City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon residents of Everett, Washington. I'd like to call to order the Everett City Council meeting of April 29th, 2026 on council meetings and how to participate, please visit everettwa.gov/citycouncil. Uh, we have limited capacity in our chambers. Glad to see everybody here today and we just ask everybody to take a seat if you can. I see uh three seats over here if anybody is looking for one. Uh, and if there's uh no seats available, uh try not to congregate uh near the door. Uh, please note that we do not allow comments of any kind of campaigning, whether for or against ballot measures or candidates running for office. We also do not accept comments focused on personal matters that are unrelated to city business. Uh, we ask that the audience refrain from clapping, cheering, or booing and no signage of any kind is allowed in chambers. Uh, we ask that everyone take a seat and not gather in the entryway. Uh, for the record, Council President Schwab

[laughter] Audio's working. Great. Uh, for the record, Council President Schwab and Councilmember Bader will be participating in today's meeting remotely and I will be facilitating on behalf of President Schwab. Uh, Clerk Lee, please take the roll. Mayor Franklin, here. Councilmember Weer, here. Councilmember Zaringo,

here. Councilmember Schwab, here. Councilmember Barbano, here. Councilmember Tuohy, here. Councilmember Bader, here. Vice President Ryan, here. I'd like to now ask Councilmember Zaringo to please lead the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I'd like to now ask Councilmember Tuohy to please read the land acknowledgement. Certainly. The City Council wishes to acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Stehohish people and their successors, the Tulalip Tribes. Since time immemorial, they have hunted, fished, gathered on, and taken care of these lands and waters. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water. We will strive to be honest about our past mistakes and bring about a future that includes their people, stories, and voices to form a more just and equitable society. Thank you. Before we continue, I'd like to note a change to the agenda. Consent item number three will be moved to the action portion for the of the meeting for a separate discussion. Uh, next on our agenda, moving on to Mayor's comments. Good afternoon, Mayor Franklin. Uh, good afternoon, Vice President Ryan. Um, I have a few comments to today. Uh, first, uh it's Black Wellness Week and I have a proclamation to share. Uh, the tradition of Booker T. Washington's Negro Health Week has historically spotlighted health disparities in black communities by fostering advocacy and education. And holistic well-being encompassing physical, mental, and emotional, and social health is a priority for all communities. As well as addressing health disparities in Washington state, especially within black communities, it calls for initiatives that are both inclusive and community-driven. And a community-driven approach focusing on

leveraging existing resources and capacities is essential for the effective implementation of Black Wellness Week. Uh, we are pleased to honor Black Wellness Week here in the city of Everett and I believe Christina Blocker is here in the audience to accept the proclamation. Good afternoon, Mayor Franklin. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council members. First of all, my name is Christina Blocker. It is such an honor to be with you all this afternoon. I have a few brief statements and I just want to first say thank you for your commitment to this. This is the third year of honoring Black Wellness Week and this is really rooted in the belief that our cities across the our cities and counties across the state all have unique goals, right? And we all have a goal to make sure our communities are healthy, but that looks different for our communities, right? So it takes targeted solutions to make sure that all of our communities reach those outcomes. So I appreciate you. We celebrated Black Wellness Week April 13th through the 17th and it was a great showing across the state of what it looks like to provide resources for free for our community. We were able to give out health screenings, colon cancer blood screenings. And so there's some those are some of the things we want to continue to do and make sure that it happens out here in Everett as well. So I want to thank you all for your leadership. Thank you for how you serve our community and thank you for the opportunity to receive this proclamation. Thank you for your work. Appreciate it. Um, I also wanted to take a moment to highlight May 8th as National Child Care Provider Appreciation Day. Child care is an essential lifeline for families, communities, and our economy. A

well-working child care system supports children's growth, development, and educational advancement while creating positive economic impacts for families and communities. So if you know a child care provider, I encourage you to thank them for all they do for kids in our community. This afternoon, you all have a a very big decision on the Everett Outdoor Event Center project, which is the next to last offer on-ramp, however you choose to view it, uh for this big investment in Everett's future. I'm really excited to see this moving forward. Um, it creates jobs. It is improving our quality of life and it is a big complicated project that I know um takes takes time and your attention. So really want to thank our project team and thank our community who's provided so much valuable feedback and input uh that I believe has made the project much stronger. Next week, I'll be sorry to miss our council meeting. I'll be in Washington, D.C. advocating for a number of Everett's priorities um with Economic Alliance. Uh, thank you, Ray, for being here. Um, and we're going to be advocating for Naval Station Everett. Uh, so the agenda includes a meeting with the Pentagon um with Navy operations leadership so that we can continue to grow and support the base. And lastly, there was big news last night. Congratulations to our beloved Everett Silvertips on becoming Western Conference champions. Uh, so really wishing them the best of luck in the finals and onward to the Memorial Cup. And no further comments this afternoon. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh, moving on to public or uh pardon me, old business. I hear a motion for the approval of the minutes from April 22nd, 2026. So moved. Thank you. Second? Second. Clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weer, yes. Councilmember Zaringo,

yes. Councilmember Schwab, abstain. Councilmember Barbano, yes. Councilmember Tuohy, yes. Councilmember Bader, yes. Vice President Ryan, yes. Now it's time for public comment, which includes written comment acknowledgement. Under our rules, written comments shall be considered in the same manner as oral comments. The person submitting comment must provide their name and city of residence. Written comments require this to be made part of the official council record. Hello, Angie. Do we have any written comments or anyone to sign up to speak this afternoon? Hi, Vice President Ryan. We have some written comments and we received uh the following individuals writing in about uh the neighborhood residential manufactured home community zoning. Um, and that was from Efrosini Kourou, Patty Barron, and Dennis Norton, and then Daniel Wickersham um wrote in about the outdoor event center and these were all provided to council legal, city clerk, and administration to be part of the record. And we have three individuals online to speak and a few individuals in chambers. So we'll start with those online and we'll begin with Donald. If you could please unmute and turn your camera on. Once you're ready, um please state your full name and city of residence and you will have three minutes to speak as soon as you see the timer. Good afternoon, Mayor Franklin, council members. My name is Donald Lucas Barnes. I live in South Everett. I have a lot to fit in, so I may speak a little quickly. In 2025, this council didn't just maintain the flock contract, it doubled down. In April of last year, you approved a half a million dollar drone contract on top of the existing camera network. And by July, that was already amended to add more drones and radar. That's 3 months from approval to expansion with no independent oversight

body reviewing it. These contracts exceeded what city council even approved within sessions like these. Specifically, the signed contracts for the drones first responder program committed the city to $50,000 in the first year and $457,000 in recurring costs. This contradicted the city council's resolution which which also authorized zero cost in the first year and approximately $307,000 annually thereafter. The cameras are back on as of 3 weeks ago. And the council's being asked to take it on faith that these systems are being used appropriately. I want to be direct about why this is on faith and only is the only option residents have here. The city does not own the data being collected on our streets. Flock does. Section 5 of the drone services agreement gives Flock ownership of all the data that the drones and these cameras generate. This includes flight logs, radar data, telemetry, airspace data. The city cannot share any of it with third parties without Flock's written consent. And Flock's standard customer agreement gives the company a perpetual royalty-free license to dispose the camera data for investigative purposes to whoever Flock decides qualifies. When when residents asked for this footage under the public records act, other Washington cities making the same arguments Everett is making their own appeal told the court the data isn't public record because Flock owns it. So, when our police chief tells you that the department owns the data and protects it from criminal misuse, that statement is in direct conflict with what the contract the city signed and with the legal arguments that the city lawyers are making in the court right now. That means there's no oversight. The city's asking residents to trust an arrangement we're not allowed to read for data that the city admitted in court it does not control. Now, look at what the same city can't afford. You laid off 31 employees. You eliminated the park ranger program. You cut library hours by 25%. You cut the crime prevention officer in the police department. Your own budget department said the cut would mean, quote, no in-person option for residents walking into a precinct to speak with a police officer. You cut the officer who talks to the residents inside a million dollar surveillance contract with a company

