go around? Okay.
Roll call responses, self-identified:
- Terraon — staff liaison
- Jeff Friend — finance director
- Eileen Evans — at large
- Lisa France — Redondo
- Victoria Andrews — at large
- Corina/Corine Anderson Ketchmark — at large, also chair of the Human Services Committee (which Victoria and Lisa also sit on)
- Walstrom — Woodmont
- Jim Lamarello — at large
- Randy Richards — at large
- Jeff Cromp — at large, chairman of the Arts Committee
- Eddie Duggar — Central, also on the Arts Committee
- Allison Chapen — North Central
- Rick Lake — present
STEINMETZ: I got a note from Betina [Kerry] that she was running a little late — the Rotary meeting ran long. We should have had a note from Diane Hoyer, who’s not here tonight — she’s at grandma camp.
BOARD MEMBER: I have a note, but it’s not about that.
STEINMETZ: Okay — Mary Ellen let me know she wouldn’t be here today due to vacation.
(Brief cross-talk clarifying: Mary Ellen is on vacation; Diane Hoyer is at “grandma camp” — a grandchild’s camp, not Diane’s own camp.)
STEINMETZ: Based on those two — Mary Ellen and Diane — do I have a motion?
BOARD MEMBER: We heard someone was having an anniversary — Bill Lynn?
STEINMETZ: Yes — Bill was having an anniversary, so he’s forgiven too. For those three who did plan in advance, is there a motion?
BOARD MEMBER: So moved.
BOARD MEMBER: Second.
STEINMETZ: Motion to excuse Bill Lynn Scott, Diane Hoyer, and Mary Ellen. All opposed? [none] The ayes have it — they’re all excused.
Two more members joined mid-roll-call and self-identified:
- Betina Kerry — Marina District and Arts Committee
- Charlene Picasso — Downtown District and Arts Committee
STEINMETZ: Thank you all. Let the record show those absent or excused.
Approval of Minutes
STEINMETZ: First item on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Is there a motion?
BOARD MEMBER: I move to approve the minutes from June.
Victoria Andrews: Second.
STEINMETZ: Any discussion? Seeing none — any opposition? Hearing none — minutes are approved.
STEINMETZ: We’re going to change the order of the agenda a little, since we’re waiting for Katherine, who’s on a Zoom call — so we’ll do Good of the Order as our second item.
Good of the Order
BOARD MEMBER (Wesley resident): I want to commend the Arts Committee. I live in Wesley and put out an invitation to my first-floor neighbors to see how many of the sculptures they could find. I had three takers — we bundled into my Honda Civic and in an hour and a half found 25 of the 30 sculptures, some I’d walked by many times and never noticed. Two of the three had walkers, but we got up close with all of them. I’m just grateful — it’s a wonderful service you all did. Thank you.
STEINMETZ: Anything else for the good of the order?
BOARD MEMBER: I’d like to commend the Arts Commission for the Music in the Park / Concerts in the Park series. From the aerial views of last night’s concert, it looked like a packed house. Congratulations.
STEINMETZ: Yeah, heard very good things at a distance. Anything else? Okay — we’ve stalled as long as we could.
Budget Discussion — Introduction
STEINMETZ: Our next item is a budget discussion, presented by Finance Director Jeff Friend.
FRIEND: Good evening, I’m Jeff Friend, the finance director — excited to be with you tonight. You might look at me and think my energy’s a little low for someone who says he’s excited — I’m a little fatigued, so if I seem to be lacking enthusiasm, it’s not that I’m not excited to be here, it’s more that I’m a little tired.
To give you some background on your finance director: I became a licensed CPA in 2007 — almost 20 years ago now. I worked about four years for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. I worked about 10 years for King County Housing Authority — which is not the one that’s been in the news lately, I want to be very clear about that. That’s the King County Regional Homeless Authority — very similar name, which grates on me a little. I spent about two and a half years working for the City of Tukwila, then came here as Deputy Finance Director in January 2021, and became Finance Director in January 2023.
So that’s my professional background. This is the third budget cycle I’ve been through with the City of Des Moines, and budget cycles always have their challenges.
We’re going to talk about the budget process — where we’re at now. If you were at the budget town hall, some of these slides will look familiar, because I stole liberally from that presentation — it was good and made the same points, and we want some consistency. So we’ll get started.
2027–2028 Biennial Budget — Where We Are
FRIEND: So first section: the 2027–2028 biennial budget — where we are. We budget two years at a time, and where we are is uncertainty. That’s the key buzzword — I think our investment broker actually said their office has a swear jar for every time somebody says “uncertainty.”
This is from a presentation by King County’s chief economist that I attended about a week ago. The environment we’re operating in: the US economy is slowing. Real GDP last year, 2025, was 2.2% — that’s how much the economy grew. In the second quarter of this year it was 1.3% — so slowing down. Inflation — we have a potential average of about 3.6% this year. 30-year mortgage rates are still above 6%. Fuel prices are high, and there are changes in tariffs — there was news about that even after I made the slide. Lots of moving pieces, not many of them positive, which creates a lot of uncertainty.
The conclusion: King County will have minimal growth with higher fuel prices. There is growth, it’s just small — revenue projections aren’t decreases, just staying flat, very minimal economic growth.
How the City Budget Works — Fund Structure
FRIEND: So how the city budget works — this might bring back fond memories if you were at the budget town hall, but we’ve got buckets. There are 37 different funds on the general ledger for the city — 37 different places where we have money and transactions. Some buckets are bigger than others — you’ll see some thimbles. One fund we never use but budget about $5,000 into is a forestry fund — nothing happens there, because developers have incentive to take care of their own trees. But we budget it anyway.
One of the larger buckets is the general fund, where daily activities and operations occur. There’s a bucket for the marina. Different funds represent different activities, and some are larger than others.
Not all money can be used for all purposes — state law and restrictions guide how each fund can be used. I actually got feedback by email after the budget town hall from someone who didn’t understand why certain things were restricted.
In the general fund — the first fund on the left — funded by sales tax, utility taxes — there are no external restrictions on how to use that money.
Special revenue funds: think of the hotel-motel tax fund. If you receive that tax, you have to spend it a certain way — to promote tourism. We’re allowed to have that tax by the state, but they say you can only use it for that purpose. That’s what “state law and restrictions guide how each fund can be used” means — there’s probably an external agency or government party saying you can only do this with the money.
All funds are part of the city’s overall budget, and each fund has its own budget. The general fund is the city’s main operating fund — most flexible, usable for a wide range of services: police and public safety, parks and recreation operations, community development, finance and administration, legal, clerk, and other basic city services — day-to-day operations of providing services to the community. It’s funded primarily by property taxes, sales taxes, utility taxes, and other general revenues. We receive that money and nobody outside the council tells us how to spend it.
BOARD MEMBER: Quick question — are most salaries for city workers paid out of the general fund, or divided up?
FRIEND: Some positions can be funded with a grant — I believe our crisis response analyst has been funded purely by a grant for the last year and a half. But by and large, most employees are funded in the general fund with unrestricted dollars. Most of the police department, for instance, is all general fund.
BOARD MEMBER: But aren’t marina employees funded out of the marina enterprise fund?
FRIEND: That’s correct, yeah.
