Local breaches of public trust hurt just as much or more than those at the national level, I’m finding. I have been a resident of the small town of Mukilteo, WA for 27 years. We have a population of just 21,000. Therefore, I am bewildered that Mayor Joe Marine and his favorite five City Council members who vote in concert with him (Emery, Harris, Jordan, Moon, and Vago), have managed to run up a 2025-2026 budget deficit of $4.6 million. How is this possible in a small bedroom community?
Personnel costs are high. We have a full-time Mayor and a full-time City Administrator. I don’t know what they are each doing 40 hours a week. Our city staff is bloated to 137 employees with curiously high salaries, the largest of which goes to our City Administrator, Richard Powers. In 2020, Powers was hired at an annual salary of $147,000, and in 2026, he will be making $241,322. The average salary for a City of Mukilteo employee is $97,333, which is 24% higher than the WA state average. To pay for this, our mayor intends to literally pave over “paradise” on the Mukilteo waterfront and put up an expensive multistory parking garage. He just set up speed trap traffic cameras along the Mukilteo Speedway to generate money. As with our national deficit, my local Mukilteo government wants to extract more money from me to pay down its debt, rather than spending sensibly with the majority of citizens’ interests at heart.
However, we do have two fiscally responsible Council members with budget management experience: Steve Schmalz and Mike Dixon. Schmalz and Dixon have continually questioned the runaway spending in Mukilteo and come up with cost-saving ideas.
If folks are ready to get Mukilteo’s budget back in balance, to see a thriving community preserved for generations to come, and a local government responsive to its people rather than to its own inflated spending, vote for Steve Schmalz for Mukilteo Mayor. It’s time for Mukilteo to be solvent and stable again as it was before Joe Marine took office.
Kate Forrester, Mukilteo, WA
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Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