that shares the data with people you don't know. The early learning center was close to my heart and it needed only $300,000 a year. You couldn't put up the $300,000 and suddenly all kids lost their child care, including mine, and we had to scramble. $300,000 is less than 1% of the city's reserve. Child care workers and child care in the city need more than a day to celebrate child care workers. It wasn't about not being able to find it. You didn't want to find it and it wasn't a priority even as you're here to vote on $10 million on a project that will clearly never pay off. But, here's what you can find money for. $7 million spent on a downtown baseball stadium. Another $10.6 million you're being asked to approve this week from a loan that the general fund is going to have to guarantee. I'm asking for

comments, Donald. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we will move on to Evan. If you could please turn on your camera and audio, state your full name and city of residence once you see the timer appear. Good afternoon, Mayor and council members. My name is Evan Reed. I live in Everett and run Bunker Arts Collective. Over the past 2 years, we've removed more than 20 tons of trash across nearly 80 sites. Last week, I said closer to 50, but a volunteer did the math and pointed out we were underselling our efforts. As work has grown, we do this because we care about the city and it also gives us a clear view of where things are falling behind. Stretched park maintenance, reduced library hours, and basic upkeep that isn't keeping pace. At the same time, we're moving forward with a stadium district where public dollars are doing the heavy lifting. I do want the AquaSox here. I want this project to succeed for the city, for the teams, and for the community. But, this project is being driven by league requirements, not because residents were asking for a new stadium. That makes it critical that the return on this investment is visible, local, and shared. We're investing heavily in a new stadium district including features like a Ferris wheel in the outfield, while in other parts of the city, basic conditions still aren't keeping up. There's also uncertainty about the bigger picture, whether that's a potential Everett Transit merger with Community Transit, or whether the light rail extension that's supposed to anchor this district will arrive on the timeline we've been told. Perception matters. There are people who avoid Everett because of how the city is viewed today. All of Everett, whether east of Broadway or south of 41st, is full of some of the most incredible small, independently owned businesses. But, most importantly, it's full of great people and neighborhoods that deserve consistent

investment and care. Places like Forest Park, Lions Park, Walter Hall Park, Henry Jackson Park, along with corridors like Evergreen Way, Casino Road, Everett Mall Way, and Broadway are real opportunities to change that narrative through visible, ongoing investment. Right now, the infrastructure around these assets isn't consistently setting them up for success. When overgrowth isn't maintained, illegal dumping piles up, vandalism isn't addressed, and public safety concerns persist, it shapes how people experience these spaces and whether they choose to come back. That's what drives attendance. And that's what will ultimately determine whether this the stadium succeeds. I understand how the bond is structured. The team's rent goes towards paying it down over time, but that structure doesn't include a clear, ongoing investment back into the broader community beyond the stadium footprint, the very thing that determines whether people show up in the first place. This is a turning point for council, whether this deal ultimately benefits the whole community or just the footprint around the stadium. I urge you to get this right for all of Everett. We can support the AquaSox. We can want this project to succeed and at the same time, we can expect a stronger commitment back into the community that makes that success possible. There's a straightforward way to build that into the project, dedicate a small per ticket contribution around $2 from all events in the way community investment fund. So, as the stadium succeeds, the community shares in that success. It's scalable. It grows with attendance and it doesn't require additional public dollars. At that level, you're looking at roughly $600,000 to $800,000 per year. This can be a win for the city, a win for the teams, and a win for the community. Please, do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you, Evan. Thank you. Next, if Patricia could turn on your camera and audio.

Patricia, are you there? Okay, well, maybe we'll hold on that for a moment. Oh, she declined. Okay. So, we'll move to those in chambers. Um, we'll start with John Martin. If you could please come to the podium. And please state your full name, city of residence, and you have 3 minutes to speak. John Martin Mountlake Terrace I've been a frog for a long time. Over 60 million years. And way back in frog history, they wanted to create a luxurious frog pond with lily pads and water fountains and wonderful things to eat. So, our best jumping frogs could jump in front of all the rest of us frogs. It was an idea created by the Messianic Legislative Bullfrog. Or as we regular frogs call it, the MLB. We had something called the Messianic Legislative Bullfrog Council. And when the council spoke, regular frogs would say, "Hey, listen. That's bullfrog." When the regular hogs heard the council was taking money from tadpoles and giving it to the MLB, they turned and looked at each other and said, "That's bull frog." The Messianic Albatross-Yielding Opportunistic Reptile, or as we regular frogs call it, the mayor, and the council all agreed to take money

from tadpoles. Then, some regular frogs found Project Frog Pond. Project Frog Pond was a secret plan the MLB made with the mayor to make regular frogs pay for the new frog pond. Regular frogs found out about it and started singing. Project Frog Pond was a secret plan the MLB made with the mayor to make regular frogs pay for the new frog pond. Regular frogs found out about it and started singing. Some frogs went to jail. Thank you. Next, if Susan could please come to the podium. Please state your full name and city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. Okay, thank you. Susan Goodenough, Mountlake Terrace. The love of baseball makes people totally irrational. That's a statement from my husband, John Martin, in the late '90s when he was fundraising for the stadium downtown. And as you can imagine with that uh personality, he did very He was very good at fundraising. Until he found out that the stadium the whole stadium idea and how they are put together using taxpayer funds and how they benefit uh the club owners, MLB, media, vendors, partners. And you might say, "Mayor, that it gives quality of life

and jobs." But that's very short-lived. Quality of life maybe when you go to the game. Jobs just for the building of the stadium. They bring in their partners. They bring in their vendors. They They bring in their employees. It doesn't bring in a lot of jobs for this city, but this city's paying for it. One piece of that is the 7.4 million, which I think you guys are going to do some kind of authorization on it today to be able to spend that. That was supposed to go to children's parks, kids parks. And I know, Mayor, you said in your campaign, you actually brought in a lot of money for parks. And I'm just asking you to please not use that money. Just that money. I know you're still going to go with the stadium. I know I understand, you know, why people love baseball. I'm not big on it, but I mean, it's okay. I grew up with baseball. But I'm not I don't I think it's like a cruise ship or a book or a movie. It's entertainment. It shouldn't be pulling away from all these other other crisises crises that the money should be going to towards. So, just asking you, please don't use that 7.4 million. If you do, maybe put it to Funko Field. I don't know if that's on the table anymore, but just please don't use that. Thank you. Thank you. Next, if Ray could please come to the podium. Ray? Oh, there you are. Please state your full name, city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. Mayor and council members, my name is uh Ray Stephanson with the Economic Alliance in Snohomish County. And I'm here today [clears throat] to uh speak in support of the consolidation of

Everett and Community Transit. I'm sure many of you know this, but every day some 120,000 workers leave Snohomish County to work in King County. And on the reverse commute some 40,000 people leave King County to work in Snohomish County. The consolidation that this these two transit systems I think is essential to the success that I believe we'll have if we consolidate those systems to get light rail here hopefully by 2035 but at the latest 2037. The one thing I would say as well uh when I was at the city, Community Transit uh was not the quality of system that it is today. I think in the last 10 years uh this system has come a long way providing really excellent service. I think if you see what Community Transit is doing in Lynnwood uh at the light rail station that volume of traffic is significant and it needs a system that can support that. The other thing I would say uh I'm very fond of Everett Transit. It's served this community so well for so long. I'm so pleased that all of you are committed to ensuring that our employees are taken care of in this consolidation. Uh the other thing that I would say, and I think all of you recognize this we can't keep building freeways. We don't have the space. We don't have the money. If we don't find a way to move people back and forth from county to county uh we will just not survive economically. My executive board voted on this last week unanimously to support this and I would encourage the council to seriously

consider that. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Mark, if you could please come to the podium. Please state your full name and city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak.