FRIEND: Special revenue funds — used for specific purposes as required by law, grant requirements, or city policy. Examples: streets and transportation fund, public safety sales tax fund (a new one, just created recently), the hotel-motel tax fund we just talked about, and the affordable housing sales tax. That King County sales tax can only be used to support affordable housing — restricted, we can’t pay a police officer with those funds. Funded by dedicated revenues, fees, and other restricted sources.
Capital project funds — used to account for the acquisition or construction of major capital facilities and infrastructure. Examples: municipal capital improvements, transportation capital improvements — basically construction projects. A question we get a lot, especially during budget years: if the general fund is struggling, people ask, “but you’re building [some project] — how can that be if your general fund is struggling?” Well, they’re different buckets. Capital project funds are almost always funded by grants from the state, or debt we issue — not sales tax, not property tax. Funded elsewhere.
Internal service funds — these provide goods or services to other city departments on a cost-reimbursement basis. Example: the equipment replacement fund, where our fleet of vehicles lives. We set money aside, and when we have to replace a car, the money’s already there — the general fund isn’t hit with the whole price of a car all at once without planning. Same idea with computer replacement. We also have a self-insurance fund and a facilities maintenance fund — funded by charges to city departments based on the cost of services. So the general fund, the marina, swim, and a couple others pay into an internal service fund because they’re using those services.
Enterprise funds — surface water management and the marina. Used for services primarily supported by user fees and charges — operates like an independent business. Funded by charges for services, intended to cover the cost of operations. If a city owns a golf course, that’s probably an enterprise fund — some kind of business activity.
Key takeaway: a healthy balance in one fund does not mean that money is available to solve a need in another fund. That’s something we really work to help the community understand, especially during a budget year.
Q&A: Fund Proportions and the General Fund
BOARD MEMBER: Can you give a rough proportion of how much is dedicated to specific purposes versus the general fund? Is it like 90% of our budget has to be spent on certain things and we only get 10%?
FRIEND: I’ll go off the top of my head — the general fund, we’d budget about 28 million now in expenditures across the board. Citywide, everything combined tends to be around 63 to 64 million. So I’d say general fund might be about 40%, maybe a little higher. What complicates it is the construction projects — the capital project fund might have huge expenditures, but that’s because they’re doing a project and already have the funding for it. That skews it a bit.
As far as cash on hand: the surface water management fund has about $11 million in cash — a lot more than the general fund, which after paying for police and all our services has cash of about almost 3 million. That shows this pot of money stays with surface water management — enterprise funds can’t support the general government. We can’t take that money for ourselves, or people would be paying really high utility rates because the general government would raid it. The marina has probably about four, maybe five million in cash. Those are the three most high-profile funds, out of the 37. Does that help answer your question?
BOARD MEMBER: Definitely, thanks.
BOARD MEMBER: Which fund would be the most underfunded?
FRIEND: I’d say the general fund. Property taxes are capped at 1% growth — for 30 years that was okay because inflation was around 1, maybe 1.5%, but the last several years we’ve had real inflation, and we still have that 30-year-old 1% cap. It hurts revenue growth. That’s always going to be the key thing — I went to a national conference and a guy from Oak Harbor was asked a similar question and said, “I’m from Washington state, so — property taxes,” and I thought, yep. So that’s always the first thing you hear when discussing what’s underfunded. We’re not saying we want an unlimited cap, but that 1% cap makes budgeting very difficult. The general fund is the victim of that.
BOARD MEMBER: Because that all goes into the general fund.
FRIEND: Right.
BOARD MEMBER: I want to say the buckets were a very good visual, both that night and here again. My question — would this help others understand — is our Arts Committee budget coming out of the general fund or a special revenue fund?
FRIEND: That’s the general fund.
BOARD MEMBER: Have you seen an increase in the hotel-motel tax fund?
FRIEND: No — in fact, we’ve seen a decrease.
BOARD MEMBER: Really. And I think it would be difficult to balance affordable housing because of inflation, in reference to the 1% cap on real estate?
FRIEND: That one’s a component of sales tax, so it’s actually pretty steady — we budget about 35,000, get about that, and support SKHP, the South King Housing Partners — different cities belong to that. I’ll end by saying — being on the CAB, I’ve learned all this from sitting through many of your budget presentations, and you do it very well. When I talk to others, I’ve made it my purpose to explain that we can’t spend that money on just anything, and I try to describe the buckets. In the past it was just explaining we can’t pay for this out of that. So thanks, Jeff.
BOARD MEMBER: Also, one thing people are still confused about — neither South King Fire nor the Des Moines Metropolitan Park District have anything to do with the city. People think because they serve the area, we can transfer that money. You can’t — they’re separate entities.
STEINMETZ: Victoria, thank you.
BOARD MEMBER (Victoria?): Does the city benefit at all from giving land it owns to, for example, the food bank? Is there any tax benefit in doing that?
STEINMETZ: All right, we’ve got one more.
BOARD MEMBER: Help me understand, as far as property taxes go — churches, let’s say Wesley, don’t pay property taxes if I understand correctly, because they’re reinvesting their money, not making money — they’re flatlined. Is that correct?
FRIEND: This is actually a timely question. The idea is that nonprofits are exempt from property tax. Why it’s timely: we came up short last year on property tax — highly unusual, because property tax is pretty steady, everybody pays for the most part, nobody wants a foreclosure, so they’re highly motivated to pay. We saw a gap, and when I talked to my contact in the assessor’s office — we don’t collect property tax ourselves, we get our portion from the county — I asked who hadn’t paid, because we came up short. By their numbers we had a high amount owed to us that was levied, and it turned out, after they sent me spreadsheets, it was Wesley. The Department of Revenue determined that most of their new property was not exempt after all — they got a very large property bill they’d never seen before, so they’re working with the Department of Revenue on that. For us, that’s $133,000 we have not yet received. If they are determined to be exempt, we won’t receive it — but we’re budgeting property tax for next year assuming we won’t get it. Maybe hopefully they do, who knows.
BOARD MEMBER: So if they don’t have to pay on that — for them to not run in the red, just to be nonprofit —
BOARD MEMBER: Could they also be helping the city out in other ways, like donations to some of our programs, to balance that?
FRIEND: Yeah — I believe they were listed as a sponsor of the Waterland Parade. I believe that’s a private effort, not a city one.
BOARD MEMBER: I’m thinking more overall — how much money would they pay in property taxes if they were able to, and what do they do for the city? Should we be asking them, “here are some options of things we could use help with — would you be interested?” That’s all my thought was.
CAFFREY (Katherine): I love that question, Eileen. If only that’s how it works. The city actually has one of the highest percentages of property-tax-exempt land of all King County cities — about 30% of our total acreage is exempt, between Wesley, Judson, schools, city-owned property, county-owned property, the warehouses the Port owns, and natural areas. One out of every three acres, we’re not getting any taxes off of. It’s a pretty significant challenge. I’d dream if some nonprofits would want to help us out, but they have their own bottom lines and financial struggles.
To me, the more important thing is when I look at projects coming in — I desperately hope it won’t be a tax-exempt entity, but I can’t control that. I was just talking to Char about some property she’s familiar with that a church bought — that’s coming off the tax rolls. And I don’t want to talk about the Masonic Home specifically, but right now it’s tax-exempt. When we met with that developer — I don’t know what they’re putting there, but I did say, “please tell me this is not tax-exempt, do not come in with a school” — and they’ve assured me it will not be tax-exempt. That would be bringing acreage onto the tax rolls. It’s a huge detriment to us — it’s tremendous.
