Facilitator Solberg caught off guard when Paula Rhyne questioned where the 2024 Mayor priorities came from.
We don’t normally find out the mayor’s priorities until mid-March during the “State of the City,” but we caught a sneak peek of what the 2024 priorities will be.
During the January 27th Everett City Council Retreat, Facilitator Kathy Solberg was going through an exercise to see where the City Council and Mayor’s priorities overlapped.
The Mayor’s priorities hadn’t been known, even to the council. Paula Rhyne called it out, saying “Where was this gathered from? Your slides are the first that I’m hearing of established priorities for the Mayor.”
Jennifer Gregerson, Government Affairs Director, said it was a “sneak peek” of what will be officially released in the State of the City on Thursday March 21st, 2024. Obviously these could change in between now and then, but here’s an early look at the Mayor’s 2024 priorities:
Compared to last year’s priorities, the list seems more specific. Here’s the list from 2023:
We are already seeing action on parks, as the Park Clark Gazebo was ordered to be removed last week. The new priorities also seem to be a nod to possible library and fire annexation.
The retreat was a valuable exercise to help the City Council dig deeper into difficult topics. Here’s a look at one slide from the retreat that shows some of the things on their plate this year:
Overlapping Everett City Priorities (click to expand)
If you want to watch the full 5 hour 40 minute retreat, it is available from YouTube here:
January 29, 2024
Everett, Everett Government