LYNNWOOD—With just over two weeks left until the November 4 General Elections, the Lynnwood Times invited Lynnwood CC candidate Robert Leutwyler back for another interview with a new set of questions on his platform and policies.
The Lynnwood Times also invited Leutwyler’s opponent, Mpiima Mugambe to attend the interview process, but received no response.
Leutwyler was appointed to the City Council in March of this year. Prior to that, he had served on the Lynnwood Planning Commission. He says he is focused on restoring and building people’s confidence in city government.
Leutwyler has been a Lynnwood resident since 2018. He has called the Puget Sound home since first being assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in 2010. He served for five years as an Infantry Officer in the United States Army, deploying once to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
He currently works as a program manager for international projects and initiatives at a Seattle-based multinational company. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Texas, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington Foster School of Business. He also serves as Council Liaison for the Parks & Recreation Board.
In beginning our interview last Thursday, Leutwyler was first asked how he is qualified for the position of Lynnwood City Council member and what his top three priorities would be if elected.
For one, Leutwyler said, he has been doing the job since March. Prior to that he served on the Lynnwood Planning Commission since 2023, indicating that he has been engaged at the city level during times of significant policy changes and tackling some of the city’s largest challenges, particularly the unified development code, the 20-year comprehensive plan update, working on addressing the city’s budget shortfall.
Prior to his time on the council, Leutwyler served in the military. In the U.S. Army he led a platoon of 40 soldiers on a combat deployment in Afghanistan, and he currently works for a Fortune 100 company on international projects and initiatives.
“I think I bring a blend of private sector and public sector experience that qualifies me for the position,” said Leutwyler.
In terms of his priorities, number one is the budget.
“We’ve got a $20 million budget crisis that we’re dealing with that demands urgent action from the council. So that remains my top priority until we get the city back on stronger financial footing,” said Leutwyler.
Second to managing the budget, Leutwyler is prioritizing housing affordability, which he says remains a crises and major challenge for Lynnwood residents, as well as public safety.
“[Housing has] been a strong passion of mine during my time on the council, during my time on the planning commission, and as a resident advocating for changes to help us do more on that crisis. I want to see us continue making improvements there,” said Leutwyler. “We’ve [also] got a police department dealing with significant staffing shortages. We’ve got a public health and mental health crisis that’s afflicting our neighbors here in Lynnwood, our residents in need. That demands urgent action. It demands the focus of the council.”
Lynnwood’s budget dilemma
According to Finance Director Michelle Meyer, the city of Lynnwood is facing a $10.7 million budget deficit for the 2025 budget cycle. Luetwyler, during our interview, said the deficit could be as high as $20 million.
With managing the budget being his top priority Leutwyler was asked how he plans on resolving the shortfall.
“I think it’s important to remember those cuts that we made, what I’ve heard from directors and when I look at the cuts we’ve made, those are not sustainable long-term,” said Leutwyler. “So those are steps we took to help address the immediate crisis of the 2025-2026 budget. But those are not cuts that I think are sustainable for Lynnwood moving forward…And now the question is, for the remaining $9 to $10 million, what do we do? Do we make more cuts? Do we provide revenue increases, some combination of the two?”
Leutwyler has made it a point to talk about this publicly as open as possible, also giving the department directors a chance to discuss the cuts they’ve made. He believes these cuts directly impact residents – especially considering some of the cuts are senior center programming and reduced services – so the public needs to be apart of the conversation.
To the point of the question, however, Leutwyler is proposing reducing the city’s reserve fund from 2.5 months to two months, which he admitted would be a short-term fix but helps bridge the gap for the time being that could buy the city time.
For the long-term fix, Leutwyler wants to have more public outreach and discussions to hear directly from residents to ensure their input and which potential service cuts they would prioritize seeing.
Restoring trust in local government
The city of Linwood, as you know, has been subject to various political scandals involving city council members and controversies regarding hiring practices of various directors to Lynnwood departments. Leutwyler was then asked what he would do, as council member, to help restore the public’s trust in city government.
