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Council seeks answers after 2025 insurance costs spiked in city budget
Summary
Council members and staff identified dramatic insurance increases in 2025 line items and said those spikes, plus allocation practices, contributed to large discrepancies in department budgets. Staff pledged to investigate and provide explanations.
Multiple councilmembers told the council insurance lines were far higher than budgeted for 2025 and asked staff to explain why departments showed millions in excess insurance charges. One councilmember said specific 2025 items were budgeted at a few thousand dollars but the actuals were tens of thousands: "In '25, animal control insurance was $2,240. The actual cost for '25 was $30,663," she said, pointing to allocation and past lawsuits as likely contributors.
Staff and council discussed that some costs flowed into insurance lines when invoices arrived and that a backlog/incorrect coding in 2022-2024 complicated 2025 numbers. Sophie and others said the rise was linked in part to litigation and to historical mis-postings; staff said they are reconciling past entries and will bring corrected numbers to council. Councilmembers asked staff to contact the Association of Washington Cities or insurance providers to get detailed billing breakdowns.