General Fund Revenue by Source
FRIEND: Where the general fund money comes from — we’ve touched on this a bit. General fund revenue by source: no great surprise, taxes log in at 70%. Other items are licenses and permits, charges for goods and services, intergovernmental revenue (basically grants), and fines and penalties — like red light camera fines.
Breaking down that 70% in taxes: property tax is 31% — the largest revenue category we have, our number one revenue source, which is why the 1% cap is so relevant to Des Moines. Utility tax is 26%, sales tax 25%, B&O tax 9%, and other taxes 9%. B&O tax is performing strongly this year, so that might gain a percent or two.
This graphic was shown at the town hall, so I stole it: the city receives seven cents for every dollar of property tax paid. The school district gets 35 cents, Washington State Schools 18 cents, King County 11 cents, fire district 9 cents, fees and charges 10 cents. Des Moines is about seven and a half cents. The top categories combined are about 75% of the pie, and we come in at 7.5%. The Des Moines pool is 3 cents, library 2 cents, EMS (a voted levy) 2 cents, Sound Transit and the Port make up the rest.
Really, property taxes rise for people mainly when a new levy is voted in — a new parks levy or other levy has real impact. Otherwise your property tax bill would probably grow about 1% a year.
If King County assesses your home value at $714,000, your 2026 property tax bill is $8,972.60. Of that, $79.80 goes to the City of Des Moines — a small portion of the bill.
BOARD MEMBER (Charlie?): Who gets the other 83%?
FRIEND: Back to that breakdown — the school district, state schools, King County, the fire district, and fees and charges. Those fees and charges are just the administrative fee for paying your property bill — that category is actually a higher portion of your bill than the city is.
Property Tax Dollar Breakdown — Discussion
BOARD MEMBER: So tagging on that — I understand, so it’s the same $716,000, that’s the 100% breakdown. The state gets 18 cents on the dollar, King County and the rest is for our city, specifically?
FRIEND: So this is one property tax dollar. The difference between this slide and the last one that showed the $716,000 home and the $79 figure is just math — the $79 represents that blue bar where the city is. Those other, larger portions represent a larger percentage of that $8,900 property tax bill. So 75% of that $8,900 is all those categories to the left — those eight categories “ate at the trough,” and when they were done, we got the seven-and-a-half cents per dollar. Does that help?
BOARD MEMBER (Alison?): I just think it’s unfair that fees and charges gets more than what the city does.
BOARD MEMBER: Yeah, that’s ridiculous.
BOARD MEMBER: And that’s all just administrative — like charging credit cards and stuff, right?
FRIEND: I think so, yeah.
BOARD MEMBER: Where it shows Washington State Schools — are those all K-12 schools, or is that like WSU, U-Dub?
FRIEND: Yeah, Washington State Schools altogether — higher education.
BOARD MEMBER: So our local schools here aren’t part of that?
FRIEND: No, it’s the higher-ed piece.
BOARD MEMBER: Question — who determines the amounts, the 35, 18? Is that the legislature?
FRIEND: That’s a good question. I’d say it mostly rests with the state legislature. I was talking to my sister, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia — because I’m a nerd — about this, and she was interested how Georgia does property taxes. She came back and said they got rid of the state property tax, and education is basically paid for by the counties. So the difference between the two states: in Georgia there’s not much central control, it’s very localized — the county pays for education and the state doesn’t even collect property tax. Here, there’s a lot more central control — the state gets sales tax, property tax, they get the money, and if we want to do a capital project we have to go ask them for it and spend it a certain way. Texas, to use an example I hate to cite favorably, seems to have a better balance — they get a good portion of the tax pie, the state gets theirs, and it feels more balanced. Just an interesting comparison of three states doing taxes differently.
BOARD MEMBER: One more — where we get the seven cents of the dollar, is that the same for every city in the state, or does the legislature vary it — Mercer Island gets 10 cents, Brier gets 4 cents?
FRIEND: It’s probably close to the same, but it depends on what that community has decided to do with property tax. This is one house’s property tax bill, because it pays into different taxing districts — so what really affects your property tax bill is where your house is and what taxing districts it falls in. If you’re in Seattle, or a city that voted for a levy lid lift to raise property tax, that changes it. Seattle’s property tax rate is around $210 per thousand; ours is around $85 — but that’s partly because they have the airport, which is tax-exempt, so they have to make up for it somewhere, and they pay a really high property tax rate. Lots of variables, but I’d imagine for most small cities, the school district and Washington State Schools are their number one and two — so in that sense it’s similar, but it always depends on where the property is.
Sales Tax
FRIEND: Moving on — sales tax. For every $100 in sales-taxable purchases in Des Moines, the city only receives 95 cents. We get a very small portion. The sales tax rate in Des Moines is 10.4% — recently raised for the public safety sales tax, a restricted revenue source, which is another topic. But we get a tiny sliver of the penny.
BOARD MEMBER: So — internet purchases — is the tax collected based on the source, or where the warehouse is, or how does that work?
FRIEND: It’s where it’s delivered.
BOARD MEMBER: Because I know there was an issue with that for cities.
FRIEND: Yeah — so, don’t go to the mall, shop online instead, if you live in Des Moines. If you live in Tukwila, it’s probably the opposite. It’s where it’s delivered — so if you work in Tukwila, have it delivered to you in Des Moines, not the other way around. It used to be the opposite, actually — if it still worked that way, we’d be a lot more excited about the warehouses shipping stuff out of Des Moines than we get to be now.
BOARD MEMBER: Real quick question — a lot of us still have 98198 as our zip code, which is also Seattle’s. How do they differentiate who that tax goes to?
FRIEND: When I worked in Tukwila, they had a similar concern, because Tukwila and Seattle get mixed up the same way — but the state has GIS codes that know exactly where your property is. So even with that zip code overlap, it doesn’t really affect anything — we get our money.
Where the General Fund Money Goes
FRIEND: General fund money goes to pay for police and public safety, parks and community services, community development, public works, court and legal, and general government support.
Here’s general fund expenditures by department, as a portion of the whole. Police is 44%.
BOARD MEMBER: For that slide, it might be helpful if the order matched the previous slide’s percentages.
FRIEND: Yeah — I mean, public safety is clearly first, but parks and community services isn’t necessarily the number two. It’s Community Enrichment Services at 6%. [Someone clarifies: it’s not meant to be sequential.] Right — someone might read it as sequential when it’s not.
FRIEND: Police is 44% — very typical for cities, since public safety puts itself in harm’s way and carries a lot of equipment cost, so it’s always a large slice. Public works is 11%. Everything else combined makes up the other half: Community Enrichment Services (parks and recreation) at 6%, community development at 9%, finance and the city manager’s office both at 5%, and smaller departments — human resources at 1%, IT at 4%. This is a pretty typical view for a smaller city with its own police force; it would probably look similar even for a city that contracts police services.
BOARD MEMBER: Just a clarification — “city manager” isn’t just —
CAFFREY: No, that should say “city manager’s office” and all the activity that office does, which is extensive.
