City’s Olympia lobbyists update council on capital projects and bills that could limit local control

Griffin Clay and Mike Snodgrass of Strategies 360 told the Arlington City Council they are tracking state legislation and advocating for the city’s capital budget requests in Olympia.

"We're your lobbyist down here in Olympia tracking legislation and working on your capital budget request," Clay said, opening the presentation. The firm summarized outreach on several local projects and recent committee activity on bills the city has been monitoring.

On local projects, Snodgrass reported a productive meeting in Olympia on the SR 531 widening. He said legislators' staff are engaging with WSDOT but warned that significant staff work is unlikely until after the session amid budget work. "That is top of mind for Rep Marcus," he said, noting Rep. Marcus has engaged on the matter.

Clay outlined a capital-budget request seeking $550,000 to pave Holler Park’s parking lot and upgrade its stormwater system, and said Representative Shavers has sponsored the request. Strategies 360 circulated a draft letter of support to the mayor and staff and asked the city to collect community sign-ons to strengthen the request.

On state legislation, the lobbyists summarized several measures of interest:
- House Bill 22 66: described as supporting various forms of housing, including indoor emergency shelters; Strategies 360 said the bill includes different rules for emergency housing and expressed concern the measure "takes away a lot from local control on zoning."
- House Bill 24 89: described by the consultants as a bill that would restrict cities’ ability to enforce public-space rules (commonly "no sit, no lie" ordinances) unless adequate shelter was demonstrably available; Strategies 360 said committee action left the bill’s future uncertain.
- House Bill 23 89: a broad juvenile-sentencing bill that would expand sentencing alternatives and change review and capacity-management rules; the consultants said revisions shift some mandatory language to discretionary language for judges and raised municipal concerns about how violent and repeat offenders would be handled.
- Senate Bill 602: an automated license-plate reader (LPR) bill described as carrying bipartisan fixes in the Senate, including a 21-day data-retention limit and clarified public-records rules; the presenters said the governor has proposed additional misdemeanor exceptions for law-enforcement use.
- House Bill 2442 and similar bills: described as expanding local flexibility to use REET, sales taxes, and other levies for housing and health services, with carve-outs for Snohomish County rental assistance; Clay said these measures could let cities raise and repurpose funds but would carry fiscal notes and voter-approval elements.

Clay also noted a high-profile "millionaire's tax" advanced in committee; he said cities could receive a share of revenues and an increase in indigent-defense funding, and he recommended the city run an analysis to estimate Arlington’s potential allocation.

The consultants emphasized they will continue to press concerns about local control and operational impacts as bills move to the opposite chamber and to the governor’s desk. They promised follow-up reports and additional detail on fiscal impacts to the city.