Mark Nite Sother, Marysville. Uh we've owned three buildings and one vacant lot on Hewitt just north of the proposed stadium for between 40 and 50 years. When we purchased the first two buildings, there was an abandoned railroad track running up the alley. We received permission from the railroad to remove the tracks and the railroad ties at our cost. Uh when we purchased a building, the alley behind our buildings and the portion of McDougall's Avenue between Wall Street and our buildings was unpaved. It was only graveled. In the early '80s, our father asked the city to complete the paving of McDougall and they would not agree to do so. So, our father paved that portion of McDougall Avenue between Wall Street and our buildings on Hewitt and the entire alley at his expense. Everything we've seen, like most of the recent rendering that was included in the city of Everett slide presentation, shows little or no access to our buildings or explanation on how to get to our buildings uh on the alley side of Hewitt. The same slide appears to show a large paved area adjacent to the north side of the stadium, then some type of wide planning area going east and west uh to the north side of that um paved area, and then some type of pathway for a portion of the area that is now the alley behind our building. Currently, two cars cannot pass each other in that narrow alley. They use McDougall to get in and out of the alleys. How can any delivery truck or more than one vehicle get to these buildings, let alone the fire department, when this project is completed? Current street parking in that area, including lot 26, which I understand is already being in the process of being condemned, is 30 parking spaces. Uh is a total of approximately 190 spaces that can be used during hockey games and other night events within

McDougall and Paine Avenues and Wall Street. Between the China Doll parking lot and Everett Industrial parking lot and Hydraulic Supply parking lot, there is approximately another 80 parking spots. So, you are dumping another 150 or 250 plus vehicles elsewhere onto the street system that is already packed during these events by abandoning all of these roadways. So, the key to our question though is the lack of clear access to our buildings on Hewitt as well as the neighboring buildings. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Next, if Tammy could please come to the podium. And please state your full name and city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. Thank you. Um Tammy Dunn. My residence is in Snohomish. Uh work uh address is in Everett. Um good afternoon. Thank you, Vice President Ryan, city council members, and Mayor Franklin for the opportunity to speak to you today. An opportunity to have a multi-use outdoor event center within proximity of Everett Memorial Stadium and Lincoln Field brings new opportunities for youth to play sports. Participating sports youth and amateur held in Everett have generated millions of dollars and thousands of room nights, plus have brought thousands of visitors locally and and out of town. The impact of sports tourism from 2024 through 2026 in Everett alone has been the following: $32.2 million in economic impact over 33,000 room nights almost 2,000 visitors. To name a few the 2026 sports events which have been held and will be held in Everett are the USA Softball of Seattle Spring Tournaments, Perfect Game Northwest Baseball Tournaments USA um Quadball West Regionals, RCX NFL Flag

Seahawks Regional, Kick It 3 versus 3 World Cup Festival Tournament also USA Softball Class B Western Nationals and WIAA 3A 4A State Baseball Championships um being held here at end of May. Another multi-use sports venue can have a positive impact on youth playing sports. Everett could host youth and high school sports tournaments that the city would not have would not host if there was not a new multi-use outdoor event center. These sports tournaments could be high school baseball college showcases up to 16 teams also high school boys and girls soccer um soccer college showcases up to 16 teams as well. We could have 3A um the WIAA 3A 4A State Baseball Championships for multiple years, not just every 3 years. Could also do some three-on-three soccer tournaments, flag football tournaments um even uh an NWAC baseball championship um potential. Um these eight tournaments have have the potential to generate 1.1 million in economic impact, generate over 2,000 room nights, and oh almost 8,000 visitors to Everett. Not only these new sports tournaments be held in being held in Everett, there's also an opportunity for the youth in in the community. One example is the Major League um hit, pitch, and run. Um Boys & Girls Club runs that right now to Gaffney Field, but there is an opportunity to host it at one of these um facilities within the city. There's also youth sports camps, and not just the baseball, the softball, but there's also the rugby, the football, the soccer, lacrosse, and flag football. Another multi-use outdoor event center for the youth to play sport will enhance the quality of life, create active healthy lifestyles, along with creating jobs, and increasing small business

revenues. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Brock, if you could please come to the podium. And apologies for running out of forms, but before you leave, would you mind filling out a form and putting it in the tray for us? You want a form? Great. Yes. And then if you could please state your full name, city of residence, and you have 3 minutes to speak. Yeah. Uh Brock Howell, um I'm uh the the part Eastern resident of the Port Gardner Neighborhood Association. Um and I'm here for both organizations for two separate issues. So, first I want to mention Snoqualmie Snow County Transportation Coalition. Um we do not have a position on Community Transit Everett Transit uh consolidation uh because we are integral into the into thinking about transit for the county. Uh both agencies serve on our board of directors, and uh I just wanted to comment on that. Uh this is such an important thing. City building is not easy. Um Street car came here in 1893. It transitioned into the city line system, uh eventually the bus system, and then Everett Transit uh in I believe 1969. Um and so that we or 1967, want to get my years right. Um and so it's provided high-quality service. I I expect that every My experience today with Everett Transit has never been better. Um I think also Community Transit has never been better. And so I think there's a lot of opportunity to as the as the transit agencies grow to think about it about how to do this well, and I just encourage uh that Snoqualmie be at the table on those conversations. Um before I move on too far, I want to uh congratulate the city on the Edgewater Bridge opening yesterday, uh as well as uh highlight that we'll be doing a a ride down to Seattle next week, um

with Council uh from Council Vice President Ryan uh to highlight the importance of building the spine of light rail to Everett. Um and so I encourage you to go to Snoqualmie's website or look on Facebook to for that event to participate to advocate for light rail to be completed. With my other hat on, Stations Enidos, uh we're working to build a more welcoming community at each of the light rail stations moving forward. You may have known us previously as Everett Station District Alliance. That's been uh our home neighborhood since uh 2017, uh being the advocate for creating uh a more developed uh place. Um trying to make that a better neighborhood has been a a really long effort. In 2002, we the city consolidated the transit system with Everett Station to the neighborhood. We expected to have transit oriented development occur. It didn't. We built the arena in 2003. Also expected that to catalyze development. We didn't see a ton around it, although there's been a lot of great events over the last 20 years. Um and so the the new stadium presents another opportunity uh to have uh something great in our neighborhood and our city. I will say uh our organization hasn't taken a position um in part because there's lots of different opinions within our community, and you've already heard from Mark. Can I continue on the second issue if that's okay?

comments. Okay. Um and you know, within the affected properties uh about each year 200,000 in property taxes goes from those properties to the uh to the local jurisdictions. Um about a quarter of that goes to the city itself, and a large percentage goes to the school district. It's real money. Uh over Oh, so Sorry. But we're really excited about the stadium's too. We're building a project right next door. We want to have our project uh coordinated with that project. We think there's a lot of opportunity with it. Um so I just want to share both of those perspectives of there is a loss here, there's also a big gain, and we're excited about that future.