“I think for myself and probably a lot of the Lynnwood community, they really don’t understand how this type of behavior is allowed to go on,” said Leutwyler. “Coming from the private sector, I look at the work that I do, and the policies we must follow, as a regular employee and just can’t understand why this is allowed to go on. It’s totally unacceptable.”
Leutwyler believes that restoring trust in local government starts with a commitment to acting ethically and having open and transparent discussions.
“That’s my commitment: acting ethically, acting in the best interest of the city and the residents rather than my own self-interests and doing what I can to promote an environment in the city council where we can have robust discussions, we can have uncomfortable discussions,” said Leutwyler. “But what I’ve said before, an uncomfortable discussion doesn’t have to be an unprofessional discussion.”
Youth Violence
Youth violence is an ongoing concern in Lynnwood with statistics showing an increase in juvenile case reports and arrests driven by factors such as gang activity, assaults and shootings.
Leutwyler was then asked what he would do to crackdown on the regional increase in youth violence.
As a start, he wants to continue holding conversations with the city council, with the police department, and with the school districts, to restore School Resource Officers or a similar program. At the same time, he continued, he can understand some of the concerns residents have with school resource officers. But it all starts with opening the conversation and figuring out what works best for everyone.
Leutwyler also wants to continue supporting counselors and support programs within school districts, to reach students early on and give them opportunities to build positive relationships and build a good network of friends and people they can trust to get them through challenging times.
“It’s a very difficult climate right now, I think, politically, economically, looking at what are your prospects as you get out of school in terms of what kind of career can you hope to have? Will you ever be able to own a home? The impact of AI, I think there’s just so many pressures that the younger generation is facing,” said Leutwyler. “So I just want to give them a strong network as early on as possible, help them avoid some of those paths that they might end up going down that road that puts them into conflict with the police and gets them involved in gangs and some of these activities that are preventable. We just need to be putting more resources in early on.”
Absorbing and preparing Lynnwood for growth
If Lynnwood is going to be successful in absorbing its projected growth, it’s going to require some significant infrastructure improvements such as stormwater, wastewater, traffic, accessibility, etc. With federal and state support limited and the city currently in a budget crunch, Leutwyler was asked what innovative funding models he would propose to diversify revenue for the city to ensure it can meet its growth projections.
Leutwyler began by saying some of Lynnwood’s growth will help the city pay for the types of infrastructure improvements it needs. Overall, he feels Lynnwood is on the right track in improving its financial ability to pay for all these obligations.
At the same time, he continued, Lynnwood has tremendous opportunities. For example, the City of Lynnwood has historically not properly funded road maintenance, he said, as well as its aging wastewater treatment facility resulting in abrupt rate increases.
In terms of innovative funding, Leutwyler supports the tax increment financing which the city is using for its city center area. What that does, Leutwyler continued, is provide a way for the city to invest in some infrastructure improvements but rather than simply paying for it with property tax increases, or some other tax, that will adversely impact residents, it takes the money from future businesses’ success.
“We’re taking the cost burden away from residents here today and we’re putting it on the businesses that are going to come in, and they’re going to do very well, and they’re going to have a very successful business because of the investments we’re making today,” said Leutwyler.
Possible annexation
Annexation is the process by which the city adds unincorporated areas of Snohomish County to the city’s boundaries. Following annexation, properties receive public services such as police services, road maintenance, planning, and permitting from the city as opposed to Snohomish County in exchange for the city receiving additional tax revenues.
A perfect example of this is on July 12, 2025, the city of Mukilteo annexed commercial properties east of Mukilteo Speedway, adding some $500,000 annually to the city’s coffers.
Leutwyler was asked where he stands with Lynnwood potentially annexing nearby unincorporated land to expand its revenue stream.
Leutwyler responded by saying he wants to be extremely careful by weighing how much more the city would be taking in, alongside what the cost burden would be for expanding services to these regions.
