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Shipley Center asks Sequim to honor two‑year municipal contract; council to revisit funding
Summary
Shipley Center asked Sequim to honor a two‑year, $15,000‑per‑year municipal contract after preliminary budgets reduced the second year to $10,000. Council discussed parity with YMCA awards, application language that makes awards contingent on funding availability, and agreed to revisit the request at an upcoming meeting so nonprofits have clarity.
At the public‑comment portion of the meeting, Michael Smith, representing Shipley Center, urged Sequim City Council to honor a two‑year municipal funding contract for $15,000 per year for 2025–26 and to reinstate $5,000 that preliminary budget documents had removed for the second year.
Smith said he had emailed the contract to councilors and noted the Shipley Center serves a large number of seniors in Sequim. Councilors asked staff for background on how awards were made and whether the YMCA’s two‑year agreement was handled similarly. City Manager and staff said the total requests for municipal funding had far exceeded available funds (staff cited roughly $409,000 in requests versus $207,000 available in one cycle) and that award reductions had been necessary. The YMCA’s award had also been reduced in that process.
City Attorney Christina Nelson Gross told council the application language was incorporated into the contracts and that awards were described as contingent on availability of funds and council approval. Several councilors said they sympathized with honoring contracts where practical but also noted the city had adopted a 1.5% limit on municipal awards as part of budget discipline. Council members agreed to revisit Shipley Center’s request and related nonprofit awards at a future meeting so recipients can plan.
No formal motion was made to restore funding during the meeting; councilors asked staff to prepare information and discuss the item again at the next regular meeting so the question can be decided with more fiscal detail.