Thank you, Brock. Yep. Thank you. Howie, if you could please come to the podium. And please state your full name and city of residence, and you have 3 minutes to speak. Howie Bargreen, 2821 Rucker, Everett, Washington. Mayors and council, um more than 5 years ago, Don Schwab came, I don't even know if he was on the council then, came to see me and said, "What do you think about putting a baseball field down by where some of your property is down on Hewitt and Broadway?" I said, "I think that's a great idea." And I've been following it and trying to see how it would turn out for everybody. I think there's been a lot of uh what I call sneaky. I think the political word is untransparency in the project, and I'm sorry about that. And I think it's mainly because it's underfunded, and it's tough. You know, uh uh the mayor goes on the the TV or on uh on the in the newspaper and says the city's going broke. I mean, so then what are the people going to think? And then it's and I think uh there's a lot of uh situations with this baseball park that could have been resolved differently. Um I listed some, and I sent it out to you. And I wrote you a letter a while back, but uh for instance, they're still How can you build or give any builders and designers money before you get your anchor tenant leased? And there's still no talk about the anchor tenant having a lease. And to me that's just no business would do that. I can't understand why a government would do that. Uh I don't think this is baseball field

is going to affect my property, it not the way it is now, and it might be better for my property, but uh way Pardon me, but the way the city's gone about it is really um un uh what I call sneaky, uh unprofessional. Let me just give you one example. So, those people that have been on Hewitt for a long time, uh we have the about our property in 1933, still don't know about their access. And I've emailed back and forth to everybody at the city that I know about that access just because I think it's unfair. I'll have access, I guess, but here's the thing. If you read the article in the Seattle Times about the new Everett baseball park, it said that there's going to be a walking track around the whole facility. You can't really see it on the pictures. And I said to one of the people in the city, "Let's not get an architect that goes nutty and is egotistical and puts a whole bunch of stuff in and doesn't even think about the the the business owners in the area." But that's exactly what's happened. It We don't need a walking track. If people want to walk, they can go to the port. There's all kind of There'll be lots of room for them to walk at the stadium if the baseball park isn't there. But the idea that you're going to put a walking track around this facility and then wipe out the access to the people on Hewitt, who by the way will still be paying taxes, is just silly. Thank you, Howie. Thank you.

[clears throat]

I believe Jim Langus wanted to speak. Um if you could come to the podium. Jim? Jim, you're up next. And I know we didn't have forms when you're here, so before you leave, if you don't mind filling out a form, or you already did. Perfect. Thank you. And please state your full name, city of residence, and you've been granted 5 minutes to speak. Uh Jim Langus, Everett. Uh I want to start by saying I support the EMS levy. It's a wonderful paramedic and advanced life support uh response and essential service for all of Everett. Um I also have one comment. A a conscious decision was made to transfer a number of firefighters to the EMS budget. And uh that may have been done to help the general fund. I don't know the rationale, but I do believe that the council should understand that there are a number of fire suppression firefighters that are now in that EMS budget. And I I don't know that the voters understood that when they supported the ballot in 2018. My concerns today are looking ahead 6, 9, and 12 years. That's kind of a moment of reflection because this is a period when many families and households are struggling. And before we even ask them for more and more and more, we need to understand the broader picture. And there are going to be a lot of financial issues coming before the city council. And I ask you to look at the cumulative effect. I'm not here today just on baseball. I'm here to talk about a cumulative effect of a number of issues. Number one, we have the EMS levy that's coming up, which I support. We have a utility tax of 12%, which is going to be which is going to be voted on at some point.

And yes, it's going to replace a in lieu of services 6% tax, but it's still a utility tax and an increase overall. And with the 5-year rate ordinance that we approved in 2025, excuse me, the 4-year, 10% a year through 2028, and this tax, our residents are going to be looking at increases at between 24 and 28 of probably 60 to 70 60 to 70% rate increase in their water, sewer, and utility and utility bills. And I don't know whether it's 60 or 62 or 58. I haven't done that calculation, but I know that there's going to be a significant increase. And and I know that we they one of the reasons again is we need the revenue to help us with our deficit. At least that's what it said when I looked online. That was one of the reasons that was given, but but that's going to be an impact on our citizens. We also are going to be asked about the consolidation. I heard former Mayor Stephanson Mayor Stephanson talk about that earlier that will be coming potentially to the council to be put on the ballot. And that's an increase in sales tax from 9.95% to 10.5% another tax increase. And then we have uh uh matters like like light rail and sound transit. We've been paying for that for 30 years and we're likely to be paying for that for forever, but we may not see light rail here for till 2040. I'm not sure I buy into this 2035 2037. I don't see signs of that. And I'm not sure what we're going to get when that time comes, whether will whether they will because of finances want a reduction in stations or phase

construction or to or to terminate the light rail to Everett uh at a different location in shorter, perhaps. I just don't know. That's not going to happen for a few years, and I think the mayor may know, but I don't know the decisions have been made yet on on that alignment. So, uh we have a lot of things coming forward at the council. And of course, we have the capital this big capital project with baseball and and uh and uh you know, I I've followed it closely. We started with 85 and 25 and and land. It has escalated to the Department of Commerce with a document I saw that said 132, and now we're talking about 120, but we with 35 and land has increased to 35. And we still don't know the real numbers. We don't know what the land is going to cost. There could be lawsuits, litigation. There's a lot of questions around the value of those those properties. And they're important and they're big valuations and they're real evaluation assessments and evaluations. We don't know what's going to happen with I'm still not sure if I understand what our contingencies are. I really think we need to have contingencies built into a project of this magnitude that that it's a design build and we're going to it with a lot of uncertainty. So, the question really if for me is you know, who's watching out for the citizens? I've always advocated for public safety, police and fire, strong supporter. And I trust that collectively you're going to be watching out for our citizens. We can't be hurting our citizens with all of the cumulative effects of these taxes that add up.

Thank you, Jim. Okay. And I want to ask you in closing, do you know what the impacts are uh to our Is it Is it accurate that our residents We have the third lowest uh median home income Thank you, Jim. in Everett be be behind Darrington and and uh Lynnwood. We have uh 49% home ownership, the lowest in Snohomish County and perhaps Puget Sound. Thank you, Jim. And we have uh 60% or more of our children uh going to uh free lunch free reduced programs. Somebody has to watch out for the citizens. That's your responsibility. Thank you very much for the time. That was a quick 5 minutes. That was a quick clock. Thank you. And we have more individuals wishing to speak um when we get to items 11, 13, and 14. Great. Thank you. Uh moving on on our agenda to the council comments. I'll start with our two members joining online with uh starting with Council President Schwab. Um thank you. I just wrote a brief um couple of really good community celebrations. One in our women and children's um facility pallet shelter. The temporary structure there, 2 years. Um great turnout. Um that's that's one that's going to be on the corner of Sievers Duecy Road in Lynnwood. And then of course, the opening of the new Edgewater Bridge that we hope will last another 80 years. What a fantastic turnout. Thank you for all anyone that has shown up. It was great to cross the bridge without any cars. It wasn't your last chance. Um couple of things that I I really look forward to examining um the CTET

merger. I know it's not it's not been decided on, but I look forward to the presentations and reviewing the information. Thank you for everyone who spoke today. One second, Council member Uh Council member Barbadoro, go ahead. Uh no reporter comments. Thank you. Great. Thank you. [laughter]

