King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, which helps 2000 victims per year and is headquartered in Renton in the old city hall building next the library, would see a $400,000 cut in its operating budget if the King County executive’s budget proposal is approved. Here is the story.

Rich Zwicker recently posted this entry in his Renton Reporter blog about KSARC’s annual Renton fundraiser, to be held this year on October 21. While the fundraiser is usually very successful, it is already figured into the KCSARC budget, so it will not offset the cuts that would come from a $400,000 loss of King County funding (unless some extraordinary new benefactors can step up this year!) Please attend if you are able. It’s a great breakfast for an important cause.

In this photo taken on August 26, 2009, KCSARC Director Mary Ellen Stone (left) accepts a donation from WalMart to assist KCSARC in it’s work in combatting sexual assault and supporting victims.

Dear Employees,

For the past 18 months or so, we have all been subjected to ongoing news regarding the impacts from the national recession. While I don’t want to add to the anxieties caused by so much uncertainty, I made a commitment to communicate with you as frequently as possible with information regarding the budget process and potential impacts.

The development of the 2010 budget continues to be very challenging as we deal with the revenue impact brought on by the worst the economic downturn in recent history. As our revenues associated with new development and sales tax continue to decline, we are forced to make hard decisions for next year that will include workforce reductions.

On September 17, we had the first of many meetings with the Renton City Council. We began to lay the foundation for the 2010 budget, which I will propose to the Council on October 19. I want to share with you some information on our revenue projections and how the budget is currently shaping up.

As I reported in my previous email to you, our revenue projections for 2010 (for our general governmental funds) are estimated at $95.5 million, which is about 6.5 million less than our 2009 base budget projections. A number of the budget reductions we made in 2009—such as utilizing emergency reserves, employee compensation through furlough days and increased employee contributions to medical costs—were one-time savings. We are now forced to address this budget gap with strategies that will provide a longer term solution.

Identifying Our Priorities

Given the budget cuts we’ve already had to make in the past two years, we are down to the “bone.” We have eliminated almost everything that you could consider non-essential – from travel and training to purchases of equipment and other basic needs. But these are short-term, quick-fix solutions, and are not sustainable. So we are approaching the 2010 budget with a focus on priorities, performance and results.

In order to determine the programs and services that we will be able to offer our citizens in the future, we must reinvent ourselves as an organization and clearly define our priorities. We also need to establish the levels of service within those priorities that we are going to continue to provide to our citizens.

Many of you participated in our efforts earlier this year to examine our service priorities and to identify the key programs expected by our taxpayers. Administrators and staff from every department carefully reviewed the recommendations to determine citywide priorities and the most efficient ways of doing business. Unlike previous years, we used a “zero-based” approach to the budget to justify every expenditure, regardless of how long it has been in the budget. We have wrestled with a myriad of budgeting decisions, looking at even relatively small items, knowing that these services are very important to some of our residents.

As a result of this process, the budget I present to the City Council will be the product of a lot of hard work by department heads and many members of our staff in identifying those things we believe to be priorities to our citizens.

What You Can Expect

While there are still some final decisions to be made, the 2010 budget will unfortunately require layoffs. Balancing our budget next year will require we layoff approximately 30 to 35 positions. I want to emphasize that nothing is final, and no details will be released until I present the budget to the City Council October 19.

City administrators and I are agonizing over having to lay off employees during this difficult economic time. It’s been nearly three decades since the City had to face employee lay-offs. It is especially painful to make these decisions at a time when job opportunities are so limited.

We are committed to do whatever we can to assist those employees who find themselves in that position. After October 19, we will work closely with each employee to provide as much notification as possible and provide as many resources as we can to ease the pain. Decisions will be finalized once the City Council approves the budget.

While it’s clear that the services we provide as a city will be changing, I feel confident that we will rebound and continue to be a community where people want to live and work.

Thank you.

Denis Law
Mayor, City of Renton
1055 S. Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057
425 430-6500
rentonwa.gov

After a brief delay due to the rough economy, Daphne’s Greek Cafe is all set to officially open its doors at the landing. They’ve been training their staff and testing their kitchen with some soft openings during the last week, including feeding the Renton High Football team on Thursday night. Cathy and I had a chance to drop in and try their delicious food today. They have great lunch specials in the six to nine dollar range which are bound to be a hit with Renton families and Boeing workers on their lunch breaks. And they also do catering, and free delivery on large group orders (of over 100 dollars).

There is a smaller Daphne’s restaurant in Southcenter, but it is more of an express location, that is smaller and does not carry the full Daphne’s menus.

The Daphne’s chain is well-known throughout California, Arizona, and Colorado for great Greek food at very reasonable prices. The company is headquartered in San Diego and has over 80 restaurants.

Jeff Anderson, the Renton Landing Daphne’s general manager has a strong resume in restaurant management and working with people, and knows the territory– he has lived in the Northwest for the last fifteen years. The company shipped him down to California this summer to give him extra company training for this role. He’s clearly enthusiastic to be opening this important restaurant for Daphne’s, and when we were there today we saw him working with the staff, interviewing customers, and making sure everything with ship-shape for their official Tuesday opening.

Please join me in welcoming Daphne’s to the Landing; please try to stop in sometime soon for a meal and be sure to welcome the staff to Renton.

Cathy shot this photo of Renton Daphne’s Greek Cafe General Manager Jeff Anderson and me

Several of my council colleagues celebrate and laugh along with the mayor and members of the public during the award presentation at the “leash-cutting” for the new dog park.
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In his latest online edition, Renton Reporter journalist/editor Dean Radford provides a very detailed description of RTC Board Chair Ronnie Behnke’s recent visit to the Chamber of Commerce Board. The Chamber leadership was not happy or satisfied with the reponses Ms. Behnke provided to the Chamber’s many questions about the firing of RTC President Dr. Bressler. Click here to read the story.