By Alia Sinclair

In Tuesday night’s (Sept. 22) SeaTac City Council meeting, councilmembers voted to direct staff to draft an ordinance to enter into a new agreement with the YMCA of Greater Seattle (YGS) to keep its services within the city of SeaTac.

The original agreement began in 2004 and consisted of two parts:

  1. A Ground Lease agreement that allowed YGS to construct a YMCA branch on a 6.5-acre plot that the city owns. The Ground Lease Agreement expires in 2054 and states that, should YGS ever vacate the premises, the building reverts back to the city.
  1. A 20-year Recreation Services Agreement beginning in 2009, where it was agreed the city would contribute $1,146,280 toward the construction of the Matt Griffin YMCA building in exchange for services to be provided for the benefit of SeaTac residents.

The Agreement stipulated the YMCA was to provide up to $57,314 in recreational services annually.

However, records indicate YGS has provided over $2M in financial assistance for SeaTac residents since 2016, exceeding the total amount of support provided by the city to YGS.

City staff has been negotiating with YGS, and a proposed solution was recommended by the Administration and Finance (A&F) Committee for council consideration.

The solution is as follows:

The City of SeaTac will pay $250,000 to reconcile the gap between agreed upon financial assistance from YGS and the actual cost of the services to date with a 4% increase each year for the provision of financial assistance for low-income SeaTac residents.

Additionally, a new agreement will be negotiated with the intent to provide services to low-income residents and keep the YMCA in the city of SeaTac. 

All councilmembers agreed the YMCA is an essential amenity for the city.

Deputy-Mayor Senayet Negusse said in her comments:

“The most important thing is the people at the end of the day. We’ve talked about this many times. There is a cost to the city, and I’m okay with that cost in this case, because it costs more in the long run when our children and families don’t have access to an amenity like this.”

The motion to move forward with the A&F recommendation passed 5-0. Councilmembers Peter Kwon and Caitlin Konya were absent.