And then moving on to Council Chambers, Council member Barbadoro. Hi. Um I just wanted to uh comment on We had a wonderful uh Women to Words and thank you for the mayor for being there and congratulations to Council member Tuohy. Um record attendance and uh a big congratulations to all the recipients of those awards. And a huge thanks to Kari and Tyler with the city and our Cultural Arts Commissioners for all the hard work they put into that event and to the Village Theatre staff for really make it beautiful. Um that was on Thursday. Then on Saturday, we had the Downtown Everett Association's planting day. You might have noticed there's 270 plus beautiful planters now with flowers blooming and a couple of the um art murals um by Shaq and Children's Museum that are down. And so, if you get a chance on this nice day, go walk around and check those out. Um I was uh joined um Council President Schwab and many of our other council members here, the mayor for the VOA uh pallet shelter ribbon cutting, and that really was inspiring and it was great to see that all that hard work finally culminated in um for, you know, safe transitional housing for um some of our most vulnerable women and children in our community. Um after that, I raced over to another ribbon cutting for Cambium Consulting our concepts um which have a great showcase our showroom now down on Baker and um uh kind of near Lowe's, Baker and 28th. So, great turnout for them there as well. And then coming up uh this Friday, Downtown Everett Association has their Sip and Shop, and it's also First Friday, so great night to get out about in in Downtown Everett. And that is all for me. Thank you. Council member Barbadoro, go. Well, just a brief thanks to all the comments and input we've gotten in in person in email. I really appreciate um our residents sharing their opinions, especially grateful for those who share their reasons, facts, and considerations. Uh

uh that helps us with the tradeoffs and conflicts we're all dealing with and helps us make better choices. So, that's it for me. Thanks. Great. Thank you. Council member Barbadoro. Um on April 22nd, I attended the Workers Memorial Day event at the Mission Building Courtyard. Uh we had an opportunity to honor the workers that were lost last year. Um the next day I I attended the Went and Majors Arts Awards. Um something in my personal experience, um before being a city council member, I never attended these type of events in downtown. And however, this type of event shows how beautiful our community really is. And if you have never attended the downtown events, I strongly suggest that you consider it. Uh Council member Tuohy, congratulations on your award. On Monday, I rode my bicycle to the opening of the Edgewater Bridge. I was there 30 minutes early, and I was told that I was the first person on a bicycle to ride the bridge. For the folks who who live in the south, it is a great It is great to have the the bridge working again, but now with bike lanes. And heads up. This Saturday, May 2nd, there will be a short bike film festival presented by Sharing Wheels. The event will take place at the PUD auditorium at 2320 California Street. You can get your tickets at sharingwheels.com. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Rue. Yeah, I also want to thank Tyler and Carrie and the commissioners for a great Went Awards this year and I was honored to be honored, but I also totally enjoyed and was inspired by all of the folks that were highlighted that night. Uh yesterday I attended the Snow 911 board retreat with Chief DeMarco, Chief Gets, and Deputy Chief Yaden.

We spent the better part of the day out of the new facility on 4th and Everett Mall Way. They did comment that it was it's a beautiful building. It's purpose-built facility and the staff was definitely enjoying the benefits of the purpose-built. This is the Snow 911 call center. You might be for for all of Snohomish County. We did approve the annual report and I will forward that when I get it electronically. But just as a recap in 2025 our Everett fire had over 24,000 incident calls, which was down a little over 2% over 2024. Everett police had 122,000 calls and that was down almost 9% over 2024. So um I think those are really great numbers to to know. Snow 911 in 2025 the call center had over 744,000 incidents that they addressed. So it's a really important center and um Anyway, they're they're just really doing a great job. They spent a lot of time going over their robust hiring, retention, and culture initiatives. And it was very impressive and then we spent the majority of the time on public safety technology and their strategic vision and plan for having and maintaining the most current and relevant IT systems which will benefit all of us in case of an emergency. So it was a lot going on yesterday. So that's all I have. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you. I also attended the Went Awards. Congrats to all the winners and shout out to the city of Everett for being one of the first adopters in the whole United States to implement the 1% for the arts funding in 1974. This early investment in the arts has had a dramatic and compounding impact to our city enhancing quality of life through public art. Uh And I wanted to give a hearty

congratulations to Councilmember Rue for receiving top honors for as this year's Went Art Award winner. Everett's absolutely better because of you and your vision for the arts in Everett. I'm grateful. Thank you. Let's see. I wanted to also share that on Monday I attended the ribbon cutting for the VOA women's and children's shelter and I'm so thrilled that this space will give the life-changing opportunities to women and children which will increase their life choices which only helps to increase their life chances. Want to give a thanks thank you to Councilmember Council President Schwab for his help to shepherd this through and all the city staff who supported along the way. Congrats to Everett and Mukilteo on the Edgewater Bridge opening. How exciting. Safe roadways and bridges is public safety and I appreciate public works foresight to ensure that this bridge will be safely in place for 100 more years. Second to last, I've I've also wanted I wanted to share that I've been hearing a lot from the community regarding the renewal of the CTET merger discussions. It's so early in the process. I really want to emphasize that which is so there's a lot of uncertainties at this point, but it's also an excellent time for community members to engage and share what priorities they would like to see if a merger does move forward. I would like to suggest a reconvening of the CTET exploratory committee to provide input and would also suggest a community listening session to give in to give the public an opportunity to weigh in in a more formal way. Additionally, I am requesting that if a merger is proposed our transportation advisory committee, our youth advisory board, and or any other relevant city boards or commissions has the opportunity to provide a recommendation to council on proposal that comes before us. Last but not least, congrats to the Everett Silvertips on the sweep to secure the WHL Western Conference championships. Games one and two are already on the books for next Friday and Saturday, May 8th and 9th. Tickets are already on sale. Don't get one before I do though. So I'm just really proud of the Bears.

All right, moving on to report from administration, Jennifer. Yes, for your action on consent today there's an agenda item to appoint some individuals to committees to write the statements in the voters pamphlet for the EMS levy ballot measure. I emailed this, but just for the record there were three sign-ups for the pro committee. Michael Calver, Charinda Porcayo, and Penny Coyne. While there were not any for con, so your action will trans staff will transmit those names over to the county and they'll open that up again to see if there are any individuals that did want to sign up. It's not like a legal requirement. We posted and and asked for volunteers and the county does the same if we don't get any. So Yeah, that's it. Thanks. Fantastic. City Attorney, David Hall. There's no executive session tonight and I have a brief update on an issue that I know has been important to all of you and to a number of our residents and that is the desire to eradicate illicit massage businesses in the city. We've been consulting with other jurisdictions around the state who are dealing with the same problem as well as with organizations like the Association of Washington Cities to develop effective set of regulations and plan to come to you with an ordinance in a couple of weeks. Thank you. Moving on to our consent agenda. We have nine consent items with number three being moved to action. Do I have a motion to move items one, two, and four through 10? Move to approve. Second. Second that motion. Thanks. Clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weir. Yes. Councilmember Arlingo. Yes. Councilmember Schwab. Yes. Councilmember Barbano. Yes. Councilmember Tuohy. Yes. Councilmember Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Moving on to proposed action item. Our next item is a proposed action, Council Bill 2604-23 relating to establishing a manufactured housing community zone which has been read into the record. I believe Jennifer

