Everett Mayor’s Transition Team Report Available For Public Review

After her election as Mayor of Everett in November, Cassie Franklin invited more than four dozen people to serve on a transition team to establish short and long term priorities for the city. A short term priority was one that would happen within the first 180 days in office while long term referred to priorities in the second half of Mayor Franklin’s first term (2020-2021).

MyEverettNews.com has reviewed the Transition Team Report posted on the city’s website. It was prepared by a firm out of Mill Creek called Marketing Solutions run by Andrew and Sandra Ballard who have been long time advisors to the business community in Everett, Snohomish County and beyond.

The 48 page report highlights the short and long term priorities as well as feedback and opinions from the transition team. Areas of focus included Economic Development, Public Safety and Civic Engagement. Here is a snapshot of the Executive Summary.

Aggregated Results for Economic Development
Concerns & Challenges
City’s brand image, affordable housing, aesthetic curb appeal in retail and downtown corridors, lack of transportation infrastructure and skilled workforce rounds out the top aggregated concerns…from the most to least dominant themes across all three groups.

Short-term Priorities
1. Establish/restructure Economic Development Team/Office (40)
2. Develop a City branding strategy to attract and retain more businesses (37)

Long-term Priorities
1. Develop city-wide strategy for affordable housing (18)
2. Develop/advocate for education access for all…P-20 (14)
3. Improve transportation infrastructure (13)

Aggregate Priorities
1. Establish/restructure Economic Development Team/Office (54)
2. Develop a City branding strategy to attract and retain more businesses (40)

Aggregated Results for Public Safety
Concerns & Challenges
Addiction, homelessness and mental health are seen as the primary reason for crime and feeling unsafe;
communications, in terms of telling the story on what is being done; and more police presence represent the top concerns.

Short-term Priorities
1. Various version of dealing with the homelessness issue (35)
2. Fully staff police department (17)

Long-term Priorities
1. Various version of dealing with the homelessness issue (20)

Aggregate Priorities
1. Create Homelessness & Streets Commission/Reinvigorate Streets
Initiate/develop coordinated approach to deal with homelessness (50)
2. Improve mental health services (22)

Aggregated Results for Civic Engagement
Concerns & Challenges
Communications through outreach on the positive things the City is doing, with the use of technology and social media for multimodal communications…make two-way connections; engaged and visible leadership to increase trust in government.

Short-term Priorities
1. Various versions of “Inclusion” (23)
2. Research and utilize best City practices (15)
3. Establish a City vision for an engaged community (15)

Long-term Priorities
1. Citizen engagement campaign/use technology (21)
2. Various versions of “inclusion” (16)
3. Establish an Office of Neighborhoods/Civic Engagement (16)

Aggregate Priorities
1. Inclusion, e.g. develop position, add staff or an office (31)
2. Develop citizen engagement campaign/use technology/communicate
opportunities (26)
3. Establish a City vision for an engaged community (22)

Again this is just a snapshot. In order to get the full view you need to read the entire report. You may agree with the opinions or you may view things differently. Click below for the PDF.

Cassie Franklin Transition Team Report-V2_201803021836526229

One of the things to keep in mind while reading the report is the composition of the transition team itself. Here are several charts from the report outlining the makeup of the team. Some things of note…

60% of the team were men while 40% were women

73% of the team members were 45 years of age or older

58% of the team members had one or no children in their household

83% of the team members had annual household incomes of $100,000.00 or higher (40% $250k+) while the median household income in Everett was about $50,933.00 per the US Census 2016 figures.

70% of the team members listed their job position as executive.

You can click on the chart to enlarge.

So now that the transition team has spoken how do you get your opinion in front of Mayor Franklin? There are several ways.

You can click here and fill out a form to ask a question or make a comment directly to the Mayor.

You can submit a suggestion on how the city can reduce costs and improve revenue performance by clicking here.

Visit the Mayor’s homepage here and see her State of the City address or read the various priorities and directives.