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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Lynnwood seeks to plug $2 million budget gap

By Mina Williams
Enterprise editor

LYNNWOOD -- Lynnwood's City Council continues to grapple with an anticipated budget shortfall, looking at all options in an effort to close an anticipated gap of just under $2 million. The city's financial crisis is spurred by a drop in revenues, including a significant dip in retail sales tax revenues.

During Monday's council meeting, each department director outlined how Mayor Don Gough's request of an additional cut of 1.6 percent across the board would play out in their area. This recently requested budget slash comes on the heels of a $3.2 million cut already taken.

The council will next hold a special work session tonight to further grapple with the budget. The topic will continue, with public comment, at the next regular business meeting Dec. 14.

“We are talking about alternatives,” said Councilman Mark Smith. “Nothing is a done deal.”

Finance director John Moir presented an alternative to departmental operational slashes. “With the severity of cuts to the budget, we have to look for other ways,” he said.

Moir cobbled together more than $1 million in savings that could effectively stem the second round of reductions. These items were: $150,000 savings from the Olympic View Drive project; $100,000 captured from not making a transfer from the general fund into the criminal justice fund; more than $200,000 not leaving the general fund due to not going forward with capital development projects; and $925,000 not leaving the general fund for the library fund.

Otherwise departmental cuts, as outlined by the directors, stripped out operational items and relied on attrition to reduce payroll costs without laying off staff. Additional contributions come from several staff having requested reduced work schedules to blockade the potential of furlough days being an option.

Lynnwood police would eliminate overtime, extradition and reduce training. “There is nothing left but to cut staff,” said Chief Steve Jensen. He reported that two officers would be cut and two more vacant spots would not be filled, including an animal control officer. “Cutting by attrition is the luck of the draw, not planned, and is a haphazard process.”

Fire Chief Gary Olson concurred, saying that any further budget reductions would impact service and deepen the department's reliance on neighboring departments.

Permanent positions are going vacant with hiring frozen.

Suggested cuts to the Parks and Recreation budget would strip out most seasonal and part time workers in parks maintenance, aquatics guards, customer service staff and summer youth camp counselors.

Public works cuts would reduce the number of projects mounted, including traffic calming initiatives, and reduce supplies and services.