has some updates and information from our discussion last week and we also have public comment in chambers. If we can start with Jennifer. Sure. Um So there were some questions last week and I have some answers related to that. So question about the language in the ordinance that talks about when projects are financially infeasible and kind of who determines that. So that proposed code says that they could be rezoned away from the manufactured housing community if circumstances beyond the control of the property owner have changed resulting in no reasonable economic use. There's no specific trigger or metric in the ordinance. An owner could would need to make a case to the city. Staff and the planning commission would review and make recommendations and the final decision on accepting the request to rezone the community to allow a redevelopment project would rest with the council. Staff can't think of many situations in which a community could no longer cover its operating costs and still make a reasonable return on investment. Maybe an example could be a major on-site utility breakdown with very tight margins. A broad shift away from manufactured housing demand where they've got a lot of vacancies could be another. Simply deciding not to list or rent pads until the community became unsustainably vacant would not likely meet the criteria cuz that would have been fully in the control of the property owner. It's possible that a community could shift from being primarily owner-occupied to primarily renter-occupied over time, but that wouldn't necessarily be cause to rezone the community and allow redevelopment. Um although um So anyways, I guess that's the close of that question. Uh there was conversation last week about the higher density zoning in the comprehensive plan. And then maybe how this interplays with

having what kind of it seems like lower density and restriction on these properties. Our staff note that this initiative protect to protect communities might have been connected to zoning changes for some, but for the most part this proposal is coming to you because what we we heard and what planning commission and yourselves the council heard was basic concern for the vulnerability of residents to park closure redevelopment. It's the same reason other jurisdictions have done the same thing over the last few years, last 20 years. Particular concern about emerging nationwide trends in the market around manufactured housing housing communities, owner consolidation, national ownership entities. And then potential consequences from recent state limits on rent increases that could end up encouraging owners to close communities and redevelop it them into more profitable uses. So sort of those were the policy drivers that led us to bring this to you. Uh Next to last, although they're the kind of the same question. We heard from a local resident and I think this maybe came by email and also at the meeting. Some the folks that have have kind of perceived challenges with redevelopment and new housing in their neighborhood. Why would these circumstances get this different kind of density but not in other situations? Manufactured housing communities are already on the higher end of density seen currently in Everett, about 5.4 to 8.9 units per acre. That's in the range of townhouses, small lot houses, and duplexes. So, it actually kind of fits into the concepts of middle housing, although a different type of use. Um, and um, and so, the purpose and rationale overall wasn't about protecting surrounding neighborhoods from redevelopment or increasing density. This is just another type of housing that actually is a higher end of density. Okay, now the last one.

Um, how do all of the changes that you enacted through the Everett 2044 comp plan update relate to this topic? Um, we increased zoned development capacity across the board. Um, with any decreases in capacity were really about cleaning up borders, correcting what appeared to be mistakes, rather than like policy-level restrictions on redevelopment. There were some areas zoned neighborhood residential constrained instead of neighborhood residential. And those really reflected concerns about um, safe access during a natural disaster to specific area specific neighborhoods. Even those areas, they saw their developable capacity stay the same. It didn't decrease. Um, and we also have lots of policies inside the comp plan update that and regulation changes that supported home ownership, affordability, regulatory flexibility, um, transit-rich, complete, and dense communities, and maintain and building on community character. So, um, that's all that I had in response to your questions from last week. Fantastic. Thanks, Jennifer. Any further questions from council? Great. I will move to public comment. If Janette could please come to the podium. And please state your full name and city of residence, and you have 3 minutes to speak. Thank you. I'm Janette Burton, and I live in Everett, and I wanted just make a comment about thank you for that. Um, council members and Mayor Franklin, I'm a homeowner at Fairway Estates, which is a 55-plus mobile home park. We have 171 homes in the park. As a resident, I own my home and I rent the land that my house sits on. For me, this is an affordable housing option within

Everett, as I'm retired and it fits my budget. I also find living in a community like this to be a very safe place. In 2018, a private equity company, The Carlyle Group, bought the park from the family that owned it. Pretty traditional mobile home environment. This company has $240 billion in assets. They immediately started increasing the rent. They are a short-term investor with a history of selling once they've maxed out the rent, which they have done to us. Today, I'm encouraging the council members to protect manufactured homeowners, along with preserving existing mobile home parks in the city by voting yes to pass the proposed neighborhood residential manufactured community zoning, which you'll be voting on next week. This safeguard provides that the park will not be redeveloped for another purpose, along with the our increasing opportunity for our park to become resident-owned in the future. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Janette. Uh, that's it for public comment. Uh, we will have our public hearing and third and final reading next week, May 6th, on this council bill. Uh, next, moving on to action items. Our first action item is item number three, uh, from our consent agenda to approve the Seattle Outboard Association application to hold a boating regatta on Silver Lake. Uh, to bring forward discussion, do I have a motion? Move to bring it forward. Second. Second the motion. Great. Any comments or discussion from council? Council member Arlingo. Uh, yeah, I uh, I had asked for this item to be moved from our consent agenda to an action item, uh, to allow a little

explanation and some discussion if necessary. Uh, the hydroplane races have been held at Silver Lake for many years, decades actually, as a single-day event. Uh, several years ago, they switched to a two-day event and more of a regional one, uh, taking both days of the weekend. The request now includes beach and dock access on Fridays as well. Uh, so much of what we do as a council involves trade-offs and balancing priorities, and in this case, it involves, uh, all of one of our precious summer weekends and a race event that will occupy much of the lake for that weekend and a large portion of the popular swimming and wading area. In walking through the park several times in recent years, I've encountered multiple visitors, uh, who were unaware of the races, and when they were arrived, they were disappointed at the limited or missing beach access and overflow parking. Uh, there are public benefits to both uses, both the race and the public use, uh, but we can't have, uh, all of both of them. The Seattle Outboard Association has sought to be a responsible user of these major city assets, and we're united in our desire to, uh, strike a good balance for racers, uh, spectators, and park users. Part of the reason I'm bringing this to an action item is that there were some missed connections last year in providing beach access to park visitors on the weekend, uh, one of the glorious sunny weekends that are sadly not to be depended on here in early June, or in the rest of June, as a matter of fact. Uh, these issues were promptly resolved and in a good spirit when I contacted the race officials and staff in the middle of the first race day, but that's obviously not the best timing, and it was not the original intent of the pop of the plans or of the park's special use permit. The parks board meeting agenda and the permit application itself in this council agenda did not call out public beach access, and I wanted to avoid missed connections again this, uh, year. Fortunately, yesterday I received a new event map that calls out public beach access and describes public access to the portions of the lake not not needed for the races and for the safety buffers. So, I'm bringing this up because I think it's important to be explicit about the

choices we're making and what goes into the balance we're trying to achieve in use of this, uh, city park property. So, with all this in mind, I intend to support the park park's board uh, recommendation and the special use permit. Great. Thank you, Council member Arlingo. Any other questions or comments from council? Uh, the motion's been moved and seconded. Clerk, please take the roll. Council member Weir. Yes. Council member Arlingo. Yes. Council member Schwab. Yes. Council member Barbano. Yes. Council member Tuohy. Yes.