“What you find in a lot of cases, when you annex an area, you may get a very short-term influx of cash, but you’ve taken on this perpetual obligation of their roads and their infrastructure, and when you look at the two, you’ve annexed an area that now costs you more than you’re ever going to get back from a tax revenue standpoint,” said Leutwyler. “So it’s very important to analyze all of these areas and make an informed decision and not simply annex something as a band-aid solution, because that’s not in the right interest of Lynnwood residents in the long term.”
Housing affordability
With a recent 52% increase on property taxes, which disproportionately impacts seniors and those living on a fixed income, Leutwyler was then asked how he would make Lynnwood a more affordable place to live for seniors and low-income individuals.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that housing and zoning are significant reasons why housing is so expensive. That being said, we do have programs that help provide financial assistance and reduce some of that financial hardship when it comes to the utilities that people pay or some of the taxes that they pay,” said Leutwyler. “I want to make sure people who are eligible for those financial aid and the financial assistance programs know about them and are able to take advantage of them.”
Leutwyler, during his time on council, has also done a lot of work with the state and private management companies to lessen the risk that some of Lynnwood’s seniors are facing.
“When I talk about affordability and I talk about housing, it’s important to recognize transportation is usually the second biggest portion of someone’s household budget, second to housing. And it’s around 25% for a lot of households,” said Leutwyler. “So when I think about how do we make Lynnwood more affordable for everyone, but particularly seniors, I think about what can we do to make sure that they’ve got access to all the services and all the things that they need in the city, but maybe not needing a car, or maybe instead of two cars, they downsize to one car.”
Ensuring equitable workers’ pay through Lynnwood’s projected development
Last week the Lynnwood City Council greenlit a development agreement with the PFD to actualize a $600 million vision to redevelop the downtown core, of which the city would be responsible for the construction of 194th and Ring Road.
Leutwyler was asked how he would ensure contractors in this development agreement are paying their workers a fair wage and adhering to state and federal labor standards.
Leutwyler would like to see project labor development agreements that would directly benefit Lynnwood residents.
“Project labor agreements are a way to help enforce the right working conditions, the right labor standards that people deserve, the right wages, good wages, making sure that contractors are operating above board and they’re not operating, working with subcontractors that aren’t following all of the labor laws,” said Leutwyler. “That type of framework, I think, needs to be built into any large project that the city does.”
Improving and enhancing the city’s green spaces
Lynnwood is home to many parks and trails. Most recently completed parks projects include the Scriber Lake Boardwalk trail, which is now fully accessible, and the Scriber Creek Trail Phase 2, which improved pedestrian access to the transit center light rail station.
Leutwyler was asked how, in addition to these, the city could improve its green spaces.
Leutwyler would like to see the city set up a park district in Lynnwood which, he said, could be an additional revenue stream and a powerful tool that would give residents a clearer idea of where their tax dollars are going.
“I think we all recognize the importance of green spaces and parks, and they’re under threat right now with the budget crisis. The park district is an idea that I want to see us explore in the long term,” said Leutwyler. “The budget should be our focus short-term, but for the long term, as we try to put better systems in place, the park district, I think, is a good idea that makes sense from a resident standpoint and then it also empowers our parks and rec department to start making the investments that we need to make.”
Closing statements
Leutwyler was then given the opportunity to address voters in Lynnwood and share why, he believes he is the best candidate for the position.
“The reason I’m running to retain my seat, the challenges we’ve talked about here with housing, with our budget, the tax situation, the tax burden on residents, public safety, these are all issues that got me inspired to get involved in city government five years ago as a resident. It’s what got me involved on the planning commission. And again, it’s why I’m running to retain my seat to solve these challenges that we’re facing,” said Leutwyler. “I’m in it for the long term. I’m focused on making what I believe are the best decisions in your interests and I hope to earn your vote in November.”
Author: Kienan Briscoe
