Redmond COW Finance & Communications Meeting - July 14, 2026
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Redmond City Council Committee of the Whole - Finance, Administration, and Communications Meeting - July 14, 2026
The Committee of the Whole met on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at 4:30 PM to discuss seven items including budget adjustments, insurance membership, budget process updates, technology projects, the REDI program, communications strategy, and regional animal services licensing. The meeting was presided over by Vanessa Kritzer with all council members present.
Consent Calendar
- Budget Adjustment #7 (minus one item): Moved to consent on July 21 after council agreed to remove the downtown Redmond Link RCC landscaping improvements transfer pending further information.
- WCIA Pre-Membership Agreement: Moved to consent on August 3 after discussion clarifying that pre-membership has no upfront cost and only charges for services used if the city does not join.
- Budget Ground Rules: With minor grammatical edits proposed by Council President Stewart, the ground rules were scheduled for adoption on consent at a future business meeting.
Discussion Items
- Budget Adjustment #7 (Item A1): Finance Director Kelly Cochrane and Haley Zercher presented the regular cleanup adjustment. The item in question was a transfer of rental income for downtown Redmond Link RCC landscaping improvements, which had not yet been presented to council. Council decided to delay that transfer until the next adjustment after hearing more at the upcoming CIP update. Council President Stewart noted the adjustment also included acceptance of a "Connecting Housing to Infrastructure" grant supporting Bellwether’s 330 units of deeply affordable housing in Overlake.
- WCIA Pre-Membership (Item A2): Director Cochrane and program manager Kelly Shee introduced the Washington Cities Insurance Authority option, which would replace the city’s current boutique carrier. Shee highlighted benefits including larger risk pool, pre-defense legal support, training, and better response times. Councilmember Prakriya asked about WSIA (Washington Self-Insurers Association); WCIA Deputy Director Rob Roscoe clarified WSIA is only for workers’ compensation. Councilmember Sony asked about performance metrics; Shee said response time and training resources would be key. Council President Stewart expressed support, noting the proposal offers more coverage at a slightly lower price. Cost clarification: no upfront fee for pre-membership; only pay for services used if not joining.
- Budget Process Update (Item B): Director Cochrane reported on the long-range financial strategy, fiscal policies, and budget ground rules. The updated matrix was sent July 13; Councilmember Prakriya requested more time for review and public posting of attachments (staff confirmed they are on the FAC agenda). Councilmember Stewart asked that item 17 (on civic results and public participation) be added to the July 28 study session. Council agreed. The budget ground rules, with minor changes (meeting length from max 3 hours to 2–3 hours, and clearer process for proposing new funding), were moved to consent.
- Finance BTIP Projects Update (Item C1): Project manager Wanda Norman reported that the ACFR software (ClearGov) is live, saving $45,000 in consultant costs for the 2025 audit cycle, saving over 280 staff hours, and projected to save 520 hours annually. The KeyBank Automated Payables project will offer ACH to vendors, reducing check fraud. Councilmember Parsi asked to quantify savings in dollars and about fraud reduction; staff said fraud savings are hard to quantify but ACH is more secure. Councilmember Prakriya asked about cost of ClearGov ($28,000) and whether a public-facing transparency portal is planned; staff said a dashboard project is starting in August.
- REDI Program Update (Item C2): Deputy Director Zach Hoovener introduced new REDI Program Administrator Teresa Lee. Lee shared her background (Fred Hutch, education) and commitment to the REDI strategic plan. Councilmembers welcomed her and expressed interest in supporting her role in the upcoming budget.
- City Communications Strategy Update (Item C3): Communications Manager Kelly Schutz presented the 2027-2028 Comprehensive Communications Plan, documenting existing practices, formalizing social media strategy, and rebuilding equity/accessibility sections. Communications project requests increased 37% from 2024 to 2025 (1,099 to 1,504). Council generally praised the plan but noted the lack of a section on council communications with the public. Councilmember Prakriya highlighted that a recent council conversation event was not posted on Instagram. Council agreed to schedule a separate discussion on council communication tools later.