BOARD MEMBER: There’s like seven or eight staff in there, right?
CAFFREY: That’s what I’m saying, yeah.
BOARD MEMBER: So where does the fire department fit in?
FRIEND: We contract for those services — we just pay a bill. We don’t have our own fire department.
BOARD MEMBER: [Clarifying back to the earlier property tax dollar slide] So they’re totally separate — their own entity, the fire district?
FRIEND: Yeah.
BOARD MEMBER: Thank you.
General Fund Expenditures by Function
FRIEND: This is the general fund expenditures by function. Personnel is 65.7% of expenditures. Services is 21.5%. Supplies is 2.7%. And — as you’ll remember from the internal service funds discussion, where we set money aside for fleet, vehicle, and computer replacement, plus insurance — that internal services piece is 10.1%.
This is typical of how government finances break down by category: services, supplies, and people.
What We Heard at the Community Budget Town Hall
FRIEND: This is pictures taken at the town hall — I think I see some people in the room right now who were there. It was a good night — buckets, pictures of buckets, staff explaining what their departments do, which is always good to communicate to the community.
Some takeaways: who was there? 37 attendees from across the city, most indicating they live in the Marina District or central Des Moines.
“Public safety comes first” — the most frequent response to “what’s the one thing you don’t want us to cut funding for” was public safety: police, animal control, mental health co-responders.
“Parks and trails” — second only to public safety. Residents consistently expressed support for preserving passive natural areas, investing in active park programs, and hosting more community events in local parks. Support for new youth and teen programming was also expressed.
FRIEND: “Invest in economic development” — attendees want the city to grow its tax base through business, not homeowners. They talked about incentives and penalties to get vacant lots and empty buildings developed.
“Managing costs” — when asked what they’d trim to fund something else, groups pointed to overhead, consultants, and reducing redundancies. They also asked the city to take care of what it already owns before building something new.
Budget priorities — the vast majority of attendees strongly agreed or agreed with the priorities of public safety staffing, permitting improvements, long-term vision for the marina, and increased fund balance reserves.
BOARD MEMBER: Question — how were those leading priorities generated?
FRIEND: At the workshop, people at tables filled out questionnaires — questions like “what’s the one thing we must keep no matter what,” or where they’d cut or add. There were also boards around the room. We took that feedback, and overwhelmingly what people identified as “don’t cut this no matter what” was public safety — that’s where we got the first answer. Second to that, most comments related to parks and rec / open space / gathering spaces for people to come together — I’m sort of mashing that into one category.
BOARD MEMBER: My question is about the posters — those four questions seemed like leading questions. How were those topics selected?
FRIEND: You mean the priorities?
BOARD MEMBER: The four budget priorities — they were different, we didn’t say “you must fund the marina,” but —
CAFFREY: Those came from an August 6th city council study session about the budget. We walked the council through a presentation, gave them a menu of options based on the strategic plan they’d just adopted, and worked with them to hone the list down to the truly top priorities for this budget cycle: increasing public safety staffing, dealing with permitting issues (which will have a staff impact), figuring out the marina’s role in our local economy, and increasing fund balance. So those questions on the sheets were really about how much that lines up with your thoughts.
Discussion: Community Representation and Outreach
BOARD MEMBER (Victoria?): I really appreciated the meeting, although I was a little late to arrive. One thing I noticed, and it’s kind of a consistent issue — we don’t have good representation for the entire 33,000 residents of the community. We have 37 attendees on this slide, and what they said is a thimbleful of what’s really happening in our city, compared to the people who aren’t at the table. I don’t know what we have to do to get to a place where we actually get representation — whether we move the meetings to different locations — but it continues to concern me that we’re very myopic in our own views and don’t do enough to get other people’s input.
CAFFREY: I absolutely agree. Some things we’ve done: that meeting was very intentionally at the Activity Center on 216th, not at Beach Park — we get complaints that too many things are down there. You’ll notice almost all our advertising is also in Spanish — although there are a multitude of languages in this community, Spanish is the number one second language. When school is in session, we utilize the schools to help get the word out, but they have limits on how much they’ll advertise for other entities. We also tried offering childcare at the December town hall as a barrier reduction, but didn’t get takers. We did the big online survey for the strategic plan — I think we didn’t do an online survey for the budget because it takes more nuance, more dialogue about facts. We definitely struggle with this — I think a lot of communities do. We’ve made some strides, but it’s really hard. And especially for some of our more vulnerable communities, there’s a lot of apprehension about working with government right now at any level. When we’ve made overtures to certain communities — “can we set up a pop-up in your apartment complex” — I think because of what’s going on at the federal level, they’ve declined us coming in. That plays into it too.
BOARD MEMBER: It’s like — even on the CAB, the Park Ridge seat has been empty a long time, because our first representative moved on, and we haven’t found any takers from that area.
CAFFREY: Also, part of the intent of the CAB isn’t for this to be a one-way conversation — the intent is for you all to take this information back to your communities, and bring us feedback. I don’t think that’s always happening in reality, because it can be a hard obligation, but that is part of the design intent of the CAB.
BOARD MEMBER: I don’t know if you know the area behind Woodmont Elementary — way back when my wife and I had kids at Woodmont Elementary, we started a Spanish-language PTA that met an hour before the regular PTA, since my wife speaks Spanish well enough. When my kids moved on to middle school, nobody took it over, and it fell away. There’s an area that’s a pocket where somebody with Spanish language skills could help reach out — I don’t know if that’s in your bailiwick, but we know some other people who might be willing.
BOARD MEMBER: I know some Español.
BOARD MEMBER (Victoria?): Is there an assignment that could be given to us, if we had a copy of this, to bring to our communities?
CAFFREY: Oh, that’d be great.
BOARD MEMBER: I’d do my own pop-up — I’m sure Eddie would sit there and share it with me.
CAFFREY: That’s great — we’d be happy to send out this PowerPoint, and Jeff has some discussion questions for you all, so we could have you ask people those. I’d also be happy to send the form that town hall attendees filled out — general questions you don’t need to know a ton about the budget to answer, done intentionally. Your next meeting is late September?
BOARD MEMBER: Yeah.
CAFFREY: We’ll be pretty close to done with the budget by then, but we still want that feedback to make sure we’re on the right track.
BOARD MEMBER: I just want to say that’s why this group is really advantageous to the community — we share what we learn here with others.
BOARD MEMBER (Pete?): One of the things we discussed before — remember the effort you all put into the strategic plan town hall, getting the word out. Well, one of the things — because of different languages and all that — one of the things we can handle much better is through the City Manager Report. We have about 9,000 subscribers?
CAFFREY: Yeah, probably around there.
BOARD MEMBER: If this group wanted to take that on the same way, and do everything we can to get more people to sign up — because it translates right there for people — it’s a single source for information.
BOARD MEMBER (Victoria?): Is the list of questions from the budget town hall available in Spanish? We have a number of employees who live in Des Moines — we could put it in the employee lounge and ask, in Spanish, “do you live in Des Moines?”
CAFFREY: We do have that — we couldn’t afford a translator to be at the town hall, they’re very expensive, but we did get that PowerPoint translated into Spanish, and it has the questions. I can send you that too.
