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Bonney Lake council approves property abatement funding, adopts records-access policy
Summary
The Bonney Lake City Council on April 7 approved funding to complete abatement of a blighted property (adopted as approximately $52,000) and adopted a policy change limiting a central index of records, both passed as full-council items; the council also clarified abatement cost recovery through a special tax assessment.
Bonney Lake’s City Council on April 7 approved an abatement expense for a privately owned property and adopted a change to the city’s records-access policy.
The council voted to authorize use of general-fund ending balance to complete abatement of the property identified in AB 2630. Staff had provided a demolition and abatement quote; council members clarified a line item to remove a fence from the bid and noted a small discrepancy in the published figures. Director Jason Sullivan told the council that staff’s internal figure came to $51,994 and the published resolution showed a rounded $52,000; council adopted the motion as amended and the item passed.
Sullivan explained how the city recovers abatement costs: “When you do abatement like this it actually goes down as a special tax assessment on the property and it gets folded into this year’s taxes,” he said, noting prior examples where the city had recovered similar costs through tax collection or tax-sale processes.
On full-council issue B (AB 2632), the council adopted findings that maintaining a central index of records is unduly burdensome and established updated policies for public access to records, including severability and correction provisions. That measure passed with no extended discussion.
What it means: The abatement authorization provides staff the funds needed to remove hazardous conditions on a private parcel; the city expects to seek reimbursement through a special assessment on the property tax roll. The records-policy action alters how the public may access certain records by removing the requirement to maintain a centralized index, a change staff presented as necessary because maintaining that index was burdensome.
Next steps: Staff will execute the abatement work authorized by AB 2630 and record the corresponding assessment on the property tax roll per state procedures. Any further administrative changes to records access will be implemented per the adopted ordinance’s effective date.
Votes and procedure: Both full-council items were moved, seconded and adopted during the April 7 meeting. AB 2630 passed “as amended” after the council clarified line-item wording; AB 2632 passed without amendment.
