Note: The agenda listed the meeting date as April 21, 2026, but the provided timestamp and instruction specify April 22, 2026. This summary follows the instructed date.
The Edmonds City Council Finance Committee met on April 22, 2026, to discuss three agenda items: updates to the financial reporting policy, review of the February 2026 monthly financial report, and a proposal to establish a Fiscal Sustainability Task Force with consultant support. The meeting included presentations from Finance Director Go, Council President Dutch, and Mayor Rosen. No formal votes were taken; instead, the committee provided direction for further staff work.
1. Financial Policy – Financial Reporting Second Reading
Finance Director Go presented a revised approach to financial reporting, emphasizing a distinction between financial reporting (actual results, transparency, accountability) and forward-looking analysis (planning, forecasting, policy decisions). He noted the current 40-page monthly reports are burdensome and that many cities have minimal reporting policies. The goal is to streamline reports to focus on high-level financial health indicators, capital project progress, and significant variances. Councilmembers expressed support for the direction, with several noting the importance of tracking trends, biennial comparisons, and insightful analysis rather than raw data. Director Go will revise the policy based on committee feedback and return with a proposal; feedback from council members should be consolidated through Council President Dutch to avoid conflicting input.
2. February 2026 Monthly Financial Report – First Reading
Director Go presented the February 2026 financial report, covering month 2 of the biennium (month 14 overall). Highlights included:
3. Fiscal Sustainability Task Force – First Reading
Council President Dutch and Mayor Rosen presented a proposal to hire Baker Tilly (cost <$150,000) to:
Mayor Rosen also announced a pro bono engagement with Forum Consulting (150 hours) to support strategic planning, focusing initially on economic development. This work will include interviews with directors, establish a baseline, and create an economic development roadmap, with updates expected by September 2026.
Councilmembers raised questions about integration of parallel workstreams, cost of staff time, and the value of a third-party forecast vs. internal capacity. Concerns were expressed about the $150,000 cost and the need for the task force to be aware of previously vetted budget strategies. Support was voiced for community engagement and the long-term focus. No formal vote was taken; the committee directed staff to proceed with developing a contract with Baker Tilly and to continue the Forum Consulting engagement.
Number one. All right, the time is 1259. We'll give you a couple more seconds. There's a council member probably will join remotely. So now it's one of the so let's call the April 24st finance committee meeting to order as one PM. In the conference room, we have Matt Rosin. On the screen, we have Council Member Act, I believe. As a full number, and council member Peng in the conference room, we have uh myself, Councilmember Chung, Bannett, Councilmember Dutch, and we have finance director go. Uh before we get started, I just like to uh make sure that we are on uh keeping an eye on the time for each council member for each discussing item because I want to ensure that there's adequate time for uh item number three to be discussed the fiscal sustainability task force. With that, we'll jump into item number one financial policy, and we have director go here to take us through that. Thank you, Councilmember Channel. Good afternoon, everybody. So getting back to the uh fiscal policy, which we've had a discussion prior to this meeting. Uh and I met and talked about this, and so we we identified some issues. So the city's current financial reporting framework does not fully support the objective of providing clear, meaningful information for council to effectively oversee the city's financial health. We point we brought up and over this process, you'll see where I point to this in in certain reports. So um I we made a presentation that I want to go through really quickly. It's only a few slides. And um I'm on the meeting. Oh, you are? Yes, I don't know why it's not showing up. See there I am. So share, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Let me go to the meeting. It's right here, and then I'll share right here. And I go right here. There we go. All right. Okay. So just this is gonna be really brief. It's time to go back to our um, you know, like ABCs of what we meet, what we want, what a financial report is and what it isn't. So we began updating the financial reporting policy. Um, actually meeting ago, I believe, on the 21st of April. Um feedback quickly move to detail into detail that is an additions. Before we're finding language, we I want a bike alignment on the purpose of financial reporting and what the policies intended to govern. And I think we got ahead of ourselves a little bit. At least I was I felt like I was you know not where I want to be on how we're going to make this work going forward. There's some things I wanted to do, and I appreciate all the help you're providing me. But I really wanted to get this done so I can give it to you and then let you do some work on it. I think that would work better. Um the purpose of financial reporting. Financial reporting exists to provide transparent, consistent, and understandable information about what actually occurred, how it compares to budget and prior performance, so trend analysis. Um it doesn't form the future just a tab, but we just we base that off of historical trends. What the policy does not govern, as I was saying. Financial reporting policy does not prescribe forecasting methods, long-term projections or scenario modeling. These activities support planning and decision making. Budget process, decision packages, which is what goes into the budget process and special analysis. Um then how financial information supports the city. So you look at the function, you have financial reporting and you have forward looking analysis, right?