Tumwater committee briefs consultant on multi-year financial planning tool; contract executed under delegated authority

The City of Tumwater Budget & Finance Committee on Jan. 24, 2025, heard an overview of a newly contracted financial planning project from consultant Morgan Shook of Eco Northwest and was told the agreement is in place under delegated signing authority and will begin with a kickoff meeting next week.

Committee members were introduced to the scope: staff and consultant will develop a non‑proprietary fiscal-modeling tool (Excel-based) that represents the city’s current finances, lets staff and council run “what if” scenarios, and is intended to be handed off to city finance staff for ongoing use. The work is timed so a preliminary budget assessment and model draft can inform a forthcoming community survey and mid-year council retreats.

Why it matters: The committee and staff framed the work as a technical foundation to align the city’s strategic-plan update, comprehensive-plan considerations and capital-facilities priorities with realistic revenue and cost scenarios. That alignment will inform council choices about service levels, potential revenue strategies and whether voter engagement is needed for new revenue measures.

Morgan Shook of Eco Northwest described the approach as scenario-driven and staff-supportive, saying the firm will build a tool to represent the city “and then allows us to ask a bunch of different what if questions.” The scope as presented includes a budget assessment, revenue forecasting, cost-of-service review, and a scenario-testing tool for multi-year planning.

Staff emphasized the tool will be Excel-based and not tied to proprietary software, and that Eco Northwest’s deliverable will be transferred to city staff for ongoing use. A project kickoff meeting was scheduled for the management team next Wednesday, and staff said they plan a full-council briefing early in the process so council feedback can shape the community survey and scenario priorities.

City staff described the consultant’s work as intended to support departmental engagement, refine capital and service assumptions, and provide council with prioritized options rather than single “silver-bullet” solutions. The consultant also noted experience with revenue forecasting and infrastructure funding for local governments and said the tool is commonly still used by jurisdictions after project completion.

No council vote on the contract was recorded at the meeting; staff said the agreement was executed within the mayor’s and city manager’s delegated signing authority and that they would present briefing materials to the full council at a later date.

Committee members asked about the project’s relationship to land-use and economic-development choices; Shook and staff said the model can represent development-driven revenue changes (for example, construction and sales-tax growth tied to new development) and can be used to test annexation, policy or zoning outcomes against cost impacts for services.

Staff said the model is intended to inform the city’s strategic priorities update and community survey, and will be used to show the fiscal implications of adding staff or capital investments over a 10‑year horizon. The committee requested that the timing of a council briefing be set before the community survey is released, so council feedback can be incorporated into survey questions.

The meeting moved on after the briefing; staff and the consultant will proceed with the kickoff and follow the outreach and briefing plan described to the committee.