New Face, New President At Everett City Council

The Everett City Council got underway for 2016 Wednesday night with a new face and a new President.

Cassie Franklin, who bested long time city council member Ron Gipson in the November election, took her formal oath of office tonight.

Council members Scott Bader and Judy Tuohy also were sworn-in for their terms of office by Superior Court Judge Joseph Wilson. Council member Brenda Stonechiper was absent tonight.

Bader, Tuohy and Stonecipher were all re-elected to four year terms. The make-up of this council closes the gender gap to three women and four men.

Scott Murphy was elected as President of the Everett City Council for 2016. He will name a Vice-President at next Wednesday’s meeting.

A major topic of discussion at tonight’s meeting was the attempt to attract a more diverse applicant pool to the City of Everett’s Charter Review Committee.

That’s a group of 15 appointed volunteers tasked with reviewing the city’s charter. The charter is the city’s constitution that outlines how the city’s legislative, judicial and executive branches operate.

The city’s charter was originally adopted in 1968 and is now reviewed every 10 years. The committee is an advisory board that makes recommendations to the Everett City Council on matters such as whether to change city council positions from at large to geographical districts, increase or decrease the number of city council positions, get rid of the Mayor-Council form of government and have a hired city administrator with elected city council and other such matters.

There are 15 available slots on the committee and so far the there have only been 14 applicants. The Mayor will appoint seven members from the applicant pool and each of the city council members will also appoint one member from the applicant pool. The committee will then select a fifteenth member as it sees fit. Both the Mayor and the City Council have expressed concern at the lack of applicants so far. There is also concern that there is not enough diversity of applicants by race, income, geography or social standing. The deadline to apply has been extended to January 15th.

Volunteers interested in applying to serve on the Charter Review Committee can download an application from the city’s website at everettwa.gov/boardsapply, or pick up an application at the Mayor’s office at 2930 Wetmore Ave, Suite 10-A. Completed applications should be returned to the Mayor’s office or lbrandt@everettwa.gov by 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15. For questions, please call 425-257-7115.