Salomon and Stanford take Senate leadership while Kenmore and LFP face the “elephant in the room”

By Oliver Moffat

With a $10 billion state deficit, Senator Stanford will chair the Operating Budget subcommittee and Senator Salomon will chair the Local Government Committee while LFP and Kenmore seek local control of housing policy.

 Senator Derek Stanford, of Bothell, will be the vice chair of the Operating Budget for the Ways and Means committee (photo by Washington State Legislative Support Services)

The Senate Democratic Caucus appointed committee leadership for the 2025 legislative session elder this week.

Senator Jesse Salomon, of Shoreline, will chair the Local Government Committee and Senator Derek Stanford, of Bothell, will be the vice chair of the Operating Budget for the Ways and Means committee.

Stanford will serve as Vice Chair of the Operating Budget for the Ways and Means committee at a time when Washington State is facing cuts from an operating budget deficit between $10 and $12 billion. 

He will also be stepping into a budget leadership position after more than 64% of Washington voters opposed initiative 2019 that would have repealed the state’s capital gains tax, sending a message to the legislature in favor of progressive taxes on the wealthy. An extreme wealth tax co-sponsored by Stanford died in committee last session.

Senator Jesse Salomon, of Shoreline, will chair the Local Government Committee (photo from Washington State Democratic Caucus)

Salomon will step up to chair the Local Government Committee the year after cities across the state updated their zoning rules and Comprehensive Plans to comply with new Missing Middle Housing laws. 

Last session, Salomon sponsored bills related to land use permitting, co-living, accessory dwelling units, transit-oriented development, and other bills related to housing that could impact cities in the state.

Kenmore City Council Top row: Jon Culver, Nigel Herbig, Joe Marshall, Nathan Loutsis. Bottom Row: Debra Srebnik, Melanie O'Cain, Valerie Sasson (photo from the Kenmore website)

The topic of “local control” over housing policy was discussed at the November 18, Kenmore city council meeting. 

The city’s legislative Policy Statements says the city “is committed to doing what it can to increase the supply of housing, especially affordable units.” 

But earlier this year the council voted five-to-two to kill the fully-funded Plymouth Supportive Housing development on a vacant lot downtown. 

Kenmore’s action prompted Representative Strom Peterson of Edmonds (who has been chair of the House Housing Committee since 2021) and Representative Jessica Bateman of Olympia to introduce a bill designed to hold cities accountable for building homeless housing. 

That bill died in the Senate last session. But now Jessica Bateman has won election to the senate and was named Chair of the Senate Housing Committee earlier this week. 

At the Kenmore council meeting this week, councilmember Debra Srebnik (who voted against the Plymouth Housing project) proposed three possible changes to add to the city’s existing legislative Policy Statements: 1) hold local government accountable for results not process, 2) establish realistic housing result benchmarks and 3) develop a funding pool for deeply affordable and supported housing.

Councilmember Joe Marshall also voted against the Plymouth Housing project and said, “I staunchly remain in favor of local control.” 

While councilmember Jon Culver who, along with Mayor Nigel Herbig, voted to approve the Plymouth Housing project said, “the elephant in the room is we got a bill named after us that passed the house.”

LFP City Council. Top row: Semra Riddle, Deputy Mayor Lorri Bodi, Jon Lebo, Ellyn Saunders Bottom row: Tracy Furutani, Paula Goode, Larry Goldman (photo from LFP website)

Earlier this month the Lake Forest Park city council voted (again) to temporarily keep homeless housing out of the Town Center. 

A 2021 state law sponsored by Representatives Strom Peterson of Edmonds, Lillian Ortiz-Self of Mukilteo, Cindy Ryu of Shoreline, Lauren Davis of Shoreline, and Shelley Kloba of Kirkland forbid cities from prohibiting homeless housing in neighborhoods that allow hotels. 

But in February of 2021, Lake Forest Park passed rules allowing boutique hotels in Town Center. 

Instead of allowing homeless housing in Town Center, the Lake Forest Park city council banned hotels in Town Center in September of 2021. At the time, the city said they were waiting for information from the state. 

To comply with the law they enacted the six-month temporary regulations. Six months later, the city banned hotels and homeless housing at Town Center again; and again in March and September of 2022; and March and September of 2023. And - amidst rising homelessness in the region - the city banned them again in November of this year after the interim regulations expired in March of 2024.