- Regional Animal Services Licensing Update (Item C4): Chief Policy Advisor Amy Sai and Norm Alberg (King County RAS) presented two initiatives: a $10 increase in pet licensing fees (first in 18 years, would raise $500,000) and using rabies vaccination data to identify unlicensed pets. Alberg noted current licensing rate is only 20–24% despite 80% vaccination. Councilmember Sony raised concerns about socioeconomic impact on low-income pet owners. Councilmember Nuevacamina preferred an educational approach rather than fee increases, citing rate increase fatigue. This was informational only; feedback will be taken to the King County Executive.
Key Outcomes
- Approved to consent: Budget Adjustment #7 (minus the landscaping transfer) on July 21; WCIA Pre-Membership on August 3; Budget Ground Rules (with minor edits) on a future consent agenda.
- Pulled from adjustment: Downtown Redmond Link RCC landscaping improvements transfer will be re-presented at a later budget adjustment after more information is provided.
- Study session added: Item 17 on long-range financial policy (civic results and public participation) will be discussed at the July 28 study session.
- Further discussion: Council agreed to schedule a future meeting to discuss council communication needs and tools.
- Next steps for RAS: Redmond’s feedback on fee increase and vaccination data approach will be submitted; county executive decision expected in September.
Meeting Transcript
I'm calling this meeting to order. This is a meeting of the Finance Administration and Communications Committee of the Whole of the Redmond City Council on July 14th, commencing at 4 30 p.m. All council members are in attendance. We have seven items on our agenda. The first item on the agenda is the adoption of an ordinance for the 2025 to 2026 budget adjustment number seven. I'll turn it over to our finance director Kelly Cochrane to introduce it. Good afternoon. We are here with one of our recurring um sort of clean up budget adjustments. And Haley Zercher is here to help walk you through some of the items there. We do need some direction when it comes to one of the items that's included on the memo for a capital project. We're a little out of sequence and public works. We'll be explaining more about that project to you next week. So we just need to have some direction at the end of this meeting if you'd like us to keep that adjustment included, or if you'd like us to um to hold off until after you've heard about it. So I'll hand it over to Haley and she'll walk you through what is included in the adjustment. Yeah, good afternoon. Um as Kelly mentioned, this is one of our regular adjustments. So the uh the adjustments you're seeing in front of you mostly are for new revenues related to grants that you have already seen come through or reimbursements for smaller projects throughout the city. Um the project in question that is a little bit out of sequence is the downtown Redmond Link RCC landscaping improvements. So I just didn't want there to be any confusion. That will be explained in more detail at the quarterly CIP update next week. Um this adjustment is authorizing the transfer of some rental income that is eligible for this project. So we just wanted to get the transfer on the books. If um, if you have questions about this project or if we we want to pull this off, we can certainly um wait until our next budget adjustment. Um, but just wanted to get that uh authority for the transfer. Um everything else, uh, it should be pretty business as usual. So I will hand it over to see if anyone has questions. Thank you. Um so just to understand, we're gonna on the the we will hear at the committee of the whole about um that item, or it'll be at um at the business meeting in which we would have already approved the item. It will be at the business meeting. So I understand that that's a little we don't try to sequence it that way. So I'm happy to pull this off and we can uh bring it forward to the next um for the next adjustment. Uh council members, uh councilmember Percy. Um, would you be able to elaborate what would be the pros and cons of keeping it or not? Yeah, so I mean, if we were to keep it on here and uh authorize the transfer, um, that just authorizes the budget authority of moving the money from one fund to another. Um, if we were to pull it off, um, we would just go ahead and bring it forward again and and and you approve the project later. We would bring this transfer forward again at our next adjustment. So the alternative too is if we if we get the budget authority and we budget the transfer, um, but later get direction that the project isn't moving forward, we do not have to book the transfer. It's just the budgeting of the transfer. Council President Stewart. Uh thank you so much. For my part, it does sound like we need a little bit more information on this than we're able to probably get through in the long agenda we have for this committee. Um, so that's my take on that question. Additionally, I just wanted to comment. We're going to be talking about one of the city's priorities a few different ways tonight, and that is housing and producing more affordable housing. So I wanted to make sure that the public was aware in this budget adjustment. We've included our acceptance of a connecting housing to infrastructure project. This is in support of our partners at Bellwether who are producing um 330 units of deeply affordable housing in the Overlake neighborhood. And um I'm glad to see that Redmond continues to be a great partner to that project. Thank you. Council Vice President.
openpublica.com