Council member Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Moving on to item number 12, Council Bill 2603-20, third and final reading, adoption of ordinance establishing procedures for naming and renaming of city properties, adding a new chapter 2.138 to the Everett Municipal Code. Are there any questions from council? Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Yeah. Second. Great. Clerk, please take the roll. Council member Weir. Yes. Council member Arlingo. Yes. Council member Schwab. Yes. Council member Barbano. Yes. Council member Tuohy. Yes. Council member Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Uh, next on our agenda, we have items 13 through 19, which are all pertaining to the Everett Outdoor Event Center. Uh, before moving through each item, I wanted to pause and first, uh, check with council for any general questions about, uh, the project overall, and also check in I'll check in with staff. I see Jennifer is ready to go for something. Uh, but I'll first check with, uh, council if there's any lingering questions about the overall project, um, as and then we will go through each item individually and more comments on those specific items can be addressed at that time. Council member Tuohy. Well, I will wait till we get to the number 13 then. Okay. Great. Uh, I did have a question, uh, for staff. Uh, we've been hearing from constituents with concerns about the feasibility and viability of the outdoor event center. Um, I council had received the economic impact report, uh, I think a couple years ago at this point. Um, and so, I was hoping, um, like, at this point, I don't feel like those discussions have come up recently, so I think it would be helpful to have this as part of the picture that's been lost. Uh, so, uh, if you could please provide, uh, a refresher on the economic impact forecasting and any updated numbers, uh, and just share more about in what ways the community at large will benefit from

this facility, whether or not they go to a game, would be really helpful. Thank you. Thank you very much for for that question. Uh, my name is Dan Ebersole. I'm the economic development director, and it's very nice to see all of you today here, both in the audience as well as at the dais. I live, to, uh, serve the city of Everett in the world of economic development, and a lot of people don't realize what that does, and so, I really appreciate this question to be able to rephrase and remind people of what we've done so far to ensure that when dollars are invested in precious dollars of the public, that there is, uh, a return that is tangible. And we've done a lot of different things, and I brought, you know, my career of experience from both real estate development as well as economic development for, uh, municipalities to bear on this. First thing we did was data driven and you mentioned the study that we did a couple years ago. We've actually updated that twice. The most recent update with community attributes and or CAI was done this spring and it found that the Everett Outdoor Event Center will generate business revenue of over $80 million a year, over 600 jobs and the combined city and tax county revenue will be nearly a million dollars per year. So that certainly significant. This is an estimate obviously, but it was double the estimate of the remodeled Funko Field and and partly that's because it's a school district property that can't have as many events as the as a downtown facility, but it's also has a lot to do

with the location. And when I consider you know, the reasons why I think this is such an effective place to or project to build, I come up with four reasons and the first one's location. It's exactly in the heart of this downtown area. Councilmember Barbano mentioned how special the downtown events are. We've worked hard and when I say we, I mean 130 years plus of city investment in this downtown area is to make this downtown special not only for the city, but for the county as the county seat. And there's there's all these public and private investments, everything from Funko HQ to the Schack Art Center to the Imagine Children's Museum, the city hall building that we're sitting in today, the county campus that is here. All these investments have been centered on this downtown and this layers on another project that can create more synergy for that. The second reason is location. And the location is right where two business districts have come together to basically tax themselves to encourage business. The Downtown Everett Association and the Everett Station District Alliance are both business improvement areas and this facility sits right at the Venn diagram overlap of those two business improvement areas. It's the perfect location because there's already property owners and business owners investing in this area. The third reason is location in that it's right adjacent to all these entertainment and destination experience

venues. Think of the investment that's been made from the very first the historic Everett Theatre that was is over 100 years old, I believe, the Everett Performing Arts Center, the Angel of the Winds Arena and now the Everett Outdoor Event Center and then all the smaller venues in between on Hewitt. And this creates an and it's recognized by the Downtown Everett Association and our cultural arts people as an entertainment district that can really be a a magnet for for tourism and for activity for our residents here in in Everett. And the fourth reason is something that we're going to have to wait a while for and that's location. And that is the platform of the light rail station is and I used Google Earth to measure this, but the distance from home plate to the light rail station area is right in between 747 and 777 feet. It's that close. And was that a coincidence? I don't think so. That's Everett. So you've heard it before, location, location, location, location. That's the thing that happens when there's smart investment made in in real estate. And this really what we're doing. We see the growth in Everett in the future. We know this is going to be our growth area. We are counting on lots of residents to be in this downtown core and we're strategically investing before that time in real estate that can serve as an urban park, that can serve as a destination, can serve as a connector between our transit hub and downtown jobs. There's just so many different positive elements to it. And so I

[clears throat]

I'll finish by just saying, you know, a lot of what I do is more I mean, there's the data, the numbers that you I read, there's, you know, the kind of the cliche location, location, location. But then there's like the the the gut feel of uh I sometimes picture my job as pushing boulders and I want to pick the boulders to push that are up on top of a hill. And so when they go just a little bit, they pick up speed and they they become a dynamo that rolls down the hill. And I just want to remind everyone of the boulders that Everett has pushed in the past that have become dynamos. Over 100 years ago, we formed the Port of Everett. Now that Port of Everett supports over 40,000 jobs and creates directly and indirectly almost a half billion dollar in city local and sales tax revenue. Um riverfront property. It was a tire fire literally on top of a city dump. Now with the third building being completed, it'll have over a thousand homes and 2,000 residents who live in this beautiful community. If you haven't been down there recently, go down there. It's going to be the home of really wonderful park on the river as well. Paine Field. Paine Field was kind of a forgotten airport. You know, SeaTac became the big hub. Everett has created two two dynamos there. One was Boeing, you know, when they came up to build the 747 and now

the commercial airfield is serving less than a million customers a year, but soon the county master plan calls for over 4 million. So imagine that dynamo. And then of course the Angel of the Winds Arena. We also included in that community attributes study. Please examine how that's doing because that was a big investment for our city, over 100 million, over 800 jobs every year that the Angel of the Winds Arena is is uh is producing. We learn from that project as well and Scott and Ben will be talking about how this project will really eliminating a lot of our operations overhead and so I think the Everett Outdoor Event Center will even be more of that dynamo, but I hope that provides a background. I really appreciate the the ability to answer that. Right, thank you. I think it would be helpful to synthesize some of the numbers and data that council's had trickled in over the last several years about the the economic impact of stadium project, the benefit to the community. I think we have that information in various different places, but to bring that all together for a one-pager look. Even I don't know it's easy to how easy it is to compile it in one page cuz I I feel like there might be quite a bit more than that, but I think it'd be helpful for just kind of wrapping our heads around, you know, it's not just it's not just a baseball game, it's not just a soccer game. There's more that would come from a project of this magnitude. So Absolutely, that's a great idea. Thank you. I did have one. How's our doing? Yeah, I just for the to address some of the concerns that

came up today from a community. If if we could be on the email or tell us how the um how we address the land owners questions about access. Just so we know that that's been done and cuz we do hear from them offline. So it would be nice to know what how we take care of that. Thank you. Councilmember Tuohy, Scott Patterson, staff. I'll be happy to address that now. In addition to a great walk path that'll provide access from the Everett Station to downtown and in the future a great walk path from light rail to downtown for those that commute. There's an access road that circles the entire venue including access to the properties on Hewitt. Everett Fire Department's been in discussions with us. They've reviewed the plan. As it was mentioned earlier, you know, can we get a fire truck in there? Absolutely. Fire's been involved in the design and we have an access road that has a capability of a full ladder truck. So access will will not be an issue. It'll be part of that pedestrian plan and that's that street venue that we've talked about. Um I just mainly want really want the the folks that came today to to hear that from you guys. So Yeah, we're happy to do so. I agree. Thank you, Councilmember Tuohy. Um could I just also there was a couple other things that were brought up, I think, um that I believe we already have answers to you as well. Contingency and I can't remember what the other one was, but if there were other things that we have answers to that would help Council

