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Brier residents gathered at City Hall last Saturday morning for a public meeting that provided detailed information on Proposition 1, which would increase the city’s property tax rate to fund public safety and other services.
According to the city’s website, if voters approve the measure, the Brier property tax rate would rise from $0.57821 to $1.07821 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Brier Mayor Dale Kaemingk, Police Chief Alexander Hawley, and City Clerk/Treasurer Paula Swisher met with over a dozen residents to review the proposition, explain why it’s needed, and provide details on how the city got into the current situation.
“Like a Facebook relationship, it’s complicated,” Swisher said.
Swisher described a perfect storm of inflation and property values merging with increases in city attorney fees, insurance and the cost of living for city employees. These and other metrics are listed in the 2025 Brier Financial Forecast performed by BERK Consulting.
Brier is 2.131 square miles, about half the size of Mountlake Terrace and a quarter the size of Lynnwood. Most of its housing is single-family homes, and with no commercial retail stores it has few revenue sources.
Speaking for the con committee was Jacqueline Vandivort. She said that they oppose the measure and point to the 2025 BERK reporting that uses Sultan as a peer city, stating it is inaccurate. Sultan has a lower sales tax rate of 9.1%, retaining 2.6%, while Brier’s sales tax is 10.5% and the city retains 4%. Sultan’s median home sale price is $570,000 compared to Brier’s $1.8 million.
According to the con statement appearing in the Snohomish County Election’s Office April 22 special election voter pamphlet, “If Sultan can afford to hire more employees without additional revenue, Brier should be able to do so given its higher sales tax rate and more expensive real estate.”
Swisher agreed that Sultan was a poor choice for a comparison. She explained that a sales tax has little effect on Brier’s revenue because the city only receives sales tax through Amazon purchases, which increased from $50,000 a year to $70,000 during the pandemic.
Although both cities have roughly the same population and physical footprint, an online map indicates that Sultan has multiple restaurants and coffee shops, a gas station convenience store, a tattoo parlor, a microbrewery and tourism for the Skykomish River with boat launches.
In contrast, Brier has two day care businesses and a pizza parlor.
An online map also shows that Sultan isn’t just a small town over from the Link light rail and surrounded by growing cities that serve as bedroom communities for Seattle.
“We need stable funding for now and into the future,” Swisher said.
At the heart of Proposition 1 is the need to adequately fund the Brier Police Department, city officials said.
Swisher said that Brier cannot contract with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office because it lacks the workforce to provide sufficient coverage. While she did not mention the city’s name, Swisher also said that Brier contacted another police department about providing services. The price was higher than the city was willing to pay.
“They wanted the building, everything with it, the equipment and $2 million a year,” Swisher said.
The City of Brier’s 2024 general fund was $2.2 million, and that proposal would have increased public safety from 51% of the general fund to nearly 100%, breaking the city in a year.
Another challenge Brier faces in keeping its independent police force is that the hiring market in Washington state is highly competitive and still faces a shortage of officers. Gov. Bob Ferguson is trying to source $100 million to hire more police while facing a $12 billion shortfall.
Hawley said that many officers, including some command staff in the surrounding police departments, got their start or second chance with Brier police. The retention issues stem from the department’s lack of competitive pay compared to surrounding departments and quality of life. Further, the officers who stay are genuinely invested in the community.
With current staffing, Hawley said one sick officer means overtime for another if they can fill the shift. He has also filled shifts to ease the load. But the situation is worse if two or more officers are sick or injured.
“This compels officers to come in when they’re sick so they won’t let the team down,” Hawley said.
Further, Hawley said the current staffing levels make vacation time extremely difficult to schedule and staff, even with overtime and a healthy crew.
The Brier Police Department’s history of high turnover and lack of workforce can be best exemplified by the city’s September 2023 announcement of Chief Nick Almquist’s retirement, Lt. Chad Ridout’s departure, and the transfer of an officer to a different city.
The quality of life for Brier police was at the core of Almquist’s departure. A 2023 independent investigation revealed that the officer who transferred was having difficulty getting time off to care for a sick relative. Officers frequently filled shifts, resulting in over a week without a day off, pressure if they didn’t and nobody to cover a prepaid family vacation without needing to call in a favor from the then-county sheriff.
Even if police pay and staffing don’t increase, the number of incidents per year likely will. The 2024 Brier Police Report showed over twice as many police interactions as in the past two years.
“Seeing the annual report was eye-opening,” Kaemingk said to MLTnews.
Although assault, burglary and theft have decreased, robbery, trespass, suicides and attempted suicides have remained about the same. Behavioral health reports have increased and traffic contacts rose sharply.
Voters should see their ballots in the mail starting Thursday, April 3 and into next week, ballots must be postmarked no later than April 22 to be counted.
There is a ballot box at the Brier City Hall located at 2901 228th St. S.W., Brier.
To see a sample ballot for Proposition 1, click here.
For more information on the levy lid lift, click here.
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