City Council honors outgoing Councilmember Rick Ryan, adopts environmental ordinances

Mountlake Terrace Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto Wright presented City Councilmember Rick Ryan with a glass plaque in honor of his 17 years of service with the City Council. Ryan was first elected to the Council in 2008. He lost in the November general election to Sam Doyle.

Matsumoto Wright recalled Ryan’s respectfulness on the Council – even in times of disagreements – and his sense of humor during one National Night Out event where Ryan performed “Wooly Bully” and “Secret Agent Man.”

“But you were serious underneath everything. You cared about the City and you cared about the Council,” she said.

Matsumoto Wright noted Ryan’s prior service on the Mountlake Terrace Garden Club and Arts of the Terrace, noting that he always recused himself from related City Council votes to avoid a conflict of interest.

“I remember [Arts of the Terrace] being an art show, but after your family took over, it became a big art show,” she said. “And Connor [Ryan’s son, who serves on the Arts Commission] made it even bigger because he knows IT, and he knows how to do that, whatever it was that people had to send in their artwork.” Rick Ryan’s wife Judy also is a member of the City’s Arts Commission.

Matsumoto Wright added that Rick Ryan arrived at one of the art shows in a suit with a toilet brush and air freshener to personally clean the MLT Library bathroom before the art show opened. “That was Rick,” she said. “I really appreciate everything that the Ryan family did with the art show.”

Ryan thanked the mayor, city manager, councilmembers and police chief for their support. He recounted the city’s transition from the old city hall where the asbestos-laden ceiling collapsed in 2008. The City Council moved to the Redstone building until a new city hall was built in 2021.

“We had to go through three ballot measures to get a levy and a bond so we could have this place we have now,” Ryan said. “When we were getting this [building], when we were still in Redstone, we had our Mayor Jerry Smith pass away, and then when we had this building built, [we] named [it] in the honor of Jerry Smith.”

Ryan said that he will likely continue to participate in City Council meetings as a citizen while traveling more with his family. “I’m not sure if we will go to Italy,” he said. “If the laptop will work for a Thursday night meeting, so I might call you up and say something…tell you how good a job you’re doing.”

Environmental ordinances

The Mountlake Terrace City Council voted 6-0 to adopt the updated critical areas and floodplain management ordinances, which focus on wetlands, aquifer recharge areas, flood zones, geologically hazardous areas, and fish and wildlife habitats. Councilmember Laura Sonmore was absent from the meeting.

Mountlake Terrace Senior Planner Sara Pizzo presented minor changes made to the ordinance since the previous council meeting.

For critical areas, the changes include: 

• Expand the area of applicability around water bodies 
• Add a clause to cover critical aquifer recharge areas
• Increase fines of unlawful tree removal or damage within critical areas to $1,500 per inch in diameter of a “non-significant” tree and $3,000 per inch in diameter of a significant tree.

Pizzo added that there would be a $500 per day fine plus additional penalties based on the square footage of disturbed critical areas.

She also reviewed the staff‑recommended changes to the critical area ordinances that responded to Muckleshoot Tribe comments. These include: 

• Allow legal nonconforming structures in critical areas to be rebuilt after a catastrophe if they are elevated, flood‑proofed or relocated.
• Require a consultation with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and affected tribes when emergency decisions could impact salmon habitat.
• Tighten scientific methodology requirements in critical area reports, such margin of error study limitations and long‑term effects.
• New best available scientific evidence overrides older critical area reports, even if those reports are still within the five‑year validity window.

Based on a letter and the recommendations from the Muckleshoot Tribe, Councilmember William Paige said the tribe is asking the City and state agencies to do more than what they are already doing. “These are the people who have been doing this long before we were here, and they got a pretty good idea of what they think [the ordinances] should look like,” he said.

Paige said he was not criticizing city staff but is “stumped” by the tension between tribal recommendations and state-agency positions and wonders how “contentious” these conversations are.

Biennial budget amendment

The City Council voted 6-0 to adopt the amended 2025-26 biennial budget ordinance. The updates include:

• Increase city manager’s salary by 14%, which brings the annual salary to $$257,389 plus benefits starting Jan. 1, 2026.
• Transfer $150,000 from the general fund to the recreation fund to cover a possible budget gap.
• Add $35,000 to the solid waste service fund due to increased demand for financial assistance to low-income families to pay solid waste bills.
• Add two full-time employees to support increasing demand for swim lessons and a new class of pre-school students.

During public comment, Mountlake Terrace resident Adam Cickay thanked City Council for canceling the Flock Safety system contract. The Council voted 6-0 to cancel the contract during the Dec. 4 meeting. Cickay has been commenting regularly during City Council meetings since the Flock Safety contract was approved in June.

“I just wanted to let you know that we all recognize that and appreciate it, and thanks for doing the right thing,” Cickay said. “And I feel really thankful to live in a town like this.”

The entire meeting can be viewed on the City’s YouTube channel.