Interesting Events At Everett City Council Meeting

There were a couple of interesting events at the Wednesday night Everett City Council meeting. During city council members briefing it was announced that 11 applications had been received for the upcoming appointment for council position 4. That vacancy occurs when Cassie Franklin resigns to formally be sworn in as Mayor after winning election last month. The deadline for applications was set to expire tomorrow at 5 PM (Thu 12/7)

Council member Jeff Moore expressed his desire for the process to continue saying one week was not enough time for people to properly prepare their applications. Cassie Franklin, who was at her first meeting since winning the Mayor’s race agreed. Council member Stonecipher said she thought the process was working fine and was pleased with 11 applications but wouldn’t object to an extension.

Council President Judy Tuohy then decided to extend the application process for another week. That means interested parties have until 5 PM on Thursday December 14th to get their application in. The city will adjust the timeline for reviewing materials and holding interviews. They will update the process here on the city’s website.

There was also a briefing tonight titled: Proposal Establishing A Committee To Examine Geographic Representation Of City Council, And Consider Electing Council Members By Wards Or Districts. Council member Paul Roberts outlined plans to form a committee that would hold an open and transparent process. In an earlier proposal Roberts suggested each council member appoint a person to the committee. Tonight he offered that the committee be made up of some former members of the Charter Review Committee including Reid Shockey and Megan Dunn along with members selected by the Office of Neighborhoods. Other council members said they did not want to have any council members involved in selecting committee members as that could appear to be a conflict of interest.

When the briefing was opened to public comment there were about a dozen speakers who all asked the city council to support the Everett Districts Now plan for 5 council districts with 2 at large positions. Greg Lineberry of Everett Districts Now told the council members they were in the process of reviewing their ballot measure and were looking toward implementation in 2023 after the City Population adjustments were made from the 2020 Census. While that deals with implementation, Megan Dunn with Everett Districts Now made it clear that they would be putting the 5-2 plan on the November 2018 ballot with a citizens initiative and asked to council to just back off to avoid confusing voters.

Speaking of confusion, some of the speakers thought action was being taken tonight. Paul Roberts reiterated that this was only a briefing. Council member Jeff Moore offered a draft resolution assuring that some plan would be put on the ballot next February and asked to the Everett Districts Now group to work with the council. The briefing closed with no apparent direction on where things will go next with the plans to form a committee.