Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
As the City of Yelm continues to prepare its 2027-2028 biennial budget for council approval, Stephanie Nanavich, Yelm Finance Director, presented a high-level budget overview of the accomplishments and goals from each department in Yelm.
Additionally, Nanavich highlighted each department’s accomplishments from the 2026-26 biennium.
First up was the municipal courts, which Nanavich said applied for and was accepted into the Language Access and Interpreter Reimbursement Program for the fiscal year 2027 through the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts. Additionally, the department expanded passport access by hosting passport weekend fairs, and streamlined jail arraignments and hearings by establishing additional hearing dockets for individuals booked into jail.
The municipal courts’ goals for the 2027-28 biennium include working toward a full implementation of a paperless court, filling the vacant public defense attorney position, expanding administrative support and integrating a new judge.
Within the executive department, several accomplishments highlighted included the support and advancement of large projects throughout the city, continued community conversation events, advancement of key transportation projects, improvements to director and council retreats and appointments to several commission boards within the city.
Goals within the executive department include reaching the “breaking ground” stage in several key projects within Yelm, defining a clear path forward for a new or remodeled civic center or city hall, developing a plan forward for a new Yelm historical museum and new Yelm Timberland Library and filling the position of deputy clerk to support improvements to record management policies.
“Kathy here is just inundated with public records requests,” Nanavich said. “Not only public records requests, but also improving our overall records management city-wide. She’s the one trying to steer us in that direction, and she is requesting to add a deputy city clerk to the next budget to help with all of that.”
Several accomplishments listed within the finance department’s portion of the presentation included the adoption of a reserve financial policy, an updated city-wide procurement policy and the hiring of a new administrative assistant.
The department’s goals in the 2027-28 biennium include establishing a new financial software system with at least $300,000 set aside. Additionally, there will be a review of the 2027-28 biennium budget where the possibility of adding an accounting manager position would be looked at.
Within the police department, YPD acknowledged several accomplishments during the last biennium, including commissioning additional personnel due to vacancies and budgeted positions, replacing outdated equipment like firearms and tasers, creating a metro unit to address ongoing traffic issues and complaints, adding four additional Flock cameras throughout town and hiring a second detective.
YPD’s goals for the next biennium include adding additional shift supervision and leadership to nighttime patrols, adding a shift for the new metro unit, adding a police executive assistant position into the front office and starting a drone program to assist with investigations.
The human resources department identified several accomplishments within the last biennium, including the strengthening of recruitment, hiring and onboarding to support successful employee transitions. The department also highlighted its goals for the next biennium as including labor negotiations and compensation, a classification and compensation study, along with additional leadership training.
The public service department, per usual, stayed busy in the 2025-2026 biennium, and highlighted new goals as designing and starting construction for a water reservoir and well at the 640-acre development site, completion of the habitat conservation plan, the start and completion of the roundabout at Bald Hill Road and Morris Road and upgrading Rhoton Road.
Lastly, IT department goals included upgrading and deploying a new city phone system, developing and implementing a comprehensive citywide data governance framework that standardizes information, classification, retention, production and lifecycle management across city systems, and developing and implementing a city-wide AI policy to expand the reasonable and practical use of AI tools across city departments.
