Thank you, Mayor Marine, for vetoing the councilmanic sales tax. Now let’s turn our attention to other pressing matters facing the city. We need 10% cuts immediately – as I outlined in detail last September and October, both at the dais and in op-eds.
Here is my 20-point plan for Mukilteo:
1. Rollback non-represented salaries to 2023 levels and eliminate 5 non-represented positions.
2. Implement furloughs of 1 week per quarter on all non-represented employees.
3. Use capital leases to purchase priority 1 capital equipment, currently unfunded and with no mechanism to fund them.
4. Privatize Rosehill via a public-private partnership with an entity like the Mukilteo YMCA.
5. Form an RFA with the City of Everett and the Paine Field Fire Department to retain local control, shift this cost off the general fund and provide far higher service levels than currently or historically possible.
6. Eliminate the city administrator position; the city can be managed by a full time mayor. There is no need for a CEO and a COO in a strong-mayor form of government for 21,000 people.
7. Implement performance reviews to ensure good employees are rewarded and less than stellar are weeded out. Raises must be earned.
8. Continually implement city-wide Kaizen events and LEAN process methodologies to systematically identify process efficiencies and improvements in service delivery city-wide.
9. Salvage the waterfront deal with the Port. The Port will not pay us for the land they gave us for free in 2017. This economic engine needs to be started ASAP.
10. Eliminate the plan to build a $40 million parking garage at the waterfront.
11. Alter the Park Master plan and leave the Waterfront parking lot as is. We have no money for elaborate green space expansions.
12. Hire an enforcement officer to uniformly enforce city codes.
13. Hire a meter maid to enforce parking violations, particularly at the Waterfront.
14. Allow AirBNB in Mukilteo, especially in Old Town. This will generate tourism which will create demand for services and possibly future residents.
15. Never spot zone Hawthorne Hall. It must remain residential and cannot house commercial high heat glass operations.
16. Increase height limits to 7-stories in dense zones along major arterials and permit smart density along arterials.
17. Market Mukilteo to attract clean-tech manufacturers to our industrial base and form a clean tech cluster that is an expansion of Everett’s.
18. Annex the entirety of the MUGA to add density in the south, particularly along 148th, while CAPTURING the development along and near 99 and airport road that will come with the light rail expansion. These efforts should be focused on creating housing affordability in these targeted zones.
19. Add a Balanced Budget law mandating that city budgets must limit general fund expenditures to general fund revenues and not rely on fund balances to statutorily balance the budget.
20. Advocate at the state level for the elimination of the 1% cap on property tax increases and revert to 3% as prior to 2001.
Mike Dixon, Mukilteo City Councilman
Mike Dixon was elected to a four-year term in 2023. Born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he has made Mukilteo his home since 2007. Mike is a member of the board of directors of Dawson Place Child Advocacy Center, the Everett based non profit providing safety, justice and healing to victims of child physical and sexual abuse, assault, and neglect. He also serves as 3-time elected water and wastewater district commissioner.
Mike recently joined USI Insurance Services in their Seattle office as a commercial lines insurance producer following the recent sale of his Farmers Insurance agency in Old Town. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management science and an MBA, both from MIT.
Seeing the City’s ongoing fiscal crisis, Mike’s current focus is to balance our budget and ensure the long term fiscal health of the city by restructuring and optimizing its delivery of services. Mike is also focused on helping to make the City more affordable for residents to support growth and address the affordability crisis of our region.
Mike and his significant other, Alise, live in the Kamiak subdivision of Harbour Pointe with his son, Nehemiah, a senior at Kamiak. Mike also has a daughter, Gabriele, a sophomore at Kamiak, three adult children, and a granddaughter, Cali.
Mike and Alise enjoy partner dancing, exercising, traveling, and spending time with their extended family and friends.
COMMENTARY DISCLAIMER: The views and comments expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Lynnwood Times nor any of its affiliate.
Author: Lynnwood Times Contributor