BOARD MEMBER: I was going to say, I just signed up for the City Manager Report this last year because I came to the nonprofit summit.
CAFFREY: Good.
BOARD MEMBER: That was great — I got a lot out of it, but I don’t think a lot of folks in Des Moines really know about it or have access to it.
BOARD MEMBER: It’s communication — Mayor Achziger is right. If each of us got 10 people to sign up, that’s like over 100 — almost 200 people. That’s amazing.
BOARD MEMBER: The other thing — a lot of us are involved in local organizations, like the Woodmont Homeowners Association, or the Country Club. I was on that board for a while — a lot of us have our own little networks we’re involved with, so that’s an opportunity to go back to those communities and branch out from there.
BOARD MEMBER: Don’t we have QR codes with the—
CAFFREY: Yeah — I’m going to package up an email to you all with a lot of these materials, including a flyer with the QR code to sign up for the CM Report, or just a link if you want to put it in an email. We’ll get that to you this week. If we’ve got 9,000 signed up for the City Manager Report, that’s almost a third of the city — that’s huge.
BOARD MEMBER: That’s pretty — well, a couple of them are my parents, and they’re always like, “oh, please write your report.”
Where We Are in the Budget Process — Budget Calendar
FRIEND: Okay — where we are in the budget process. This is the budget calendar, and the arrow says “you are here” — tonight, August 26th, budget discussion with the Citizens Advisory Board.
What’s preceded tonight: back in May, we reviewed financial budget policies. In June, we discussed budget assumptions, looked at economic data trends and comparisons. In July, we updated our indirect cost allocation plan — that’s how, if the marina uses our accounting department, or gets a police officer stopping by, that kind of thing, they have to pay the general fund. That’s figuring out what the general fund bills to other funds. July 28th–30th was department meetings with the city manager — department heads and anyone with budget responsibility bring their proposal for the next biennium, we have discussions, they might get advice from the city manager on their numbers. That’s really when things start to kick off, getting numbers in. What isn’t on here is the finance director scrambling to pull all the numbers together from everybody across all those funds.
August 18th, as we said, was the city budget town hall. August 1st, we had a preliminary discussion of the — should say 2027 to 2032, not 2025 to 2030, that’s my fault — the CIP, the Capital Improvements Plan. That’s the plan with all the construction work — the Redondo Pier was in there, the marina steps were in there — a variety of things public works is taking on, usually public works and the marina. Tomorrow night, August 27th, that plan will be presented to council.
September 12th, in blue and bold, is the council budget workshop, 9 to 12 — [confirms location is here, not Beach Park]. September 20th [26th?], the city manager will draft a budget message and finance prepares the preliminary budget. September just keeps going after we hit those meetings with department heads.
Complete the preliminary budget book to council — our goal this year, which hasn’t been done before: in the past, what we’ve given council on October 1st, which is a state-law deadline for the city clerk to receive the preliminary budget, was just a list of general ledger accounts with associated amounts. This time, our goal is to give them the actual budget book, with narrative and context — “this is the police department, these are their goals, this is what they’ve accomplished, this is what they’re planning.” It provides much more useful information. When I was in Tukwila, that’s what we had ready on October 1st. In the past here, I think council has gotten that budget book late October, maybe November — so they’re looking at a list of numbers for a month, which isn’t optimal communication. We’ve been vocal about that goal, and I’m looking forward to being successful, even if I lay awake at night sometimes about it.
October 2026, we present the budget to the Citizens Advisory Board again — so you get to listen to me twice in one year.
October 22nd [later corrected to October 29th], first public hearing for the biennial budget — two readings, state law requires a public hearing. Same day, two other public hearings: one for the general property tax levy and revenue, one for the revised 2026 annual budget. Between now and then, we’ll have a preliminary budget going to council, the property tax levy going to council, and amendments to the 2026 budget — which is why we do the CIP early, something I learned last year.
November 12th, we do it all again for the second reading. If everything moves forward, we’re hopeful the process will be complete by November 12th.
BOARD MEMBER: Will the preliminary budget book on October 1st be publicly available, or just for council?
FRIEND: It should be — it’s primarily for you, but once you all have it, it’s pretty much public. We developed a budget website — it’ll be more robust September 1st when the new website goes live. It’ll all be housed there; right now even on the current site there’s presentations and things, all on one page.
FRIEND: This is the first time I’ve done this presentation with my boss in the room, and I find it helpful.
CAFFREY: Well, on that note — our council meeting is actually October 29th, not the 22nd.
FRIEND: Oh, okay — another week.
BOARD MEMBER: Jeff, will the budget website address be on the materials we’re going to get to distribute to our communities?
FRIEND: It’s on there now — what’s on there is the presentation from last week. We’ll put this presentation on there, the summary sheet that went out in the City Manager Report, and then we’ll put the proposed budget up as well.
BOARD MEMBER: What I mean is, in the materials we can print out and leave in various places, will it have the budget website on it?
FRIEND: Oh — it does.
BOARD MEMBER: Thank you.
Balancing Priorities and Financial Sustainability
FRIEND: Balancing priorities and financial sustainability. What we have this budget cycle that we haven’t had before is a strategic plan the council has adopted — the budget is really just implementing that plan. If you want to find the strategic plan, it’s on the website — this slide will be outdated after September 1st, but right now it’s right on the main page, upper toolbar.
The focus areas — did you want us to cover the strategic plan, or —
CAFFREY: Just making sure —
FRIEND: Okay. The budget is one of the primary tools for putting the strategic plan into action. The focus areas are: economic vitality, financial stability, public safety, engaged and thriving community, natural and built environment, and organizational excellence.
These are the council-identified budget priorities for ’27–’28 — touched on earlier when we talked about the town hall. Katherine explained the August 6th council meeting where council worked through this to choose which were most important. First: public safety staffing. Second: make Des Moines easier to develop in. Third: set a long-term direction for the marina. Fourth: strengthen fund balance reserves above policy minimum.
The policy minimum means we have enough reserves to cover about two months of expenses — we’d actually like to do a little better than that. That’s what that fourth priority is referencing.
What we have to balance: a lot of people think, “well, that’s government, they must have unlimited resources” — not the case. Every decision, if you want one thing, you might have to give up another. So there’s always a balancing of priorities, of perspectives, of issues: maintaining existing city services, strategic plan priorities, community needs and expectations, rising costs of providing services, available ongoing revenues, maintaining adequate reserves, capital and infrastructure needs, and long-term financial sustainability. All of that is in the mix when planning a budget. We can’t say, “we’d really like to hire 50 more cops” — that would drain our reserves. Even though the community loves public safety, there’s a limit. There’s always a trade-off, and these are the factors that come into play.
The most important thing for the general fund specifically is really providing services to the community — maintaining existing city services without draining reserves or doing something the community doesn’t want or need.
Here’s a graphic: the budget balancing test. A responsible budget brings three things together:
- Community and council priorities — what do we want to accomplish? Strategic plan focus areas, community priorities and expectations, policy direction from city council. That’s really what guides decision-making at the start of the process.
- Service needs — what does it take to maintain the services residents rely on? Current service levels, staffing and operational costs, infrastructure and capital needs, compliance and mandates. In this economic environment, most cities would want to grow service levels, but with limited funds and a community used to a certain number of police officers, a certain number of parks programs, a certain level of customer service — the goal is at least to maintain that, and get creative to do it.
