After Brier voters rejected the levy lift to improve police staffing and prevent the city from bankruptcy, the question of what will happen next remains.

“We respect the will of the voters, although we were hoping for a different outcome,” Mayor Dale Kaemingk said.

The measure would have increased the City of Brier’s regular property tax levy to maintain public safety and other essential city services. Proposition 1 would have increased the City’s property tax rate by $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, adding about $37 a month to the average homeowner’s property tax.

Kaemingk said without additional funding, the City will evaluate potential impacts to service levels across departments, including administration, police, public works and other core functions.

However, the issue isn’t only about staffing for public safety. Kaemingk explained that the City is facing an annual deficit of about $500,000, which forecasts predict will send the general fund into a negative balance by 2029.

“The budget pressures that led to this proposal remain unresolved. City leadership will now consider how to address these challenges moving forward, including the possibility of a revised ballot measure in the future,” Kaemingk said.

In the meantime, the clock is ticking, and the City of Brier must develop a solution with dwindling resources, as the negative balance approaches.

“We have work to do to put together thoughts on what to do moving forward and how to address the shortage in staffing as well as the lack of revenue,” Brier City Clerk and Treasurer Paula Swisher said.

The bare minimum

During a March 29 town hall, an audience member reminded the mayor that the city was founded on having as little government as possible, “only the bare minimum.”

The City of Brier’s history goes back to Finnish settlers in 1883, the Salty family. After the settlers made their homestead, loggers started to come to the area. By 1915, most of the surrounding trees were cleared for miles, making some of the trees in Brier some of the few, if any, old-growth trees in the area.

Since then, the area has provided residents with privacy, independence and wilder spaces; even when tract housing started popping up in the 1950s. However, a developer in the 1960s would take things a bit too far for the locals’ liking.

In 1964, McGrath Homes President Thomas McGrath attempted to annex 35 acres into Mountlake Terrace and build a housing development. To save the land, the City of Brier was founded by a 70%-30% vote on Feb. 11, 1965.

Swisher told MLTnews that the City provides police, streets, sewer, stormwater, parks and maintenance of facilities and fleet. Brier voters chose to annex fire and emergency services to the South County Fire in January 2025.

“I don’t know what [city services are] specifically mandated or the minimum that must be provided by law,” Swisher said. “Those are questions that I will be discussing with our city attorney as we move forward.”

RCW 35 has 91 chapters on cities, their classifications, comparisons to townships, and the local government’s level of power. It does state that cities provide the services Brier currently receives. However, the bare minimum requirement is not readily evident.

What could happen if the City goes bankrupt?

If a compromise cannot be found to prevent the City from going into the red, Brier, like any institution, will face some ramifications. There’s an opportunity to correct the issue, and the possibility of being unincorporated or annexed if found insolvent.

Swisher explained that if a city’s general fund goes into a negative balance, a five-year plan to reverse the deficit must be submitted to the State Auditor’s office. She said a city can make internal loans to itself; however, there must be a payment plan. The general fund must be able to make those loan payments each year and find the revenue to maintain itself at the same time.

“If the city in question cannot get itself out of the red within the five-year period or its plan is not viable, the State Auditors can recommend that the city be unincorporated,” Swisher said. “In our case, that would first mean going back to the county.”

Becoming an unincorporated area would mean several changes. Swisher said the sheriff’s office would provide police services, and Snohomish County would maintain parks, sewer, stormwater and streets. The facilities would become the county’s property “to do with as they chose,” such as selling them or changing zoning to allow other property uses.

Swisher said that the zoning codes for property development would change to the County’s minimum lot size of 7,200 square feet, while the City of Brier has a minimum size of 12,500 square feet.

Also, police services would be taken over by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, which Swisher said during the town hall does not have the staffing to take on a full-time contract with Brier.

“How some of those services could affect the community would be, as is in unincorporated Snohomish County currently, unless it is a crime in progress, there will not be officers dispatched to the location,” Swisher said.

Like emergency room staff, law enforcement must triage a situation, placing public safety and human lives at the top of the list. Swisher said that residents in the surrounding area who live in unincorporated areas, such as Alderwood Manor or West Bothell, are asked to file an online report for nonviolent crimes that have already happened, such as waking up and finding that their vehicle was stolen.

“There will not be officers coming by to deal with the barking dog calls, weekend contractors doing work during off hours,” Swisher said.

As an unincorporated area now subject to the rules of Snohomish County, construction workers are allowed to work from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday.

“But again, even if you call in someone working on Sunday, you will not see an officer coming by to address the issue,” Swisher said.

And then there’s snow, which is triaged like all services, with areas with the most use getting cleared first. Swisher said the “roads may get plowed eventually, but much of unincorporated Snohomish County doesn’t get touched.”

Also, Swisher added, there would no longer be a local city council, boards, or commissions made up of citizens specific to the area, and all city-sponsored events would cease to exist.

“I would describe what Brier has currently as citizens are big fish in a little pond, ending up in the county or surrounding cities will make it a bunch of little fish in a big pond,” Swisher said.

Another possible outcome that would ironically bring the City of Brier full circle is being annexed by Mountlake Terrace. Although Brier borders Alderwood Manor and West Bothell, those are unincorporated urban growth areas of Lynnwood and Bothell.

“Mountlake Terrace is currently the only Snohomish County city that we share a border with,” Swisher said. “If interested, they could try to petition to annex our area into their city.”