Infrastructure

Ensuring that Kent’s infrastructure keeps up with the city’s growth is a huge priority of ours. Our Public Works crews are out and about around the city all the time working on new improvements and completing street repairs, filling potholes and so much more.

• Grant Funding: In 2024, the city received over $9M in regional grant funding and investments from organizations like PSRC, TIB and WSDOT tosupp ort our efforts to keep elevating Kent’s infrastructure.


• Completed Projects: Construction was completed on several projects this year, including a multi-use path at 132nd Ave SE, a new roundabout at 108th Ave SE and SE 264th, Phase 1 of the Mill Creek Reestablishment Project, work on East Valley Highway, and multiple projects improving pedestrian safety.


• New Construction: The city also kicked off construction on new projects, some of which are the new Reith Road Roundabouts the KEHOC. We’re also preparing to continue Meeker Street improvements all the way to Kent Elementary.


• Maintenance: City crews also continued maintenance and improvements around the city with tens of millions of dollars allocated to Street Maintenance and Improvements and thousands of KentWorks requests completed.
  • 3.8 lane miles of pavement
  • 1,200 LF of sidewalks repaired
  • 1,399 potholes filled
  • 730 signs installed or replaced
  • 334 tons of litter removed from ROW

Parks & Recreation

We have an incredibly driven and dedicated parks team that goes above and beyond to make engaging, fun programming and great parks and recreation facilities available to Kent families.

• Visitation: Just this year, we had over 1.5M visitors to our 33 most visited parks, with thousands more enjoying the many public areas here in Kent.


• Grant Funding: About $4M in regional grants from organizations like HUD, WRIA, and the legislature for improvements to our parks facilities.


• Completed Projects: Improvements were completed at several parks this year: like the new basketball backboard and hoop at Glenn Nelson Park. Renovations were also made at Campus Park, North Meridian, Morrill Meadows, Van Doren’s and Riverbend! We received community feedback for a few of these locations about additional work we’re excited about in the future.


• New Construction: We also kicked off renovations at Springwood Park and the Kent Commons.


• Program Participation: Maintained full schedules with thousands of youth, adult and senior participants in Kent Parks sports leagues, programs, classes and events, and launched new programs like our School’s Out Park at Kent Laboratory Academy.
  • Our Adaptive Recreation program, senior and take-home meal programs, art exhibits, concerts and so much more also continued this year.


• Environment: On the topic of conservation and keeping our city clean and healthy, we relaunched our Green Kent series of volunteer conservation events, and Public Works held 9 recycling events open to the public, servicing over 4000 vehicles and collecting about 325 tons of recyclable material that won’t end up in a landfill.

Community Development

We are also doing a lot to continue supporting our small business community, downtown core, and larger industries in the valley. We’re working hard to keep business booming in Kent as we attract living-wage jobs and opportunities.

• Jobs/Employers: We continue to see new businesses choosing Kent, creating new jobs and opportunities for our residents, with 416 new business licenses filed through late November. Recent employment data from PSRC reflects almost 73,000 jobs in Kent, and we’ll continue to support those opportunities. We’ve also seen exciting strides in our commercial and industrial valley industries.


• Comprehensive Plan: We’ve also finally wrapped up our Comprehensive Plan update process and I’m excited to say it was unanimously adopted by the Kent City Council in December. The process involved extensive research, outreach, and planning to ensure the City of Kent continues to grow sustainably and meet employment and housing targets, and included the first ever climate element for the city. We’re working hard to ensure Kent has the housing, transportation options, connectivity, and sustainability practices to thrive.


• Financial Partnerships: Continued to partner with grantmakers, small business organizations, financial institutions, and community development groups to empower our entrepreneurs and small business community.


• Community Engagement: We’ve also elevated our commitment to be engaged and meet our community where they are, hear their thoughts and concerns and address them. In 2024, we held 6 Coffee and Conversation events at local businesses and 14 Drinks in the Driveway events in local neighborhoods. We also added 5 new Neighborhood Councils to our program.

Public Safety

The safety of everyone in our community continues to be the City of Kent's top priority.

• Staffing: While we have no vacant police officer positions, the city still has fewer officers per capita than almost any other city in the state, which also has fewer officers per capita than any other state in the country. Despite our low number of officers per capita, our police department continues to do incredible work, and responds to more calls for service on a per officer basis than many other agencies. We’re going to keep working to reduce response times and improve public safety.