- Financial capacity — what can we sustainably afford? Ongoing revenues and one-time resources, cost trends and economic outlook (we can’t assume sales tax will grow 10% year over year — getting too optimistic leads to relying on money that isn’t there, which leads to bad things), reserves and cash balance targets (long-term sustainability — we want enough cash to cover at least two months of expenses if something terrible happens; in accounting, that’s called a “going concern” — we don’t want to be like a business that goes out of business, we want to still be here years from now).
The goal at the bottom: align priorities and service needs with available resources to deliver the right services in a financially sustainable way.
Discussion: What Matters Most — Board Go-Around
STEINMETZ: Can I make a suggestion — that we go around the table and let everybody say something, so everybody gets a chance, and then we can come back if there are more questions?
(General agreement. The three discussion questions posed: What matters most to protect? Where should the city focus if resources are limited? What trade-offs are you willing to accept?)
Eileen Evans: Most important to protect: our police — I think we all agree with that. Where should the city focus if resources are limited: using staff time as wisely as possible — which really doesn’t generate revenue, so I don’t know where I was going with that. Most concerned about: if taxes went up, or a trade-off — what you’d see most is safety. I think that would be the most visible thing people would have concerns about — not feeling like they have an adequate amount of police protection.
Achziger (Gene): I’m not going to answer in order. One thing the city really needs to remain focused on is the residents, and making decisions with residents in mind. We had to make some tough choices around pet care a couple of years ago, and around things like the Fourth of July or the Christmas tree — decisions that seem simple on one hand, but residents need the kind of experiences we put together, like yesterday, to feel part of the community. I think that has to remain the city’s focus, and I think the feeling of safety is still missing — partly because we don’t have enough cops, we don’t have what we need. If we keep our eye on the ball — the residents — and keep checking in with them, doing more surveys (I know people get surveyed out, but the more we check in, the more we’re going to find out), especially reaching populations that are underserved and underrepresented — I don’t have the magic bullet for that, but at the end of the day we need to focus on the citizens.
Trade-offs I’d personally be concerned about: having watched most of the meetings, either live or later, there seems to be a tendency to think short-term instead of long-term. I think it’s just as important to do long-term planning. You have to ratchet in your budget, but you can’t forget that if you don’t put money into your house, it falls apart — same with the city. If we don’t put the same emphasis on the longer-term capacity of the city, and where we might have more people coming to live here and spend more dollars here, then just being highly budget-conscious isn’t going to be enough — you have to do the visionary conversations while still keeping your eyes on the prize.
One thing I mentioned to Jeff — because there are so many buckets, I wonder whether there are expenses that show up in every single bucket, that lend themselves to a “hole in the bucket.” Example, before your time, Katherine: we looked at whether it was viable to keep having Judson run the senior services at Wesley — running the whole program — and when we looked at it as a separate expense, we found we could do it for a lot less money. If we looked at consultants and fees paid across potentially 37 buckets, we might have holes in our buckets — what if instead we needed a staff person? I point specifically to the need for a communications director, which continues not to be an investment we make. It’s parceled out to so many people there’s no way to get it right. If we don’t find our path to a communications solution, we’re going to keep having these problems reaching people, getting one thing or another done. That’s my full say.
BOARD MEMBER (Lisa France, Redondo?): I live in an area where we pretty much call the police every night during the summer, with racing and criminal activity in the big parking lot along Redondo Beach Drive. So the priority in the Redondo area would be safety, trying to get more police coverage — that’s number one. Trade-offs: to get that, we may have to pay more taxes somehow, and that could mean families have less money for basic things — food, utilities, going out and doing fun things. That would be a trade-off, but I’m beginning to think that might be an okay trade-off for better safety.
BOARD MEMBER (Betina Kerry?): I’m going to be redundant here — public safety, number one, for sure. Where should the city focus if resources are limited: Betina and I are the squeaky wheels about a communications professional — that’s when I got involved. We have communications professionals in this group, two of us, and other great communicators too. I think the city should push volunteers to be out there more, since we can’t afford a communications professional but we have us, and we’re willing to do more — many of us can do more. Trade-offs — that’s the toughest question. I tried to get people in my building at Wesley to care more about Sea-Tac and noise levels — “oh, I don’t hear anything, I don’t care.” So I don’t know what our residents would be most concerned about — I wish I did. I think they’d notice if there were less police presence. That’s the only thing I could think of.
BOARD MEMBER (Jeff Cromp?): Thinking about these questions — I don’t know if I’ll answer all of them, but overall, I’ve been here seven years now, and I feel like this community, given the resources it has, is actually very well-run, especially recently. With Katherine’s leadership, I’ve really seen a difference in how things operate and how responsive the city is — I appreciate the work you’re doing. Resources are limited, no two ways about it. Your comment about too much tax-exempt property — to me, that’s Des Moines’s story, and the problem that needs solving: there needs to be a way to generate revenue. We tend to go in circles — “we need to spend money here, we need to save money there” — when in fact you only have so much money, and if you don’t generate more revenue, you’re not going to be able to do anything different than what you’re already doing, which is generally a pretty good job given what you have to work with. What the short term informs, the long term needs to be — that’s how I see a strategic plan. So your trade-off: develop more revenue, you get to do more things.
BOARD MEMBER (new/”the new guy”): I appreciate you — you’re right on, I agree with the revenue piece. In business we say you can’t cost-cut your way into prosperity. On the revenue base — property taxes, businesses and housing — maybe that’s an area of focus. I grew up in Des Moines, went to the high school, moved away, came back 30 years later, and some of these lots are still empty 30, 40 years later — hasn’t changed much. Maybe that’s an opportunity: where can we put businesses, where can we put homes and construction projects, to build that property tax base back up. Also, on that seven cents that really struck me — I was thinking about who’s involved in negotiating that seven cents, and who’s involved in getting it to eight or ten cents. What’s the effort involved? Maybe it’s not at this level, maybe it’s the state level, but somewhere along the way someone should be advocating for another cent or three for us. That’s my two cents.
Randy Richards: First, I need to give a shout-out to my fellow residents at the Adriana — about 10 married couples in that building, believe it or not. We must have the fire department there two or three times a day. We lost six residents this year — some young people too. I joke, but they could park a medic unit at the Adriana, honestly, they’re there two or three times a day, and we’re very grateful. My job, as I see it: encourage residents there to vote when a levy comes up — since Des Moines doesn’t have its own fire department, South King County Fire — vote for it. When a police levy comes up, vote for that too, because that’s what they’re telling me: we want more public safety. That’s my job.
I also want to thank the city for bringing the parade personally to me — I had the Buffalo Soldiers right there on the corner where I sit every day. I grew up with Seafair — I get chills over the whole parade. Tanya, our city manager, was the grand marshal — got off a fire engine, I don’t think she really wanted to do it, but she was a good sport. [Recounts watching the parade go by, the horses, the period costumes, a Seahawks player, the clowns — made sure to get a Seafair Clowns button from Woody.]
I’m looking for help — Allison, could I take two minutes of your time after the meeting? I don’t mind being in charge of the senior citizens portion I’m involved with — I really miss [prior organizer], but as I understand it, it’s me and Susan White now.
