Kirkland City Council’s Tool Library Money Drain

For two years, the City told us a Kirkland tool library would work like Shoreline's. On August 5, the Council voted 5–2 to start writing the check — to a group that has not raised a dollar.

The vote authorized staff to negotiate a contract with the Eastside Tool Collective, the only organization that answered the city's request for proposals, and to come back to Council with an agreement. So the money hasn't moved yet. But the direction is set, and it's worth looking at what the Council knew when it voted.

The Shoreline comparison is doing a lot of work

The comparison started at the top. At the November 5, 2025 budget meeting, the $100,000 was described as startup funding, with the operation "eventually supported via subscription fees." When councilmembers asked how that works, the City Manager answered: "The idea was that eventually it would be a nonprofit. That's the model that's used in shoreline."

That comparison is the whole case for the project. It's also the thing nobody has tested against Kirkland's actual proposal.

What the Council knew on August 5

Councilmember Tymczyszyn told the dais he had spent the run-up checking the claims. He said he'd been told months earlier that neighborhood organizations and the Kirkland Community Foundation were behind the project. He called the Foundation's executive director the day before the meeting. Her answer, as he reported it: the Foundation "has no formal position," has "pledged $0 and contributed $0."

He went on: the collective has not raised any money, has not sold a single membership, and has no money in the bank. Roughly $42,000 of the city's $100,000 is budgeted for an executive director's salary, for something he understood was to be volunteer-driven.

His conclusion was blunt. The proposal is "not currently investable." And: "I don't think $100,000 will be the end of this. I think we will get a lifetime subscription of supporting this tool library."

One organization responded to the RFP. One.

The $100,000 is not the whole cost

Here's the part that hasn't gotten attention. The plan — "Track A" in the proposal — puts the tool library in roughly 1,500 square feet of the old Fire Station 27 logistics building, and the proposal asks for it at "a nominal-rent lease or memorandum of understanding (for example, $1 per year)." Its own budget section says so plainly: "Rent is nominal or in-kind, so no recurring lease cost is required."

What is that space actually worth? The proposal answers that too. Explaining why it didn't seek a commercial lease, it notes Kirkland industrial space rents for about $2.50 per square foot — so 1,500 square feet "would cost roughly $3,750 per month, about $45,000 per year."

So the city is being asked for $100,000 once, plus the use of a public building worth roughly $45,000 a year, every year. The staff memo tells Council the opposite: "The City's financial commitment is limited to the Council-approved $100,000 appropriation."

It isn't.

Nobody has checked the building yet

Back in May, a councilmember asked staff directly whether the proponents' request assumed zero rent and free space. The answer: "we haven't delved that deeply into this. No promises have been made, no assumptions." The winning proposal assumed exactly that.

On the night of the vote, the City Manager was equally candid: "we haven't done a ton of due diligence," and staff "just haven't had a chance to really sit down and explore all those issues yet." Whether the building needs gates, separation from the fire logistics operation, or code work is all still unknown. The proposal budgets $25,000 for interior improvements.

What's still open

Councilmember Prem secured a real safeguard: payments tied to milestones and fundraising progress rather than a single $100,000 check, and a fundraising report when the contract returns. That paces the spending. It doesn't fix a business model.

A tool library is a genuinely appealing idea, and the volunteers behind it plainly care about Kirkland. But Shoreline's tool library was launched by multiple public funders and pays its own market rent out of its own revenue. Kirkland is being asked to go it alone, for an organization that doesn't legally exist yet, in a building we already paid for.

The contract has to come back to the City Council for approval — so there's still time to weigh in.Write the Council about the tool library. It takes about three minutes.

Quotes are from the November 5, 2025, May 5, 2026 and August 5, 2026 council meetings; dollar figures are from the August 5 agenda packet. Vote tallies were not read by name on the video — check the official minutes before quoting anyone.