LYNNWOOD — The Lynnwood City Council on Monday approved multiple contracts on its unanimous consent agenda, appointed a student to fill a vacancy on the city’s Youth Council and reviewed a preliminary 2027-2028 biennial budget that projects a $21.4 million general fund deficit. The regular business meeting at City Hall also included a proclamation marking National Hispanic Heritage Month presented by Council Vice President Derica Escamilla.
Council approved a $105,490 purchase of contactless in-cell vital-signs monitoring equipment for the Lynnwood jail, funded by the new Criminal Justice Training Commission grant. Lynnwood Police said the XK300 system, described as the only FDA-cleared contactless device of its kind for correctional settings, will help monitor inmates’ heart and respiratory rates to improve safety in the jail; technology that may have prevented the death by suicide of Tirhas Berhand Tesfatsion.
The council also authorized a contract supplement with Otak Inc. for additional engineering design on the 2027 Watermain Replacement Project, raising the total contract value to no more than $592,774.74 to cover extra pipe segments identified for replacement. Two five-year on-call traffic modeling and analysis contracts, each capped at $500,000, were approved with Fehr & Peers and Transportation Solutions Inc. A three-year subscription to Vertosoft’s Cartegraph asset-management software under a cooperative purchasing agreement was also approved at $251,079.95.
Recreation Superintendent Kelly Schudde presented the appointment of Armeen Malhi to Youth Council Position 8, following the resignation of the previous seat holder. Malhi, confirmed unanimously by the council, will complete the term that expires June 1, 2027.
The Youth Council, established earlier in 2026 as an official advisory body of 15 Edmonds School District students ages 14-18, will advise the City Council on youth issues and community projects.
Assistant City Administrator Monisha Harrell, who also serves as interim finance director, delivered an overview of the proposed preliminary 2027-2028 budget to council.
The budget forecast showed proposed operating, transfer and other revenues of $135.8 million against $157.1 million in expenditures and other uses, producing the $21.4 million deficit — far larger than the $3 million shortfall written into the adopted 2025-26 budget. Operating revenue alone is projected to fall $16.3 million from the prior biennium. Harrell and Hurst said the plan is intended to “realign City expenditures with a more realistic, base-case revenue forecast” that relies on three-year averages of actual receipts rather than layered projections.
The revenue shortfall is driven mainly by lower photo-enforcement fines (down $8.8 million), sales tax (down $6.1 million) and development-services charges (down $5.6 million), reflecting slower permitting activity. Offsetting some of the drop is a proposed use of the city’s full banked property-tax levy capacity, which would raise that revenue line by $7.1 million, or 47%on a cash basis. Operating expenditures are nearly flat at $144.4 million. Police spending remains essentially unchanged at $67.2 million. A new public-safety sales tax that took effect in April 2026 is expected to generate $2.5 million to $3.1 million a year, restricted to criminal-justice uses.
Harrell shared with the council that additional risks could push the hole higher but that more will be known in the upcoming month. Health-insurance premiums are now expected to rise more than the 6.2% assumed in the forecast, and the jail’s medical contractor may leave at the end of 2026, potentially adding $1 million to $2 million in annual transition costs. The city’s stabilization reserve, temporarily reduced to two months of operating expenses, must also be rebuilt.
Council members will spend the coming weeks examining options that include sales tax increases, bank capacity use, additional fee increases for services, a possible voter-approved levy lid lift, and/or deeper spending cuts.
For the Lynnwood Times full breakdown on the looming $21.4 million proposed 2027-2028 budget deficit, click here.
Public hearings for the proposed 2027-2028 budget are scheduled for Sept. 28 and Nov. 9, with adoption targeted for Nov. 23.
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