Allison Chapen: My interest was refocusing the committee as “community enrichment,” following what the city’s done with the parks department — so I can bring more of a family/parks focus to the committee.
Randy Richards: I didn’t want to speak for you. I don’t mind being in charge — I’m going to try to recruit more people. I need to get more people involved from where I live — am I right that we can have as many [reps] from my particular area as — the committee has a limit, but they need to be CAB members.
STEINMETZ: Right, I think that’s correct. Okay, we need to get focused back on the budget.
Randy Richards: I’m just about done. I don’t think the senior center really wants us meeting there, so I’m offering up the social room on the second floor — we could meet there. That’s my piece.
STEINMETZ: Thank you, Rick — real quick, since he brought it up, reminded me: is the Adriana tax-exempt?
(Confirmed: yes.)
BOARD MEMBER (Rick Lake?): First and foremost, safety and public services — number one, you have to have a city people feel safe coming to. I think we do a pretty good job — I’ve been here 35 years, raised my kids here, very familiar with the marina, grew up there. I like the comment about bringing in businesses, incentivizing people to come spend money here — not just tapping the limited property owners and current businesses we have for everything. Those are good priorities. I feel strongly — I don’t know the legalities, I’m not familiar with the city and the Port’s relationship — but there definitely need to be some mitigation fees we should be receiving for what we put up with from the airplanes. I don’t know the history, I know what it’s about — I don’t know the Port’s side, they keep expanding and gaining more profits, and I’m sure Sea-Tac — I mean SeaTac the city — has the same issues, but we need some legal help on that, because that’s just not fair.
Also, I agree with negotiating with some nonprofits/tax-exempt entities for services they get for free. I’m familiar with the fire department side of this — the fire benefit charge runs the same way, it’s not new levies, it’s property taxes and the fire benefit charge for South King County, we all pay that together. Places like the Adriana, Wesley, Judson — there is a legal provision in the RCW that says if you can track data showing increased service demand, you can make a charge. It’s very hard to do — no one’s ever done it — but you can negotiate with entities if you have the energy and staffing. It’s in the law, just not exercised, because you need good data and proof. If you’re going once a day to, say, Merrill Gardens, that takes away your aid unit — you’d have to do the math, prove it, then go negotiate a cost, not a full charge necessarily, but something. They do that with Highline College — they don’t pay either. There are a lot of places that don’t pay that live here — I get why, I get the laws, but maybe there should be more energy in investigating that. It’s hard to do, though. That’s what I’ve got.
BOARD MEMBER: Rick — were the six losses at the Adriana all natural causes?
Randy Richards: Absolutely.
BOARD MEMBER: No homicides?
Randy Richards: Okay, good — now I know.
BOARD MEMBER (Jeff Cromp? or Eddie Duggar?): Old business core needs development — I think property owners of those businesses should be called to task. I also agree with what everyone’s said, especially Rick’s point about Port money — we should be getting some money from the Port, they’ve got the money to give, we just have to find a way to get it. That’s all I’m going to say, thank you.
BOARD MEMBER (Allison Chapen?): Probably for the most part everything’s been said. I just agree we need public safety. I think something else citizens would like is roads — the streets. Along 7th Avenue, near ABC, you have to kind of go to the right side of the road because of all the potholes. I think that would give citizens the sense the city cares about those things too — could be a minor thing. And to touch on what Rick said about the fire department going to the Adriana or Wesley a lot — that really wouldn’t benefit us financially, would it?
BOARD MEMBER: Right, it benefits the fire department, not us.
Allison Chapen: And I don’t know about trade-offs — there’d have to be a list, “if we do this, you won’t get that,” and that list could be very lengthy. Overall, I think most people would say public safety is the biggest concern. That’s all.
BOARD MEMBER (Eddie Duggar?): First — I think you’re doing a much better job of communication. We could still do better, but it’s so much better than it used to be, so I want to say thank you.
CAFFREY: Well, of course — but it’s not me, it’s the staff.
BOARD MEMBER: But now there’s finally someone here who realizes that who lives here is the most important thing, and public safety, yes, but it’s really the residents and getting communication open to them. You have a beautiful source already — we just need to educate.
BOARD MEMBER (Charlene Picasso?): First, I want to commend you, Jeff, for the presentation on taxes — very interesting.
FRIEND: Thank you.
BOARD MEMBER: Of course public safety is the most important thing, and I really appreciate the newer members of public safety focused more on mental health and community outreach — we could use more of those. But I’m also going to talk about what I think is really important: community enrichment services — making sure the city feels friendly to families, that we have events, space, programs for families. If families are happy living here, feel it’s a family-friendly place to raise their kids, they’re going to be more interested in the community, shopping downtown, eating out. I don’t know anything about zoning — my husband would probably not want me to say this — but I really think there’s an opportunity to transform the downtown corridor for more live-work space. I don’t want it to turn into what Ballard turned into — we love that it’s more like old Ballard, has that charm, a little quirky, but not dumpy, a character we don’t want to lose. But I think there could be a compromise, and some of those empty lots that are eyesores could be filled with tax-paying occupants. I think that should be a huge priority.
Trade-offs: when COVID happened and there had to be a lot of program reductions, we were really sad that baseball had to go away, and it’s never come back. That’s an example of the kind of trade-off that happened, and I think removing programming is something families would object to most and feel most concerned about.
Additional Points Raised
STEINMETZ: Everybody’s had a chance — anybody have something to add?
BOARD MEMBER (Eddie Duggar?): The thing I know is Des Moines has a bad reputation in the building department — too strict, or old-fashioned, or something like that. I know that’s something you’re concerned about, but it’s an ongoing problem and an ongoing slow fix.
Eileen Evans: One comment — I pulled permits for a remodel because of a fire, and had excellent service from the permit center. I’ve worked in other jurisdictions — the City of Des Moines’s permit center, City of Kent’s permit center — and pulled permits from other jurisdictions for different things. Des Moines’s is the easiest I’ve ever dealt with. So when people have concerns about Des Moines, I don’t know their particular situation, but if you haven’t dealt with other cities, you don’t have anything to compare it to. I’ve not found one thing to complain about with building or planning in Des Moines, but I have a lot of experience with other jurisdictions — other people’s situations may differ, and sometimes it’s personality conflicts on either side. I just have to say that because I’ve not had an issue.
The other thing — for revenue, this doesn’t seem like a big amount, but public works has to go out a lot for dumping in the downtown area, and if you don’t call it in, it doesn’t get picked up, and then people ask why isn’t it being taken care of — well, they can’t be everywhere and don’t know about it. I try to call, and it’s happening more and more — I don’t know if it’s the new businesses downtown. This morning, leaving after coffee — Victoria can agree with this — there is so much garbage downtown.
BOARD MEMBER (Victoria?): Yeah.
Eileen Evans: This morning there was a fifth of what looked like rum, a clear bottle, an empty pizza box, and other fast food stuff — right on the corner of 22nd and Marine View Drive. Monday night, Tuesday night, this happens all the time down there, and it’s increased since a particular new business came in. My thought: is there an ordinance that could be written saying if a business doesn’t clean up in front of their place — whether it’s the Dollar Tree or whoever — we’re going to charge them?