• Code Enforcement: Officers continued to enforce violations of city code and hold property owners accountable for violations on their property, ranging from derelict buildings to criminal nuisance properties, with several visible wins, including Phoenix Court apartments, the 711 Central, and several residential properties. We also continued work on contracted encampment cleanup while ensuring resources and services are available to those who are unhoused.


• Cybersecurity: We also continued to support hardware and software lifecycles to keep the city’s cutting-edge cybersecurity architecture strong, patching vulnerabilities and protecting data and personal information in our systems.


• Targeted Accountability: Continued our Targeted Accountability Program designed to hold frequent, impactful offenders accountable for criminal behavior.


• DUI Court: Entering our third year of the DUI Court program in partnership with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to protect public safety through intensive treatment and accountability for high-risk DUI offenders.


• CILEP: Continued our Community Immersion Law Enforcement Program, integrating new police recruits with non-profits to develop cultural awareness and a feeling of connectedness to the people they serve.


• Community Engagement: In continuing our effort to be a part of the fabric of our community, the Kent Police Department held over 50 total community events, from meetings about traffic safety, school presentations, coffee meet and greets, and more.


• CRU: Earlier this year, the Kent Police Department activated a new specialized Crime Reduction Unit to reduce crime through intelligence-led policing, which is already yielding results through assignments such as special emphasis on stolen vehicle recovery.

Supportive Services & Programs

We’ve continued our mission to help everyone in our community find stability, dignity and happiness in their lives.

• Human Services: Our Biennial Budget includes tens of millions of federal grant dollars allocated to Human Services funding that goes toward over 50 contracts with organizations directly supporting our non-profit partner organizations who provide critical services to our community.
  • Funding goes toward addressing needs like supportive housing, food insecurity, childcare, education, case management, legal services, youth programs, transportation, language assistance and more.
  
  
• Community Court: Continued our Community Court program, which seeks to help rehabilitate offenders with substance use disorder or mental health challenges by facilitating access to services and resources alongside accountability.


• Project Be Free: Launched Project Be Free, a resource for victims of domestic violence, and processed over 600 referrals made by Kent police officers and the Kent Municipal Court.


• FD Cares: Our partnership with Puget Sound Fire’s FD Cares program is a continued success, with hundreds of Crisis Team Responses to mental health-related calls this year.

Maintaining transparency with the community and ensuring equitable access to city services continues to be an important priority for city leadership.

• Equity Strategic Plan: Continued the implementation of actionable steps in our community-led Equity Strategic Plan with the launch of our Language Access Plan and improving accessibility to city services and programs for non-English speakers through expanded translation and interpretation options.
  • Great example of this is the implementation of in-person interpreters and new translated forms available in Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese at the Kent Municipal Court with more forms and languages planned.
  • Another great example is the distribution of Pocketalk, real-time assisted translation to our resident-facing departments to bridge language gaps and enhance our service.
  
  
• Public Records: We’ve continued our commitment to transparency by sharing pertinent information with residents and the community through our online platforms, and the City Clerk’s office has responded to over 8600 Public Records Requests, processed over 60k minutes of body-worn camera footage, and reviewed over 500k emails to respond to requests.


• Biennial Budget: In December, the Kent City Council unanimously adopted the city’s 2025-26, $884M Biennial Budget which I proposed late September.
  • As you know there is still a lot of economic uncertainty, so while there weren’t any major cuts to services, we’re still making sure to err on the side of caution keep us in the best possible position despite inflation and rises in CPI, leading to increased expenditures.
  • One big win during this process was the council agreeing to adjust our B&O tax rates for large corporations pulling in over $100 million of revenue, which will ensure they’re contributing their share.
  • Thank you to the council and our Finance department for their hard work and collaboration to get the budget passed. The city continues to be recognized for excellence in financial reporting and a spirit of full disclosure, winning awards from the Government Finance Officers Association and National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting.
  
  
• Employer of Choice: The City of Kent continues to be an employer of choice. We have a 90% retention rate for city employees and reviewed over 4000 new candidates applying for positions in 2024. I’m also proud to note that our new hire diversity has increased 10% over the past three years.