Cashmere City Council Meeting November 28

Snow removal may initially be slower than normal in Cashmere, Mayor Jim Fletcher announced at the Nov 28^th City Council meeting. He explained that public works is short one employee. Director of Operations, Steve Croci said he was seeking to hire 1 or 2 on-call non-benefited snowplow operators, who have municipal snow plowing experience and the required CDL license. The Council unanimously approved the request. Stephenson commented that there are still a lot of people parking on the streets.

With a 3:2 vote, the Cashmere City Council approved a tax levy which will result in a 1% increase in general city property taxes in 2023. The increase will provide the city with an additional $7,167 in revenue. The 3:2 vote followed two tied 2:2 votes. One vote was for a 0% increase and the other for the 1% increase. After the two tied votes the City Clerk-Treasurer explained to the Council that if they did not pass one of the two options by Nov 30th the city would lose substantial funding from the county. City Councilwoman, Shela Pistoresi, who was not in attendance, was called and joined via Zoom and cast the tie breaking vote. John Perry and Jayne Stephenson also voted in favor of the 1% increase. Chris Carlson and Derrick Pratt were opposed to the increase.

A Public Hearing was held prior to the vote, but no member of the public provided any comments. The Council members engaged in substantial discussion before the final vote. Stephenson asked what Fletcher’s reasons were for recommending the increase and how much of an increase in taxes could a homeowner expect. According to Fletcher, and city documents, the increase will result in approximately $1.50 more taxes to be paid per $100,000 in property value. Fletcher explained that at some point in time the city must have more money to pay for pools, parks and other services that residents want. Inflation is resulting in higher city expenses, including higher fuel and other cost, the fire dept is asking for an increase of $30,000 to maintain and improve their operations, salaries have increased, contracts with law enforcement and others have increased. Fletcher added that with the city only voting for a 1% increase each year, its budget falls behind inflation. “Overtime inflation has very slowly caused us to reduce services.” For a while the city tried to operate with one fewer employee, but found it was not getting as much stuff done. Fletcher said that we want to provide more services like described in the Parks’ plan and that residents want. He said that he looked at his personal property tax records, according to Fletcher he is only paying about $16 more in property tax to the city than he was 10 years prior, which he argued is a pretty flat rate increase.

Responding to an additional question from Stephenson, Fletcher reminded the Council that two years ago the Council had voted to not increase taxes, but last year there was a 1% increase.

Carlson said he understands all of that, but he was voting against the increase. He told the others that he has a budget that he has to live within, and he can’t just go and ask for more money but he has to cut how much he spends. He argued against the increase because the community is coming out of Covid, the increased costs that citizens are having to pay due to inflation and a new gas tax that is set to begin in 2023. He further explained that on the horizon are increases in water and sewer fees, and an increase in the cost to the city of the law enforcement contract. He explained that he recently received his property tax bill and that it went up a lot. He clarified that he knows Cashmere doesn’t receive much of the property tax money. Carlson summarized that “times are tough” and he suggested that the city reduce programs that are not necessary, Pratt agreed.

Describing why he was voting for the increase, Perry said he did not want the city to reduce services and that without an increase in city revenue the city would be further behind in its budget. Adding to Perry’s comment, Stephenson said she doesn’t like having an increase in taxes, but smaller increases are easier to swallow, compared to if the city does not increase them now, but would need to have a large increase in taxes later to pay for services.

In additional business the Council unanimously voted to approve the 2023 budget.

The council unanimously approved moving forward with the annexation process of property in the Evergreen Dr. and Kimber Rd. area. Tammy Miller, Director of Planning & Building described the annexation request was from Christ Church and Marc Spears. Christ Church is requesting 20.55 acres be annexed and Spears has 3.87 acres. Currently the properties are outside of the contiguous city limit boundary, but they would be contiguous if the City also annexed Kimber Rd from Evergreen Drive and an approximate additional 555' of Evergreen Drive North of Kimber that fronts the Spears property. The parcels have city water and sewer lines along the frontage that is of adequate size and volume that would allow for short plats and subdivisions, that may include approximately 31 new homes. The parcel is currently zoned SR and would be recommend to be rezoned as Multi Family.

Three Out of Scope work authorizations, for approximately $60,000, for additional services from Woodard and Curran (the contractor managing operations of the city’s water and sewer systems) were unanimously approved.

Fletcher told the Council that he would like to have Community meeting this spring to seek citizen input regarding several specific topics: 1) the library being moved to the Riverside Center, 2) Sunset Hwy. development 3) Pool and parks funding.