BOARD MEMBER: Yes — circulate that petition, right? Because she’s cleaning it up so people don’t see it, but if you drive around before she cleans it up, it’s appalling. It’s gotten really out of hand — there’s a sign that says fish swim here, don’t throw anything out, and it’s loaded with cigarette butts, all three of the bars down there — one area seems worse than the others, or it’s gotten worse.
Eileen Evans: That’s just a thought for revenue. The other thing — if an ordinance were rewritten regarding empty storefronts — I don’t know, other than changing the height restriction a few years back, which is what let them build the theater at the Adriana because they could go up higher, enticing them. It’s a privately-owned business, they don’t have to fill it if they don’t want to — we can’t say “why isn’t there a grocery store,” because if that person owns the structure, they can put whatever the law allows there. We really don’t have any say. But if in the future something were written that said, “if you leave it empty over a year, we start to charge what we’d lose in taxes” — maybe just a little, something to change that in the future. That’s my only thoughts on those things.
BOARD MEMBER (Victoria?): On that note of getting creative — my thought is on the empty lots. I complain when the weeds get taller than me, and code enforcement, bless their hearts, mows them. A [community member] in New York took over an empty lot and built a community garden. I’m wondering if we could negotiate with these absentee landlords — “would you allow the city to put a community garden, pea patches, a path, or an art installation there, and in return we’ll excuse you for this, that, and the other” — just to create a nicer, more welcoming look. Back when Tracy was mayor, I asked if the arts commission could award money to a group to build a fence and create a mural, so we at least don’t have to look at those empty lots. I still think there must be something we can do if they’re not going to sell, to let the city use that empty space to beautify downtown.
BOARD MEMBER: [Something about really needing to do something, but if people pay for a pea patch it’s not the same thing — never mind, sorry to take the time — that would be really nice.]
BOARD MEMBER: Yeah, it’s a great concept too, but it doesn’t do the revenue piece.
BOARD MEMBER: What we need is those empty lots, those empty buildings, to actually create some revenue. They’re not creating any revenue now — well, there’s the 1% property tax.
BOARD MEMBER (Betina Kerry?): To me — sorry, Betina, go ahead.
Betina Kerry: I frequent a lot of local businesses, and there’s a lot really struggling. What I think is: the city and council could take up the question, “what can our community do to create an environment where local businesses have a better chance of being successful?” We have a new Chamber — that’s great, that’s going to make a huge impact. But we need an ongoing conversation about how the city is going to help these businesses succeed. The state of Washington has a toolbox full of opportunities — grants, special designations, so many opportunities — but communicating those opportunities to businesses who don’t have the wherewithal, the time, the understanding, the education to complete an application — that’s what’s missing. There’s money out there for these businesses to do facelifts, cleanups, and things like that. We as a city should be helping them do that. It would take resources — someone’s time — to put together what the state’s toolbox is, because they have a lot of different programs. I’ve investigated it, written about it recently, and I’m going to keep harping on it. That’s really where the city should spend some of its time and money, because these businesses are hurting and struggling, and I don’t even know how half of them are hanging on. I really don’t. Thank you.
STEINMETZ: Given everything Betina just said, it seems like a majority view that we need economic development. Is there something this board can actively be involved in doing about that?
CAFFREY: I’d say help spread the word on what we are doing. We’re actually researching a vacant lot program — bringing that to council this fall. Next Thursday, council and the planning commission are having a joint session about increasing zoning downtown, which will be an important community dialogue. There have been business roundtables going on this summer — we’ll share results at the September 24th meeting. We got a second code enforcement position, which took a lot of flipping over couch cushions to find loose change for. A lot of these things we are working on, and I think sometimes we really need your help telling people we are working on these things. Are we turning things around overnight? No. But we are making progress. Sometimes I feel like it’s hard for people to remember what the city’s doing — you all have lives, you’re doing other things — but there’s this continual message that we’re not doing anything, and that’s not true. One of the benefits of the CAB is you get countless staff presentations about what’s going on, and personal invitations to city events — many of you I’ve met with individually. So we need your help sharing the progress we’re making. We’re not at the finish line, but we’re not at the starting line either, and I need your help communicating that.
Betina Kerry: I absolutely think you and the city are doing phenomenally — I don’t know where you got the feeling I wasn’t thinking that. I’m just saying there are 50 other programs the state of Washington has.
CAFFREY: She was looking at me when she said that, and I was like, no, no, no, I don’t want to be confused with that.
BOARD MEMBER: Yeah. I was going to add — we’re part of the yacht club, so we take the boats and go all over — we’re always going somewhere besides Des Moines. Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, Bremerton — all these great places because they have really awesome marinas and great little towns. You go in, spend money, eat out. Maybe that’s the vision for Des Moines — I don’t know. Those towns are built around the waterfront, built for that — they’re a destination. People go there just because it’s a place to shop, eat out, go to a concert, take your boat or drive there. I could see Des Moines being like that someday, where people think, “let’s go to Des Moines with our boat, or our car, because it’s the place to be” — kind of uptown, lots going on, just go for the weekend. I’m not sure we’re thinking that way now, but maybe we could.
CAFFREY: Well, that’s one of the 2027 goals in the budget — long-term vision for the marina.
BOARD MEMBER: Perfect.
BOARD MEMBER: It’s almost 8 o’clock — this is the last one. You took the words right out of my mouth — this is what I’ve wondered ever since I moved here: why isn’t the marina a destination, why isn’t Des Moines a destination? The other thing — is there a timeline developed for the strategic plan goals and objectives? If so, could we get that, so we could help communicate it?
CAFFREY: Yeah — the plan is a five-year plan, it’s in the title of the document. At the September 10th workshop with council — you can tell I live by council meetings — they’ll be talking about implementation. Staff have developed a laundry list of action items, and we’ll work with them to identify what’s number one on the list, and how we’re going to report progress, because I know that’s really important.
Closing
STEINMETZ: All right, thank you all very much.
BOARD MEMBER: Can I ask a question — I move to adjourn.
BOARD MEMBER: I have a very quick — sorry.
BOARD MEMBER: I thought there was a retreat still on the —
CAFFREY: September 10th, it’s not really a full retreat — I think we’re calling it a retreat here in this room, 6:00 to 9:00, just an implementation workshop. September 12th, Saturday morning, is the budget workshop. September 3rd is the study session on downtown zoning. We have a council meeting tomorrow night too. Nothing September 11th — I think that got cancelled.
BOARD MEMBER: Oh, okay.
STEINMETZ: I just want to thank you all for your comments — the council, we’re hashing through this thing, and your feedback on priorities is very important to us as we make decisions. I do appreciate your comments, Eileen. One of the things that happens is there’s a little inertia — we do have a reputation for some things, and we need to turn that message around. So if you see something that’s working, I invite you to say something, because otherwise the negative attitude just perpetuates. But I do thank you all for your suggestions, and we’ll take them to heart as we try to finalize the budget. We have to do it. So thank you very much.
BOARD MEMBER: Victoria, I move to adjourn.
BOARD MEMBER (Betina): Second.
STEINMETZ: All in favor? [Ayes.] Thank you all very much.
[MEETING ADJOURNED]
1This is a machine-generated transcript generated on the fly by Google/Youtube/AI. Accuracy totally not guaranteed. Provided only as a convenience and to help people with disabilities. Caveat lector!