At least negotiation. Yeah. Uh thanks, Mayor and Council. Uh Ben Franz, I'm a consultant uh on the project. I've been uh proud to work with you for several years now um and excited to be at uh this uh significant decision threshold. Um Scott talked about the public open space. That's a significant amenity um that'll be available to the public 24/7 around the outside uh of the facility. Um overall project budget holding at 120 million. That includes a little over 15% contingency in two separate buckets. Uh direct owner's construction contingency uh as well as an overall project contingency. So, I think at this point the project has fairly uh prudent uh contingency being held within that total uh value of the project. Um on the lease side, um all of the key business terms for the lease uh have been successfully negotiated. Uh that includes a number of very material points. Uh base rent and capital contributions. Um and these were highlighted in the detailed briefing that we provided for you uh 2 weeks ago and I'm happy to touch on those again if you have detailed questions. Uh that includes a share of revenue uh from naming rights uh as well as ticket fees. Um and the projected revenue is uh over the 30-year lease. And so, both teams have agreed to a 30-year term. That's significant and important. Um over the term of that, uh a little over a hundred million dollars in projected uh revenue uh that will come to the city um that will support a significant portion of any debt uh from bonds that you choose to issue. And I think the last thing I want to highlight there um is that the teams have agreed to assume uh all day-to-day operations and maintenance. So, the city will have far lower overhead uh for operating this facility than you see currently uh as an example across the street with Angel of the Winds. The city will still have uh responsibilities for major capital uh improvements. And so, our overall

financial model includes uh a prudent annual contribution to a capital reserve fund. Um so, happy to answer any other questions you may have this afternoon. Great. Councilmember Tuohy. Um on the leases, I know that uh we're looking for um a soccer someone to buy the soccer franchise. Will they have to accept all the terms or they going to want to renegotiate before it's all done? Um they will have to accept a majority of the terms. Uh there are a couple of minor areas where there will be some uh negotiation with a new owner. Um but the majority of those business terms are terms that the league is accepting and will pass on to any any owner. And do we have anybody on the hook for that yet? Absolutely, Councilmember. Uh there are uh multiple uh potential interested parties. Uh and I know that, you know, that the mayor and uh city staff are working closely with the league on that front. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Uh and if you I feel like this is a great time, too, to um remind Council and the public of the design-build process for the stadium. If you could give a 30-second overview, that'd be great.

Yeah. Um I want to say it was a year ago uh the Council approved um the progressive design-build process. Uh went through a public uh procurement. Uh selected DLR Group as the architect and Bailey as the general contractor. Uh this allows us to have both of them side by side from the very beginning of design through to completion. So, we're getting real-time feedback on costs, uh project delivery, constructability. So, it significantly reduces uh schedule and more materially and importantly significantly reduces any cost risk to the city uh cuz the uh the contractor then uh along with the designer uh will agree to a guaranteed maximum price and they will be responsible for delivering the project for that. So, it's a an excellent alternative public project delivery method. Uh we were delighted that the Council gave us that authority uh to move forward. We've been incredibly pleased today with the the productivity and efforts of the entire team. And construction will be done under PLA. Correct. Thank you. Uh any other general comments before moving through each item or questions or both? Great. All right. So, we'll move on to Council or uh item number 13, Council Bill 2604-21, third and final reading, adopt an ornament ordinance amending ordinance 4098-25 entitled Everett Outdoor Event Center Fund 342, Program 052 to accumulate costs for the design and partial property acquisition for the Everett Outdoor Event Center project. Do you have any Do you have a motion? Uh first, we have public comment. If we could pause uh before uh moving it to the table. Angie. So, if Scott could please come to the podium. And please state your full name, city residence, and you have 3 minutes to speak. I think this is Scott Green. Good afternoon. Scott Murphy. Uh Mayor, Councilmembers, nice to see you all. Um

longtime Everett resident and former councilmember for 9 years ending in 2021 and 8-year board member at Angel of the Winds Arena. So, I have some experience in this outdoor event center uh discussion. And I'm really here to talk to you because I'm concerned uh at this stage of the game after several years and 7 million dollars having been spent that we still don't have, as far as I know, a publicly available financial projection that shows whether this uh downtown stadium is financially viable. I'm really glad to hear that there's a hundred million plus dollars in revenue that has been captured. Um but there's and there's good news from an economic development standpoint, but there's a big difference between having an economic development study and discussion around a hundred million dollars and seeing it on a piece of paper to understand how that will actually service the debt. So, my understanding uh let me just also say first of all, I really want to see the AquaSox stay here in Everett. Big fan. Been going for 30 years. Been to probably a couple hundred games. So, I I think like everyone in this room, we all want to see this work out. Um however, if that was just the only goal of this project was to keep the AquaSox, um we would have done a far cheaper, quicker project at the school district property. And that did not happen. So, it's conceivable we would actually be watching AquaSox games already in the remodeled facility. But that ship has sailed. And with the decision that the city made to expand the scope of this project beyond just achieving that goal of keeping the AquaSox, it has introduced a much higher cost and a much higher level of risk to the city. Um and as has been stated by city staff many times, the downtown stadium doesn't financially work without the second anchor tenant, i.e. USL soccer.

Um and I understand maybe there's interested parties, but there's also a big difference between interested parties and a signed lease. So, you're being put in a very tough position here because you're being asked to approve an additional 10.6 million dollars on top of the 7 million that's already been spent. And you're being asked to do that without a financial projection that goes out five or even 10 years that shows can the debt that is being proposed by the city be covered. It would be nice to know that. I also understand there's a funding gap of some 20 to 25 million dollars. If you approve the 10 million, and my understanding is it may be loaned to the project by the general fund or the surplus. And if the project either can't be built because the funding gap can't be closed or USL interested parties don't ever show up or agree to the terms that have been negotiated, that becomes a huge write-off for the city. So, I urge you to table this discussion until such time that the city administration can provide you with a thorough financial projection beyond an economic study or uh terms of a lease. You really do need to see that information before you go any further. Otherwise, you're really putting the taxpayers of Everett in jeopardy. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Scott. Next, if Aaron could please come to the podium. Please state your full name and city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. And if you could complete a form when you're done today. Yes.

Of course. Good afternoon. I'm Aaron Gilfoil and I live in Everett. I work with businesses in Everett and Snohomish County. I'm hired to help them grow, sharpen what they offer, and reach the customers they need to survive. I want to talk to you today about what this outdoor center means to the businesses I work with. In my work, I see a consistent pattern. The businesses that succeed downtown are not always the one ones with the best storefronts or the most resources. They're the ones in the places that people want to spend time. Places that give someone a reason to come down on a weeknight, on a Saturday afternoon, or after work in the summer. Right now, downtown Everett has Angel of the Winds Arena. A stadium nearby would give us a second anchor that changes what downtown becomes. People park once and stay longer. They spend their time and their money downtown instead of somewhere else. And the businesses around them feel the difference. I think about the business owners I work with and what they would say if they were standing here. They would tell you that a stadium downtown brings the one small thing every business needs, foot traffic. The family that comes down for a game and discovers their bakery on the way. The soccer fan who walks past their storefront in May and remembers them in November. For the businesses I work with, this is about being downtown on purpose year-round. I also want to acknowledge something honestly. I know there are real concerns about the cost, about funding sources, and the concerns deserve serious answers from this council. But the businesses I work with cannot wait for a perfect plan. They're making

decisions right now this spring about whether to renew a lease, hire someone, or believe in the city long enough to stick it out. A clear signal from you that downtown is going to be invested in, that Everett is serious about being a place worth coming to, gives them the confidence to commit. Without that signal, the answer for a lot of them is to wait or leave. So I'm here today on behalf of the work I do, the the businesses I do it for, and the downtown I live in, to say it's not just a baseball decision. And from where I sit, it's the right decision. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, Katrina, if you could please come to the podium. Please state your full name and city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. Hi there. I am Katrina Koontz and I live in Marysville. Council members, Mayor, thank you for your time today. The creation of the Everett Outdoor Event Center isn't just about being a sports complex. It's momentum. It's investing in downtown that's already booming and giving it the fuel to go further. I've seen what happens when we invest in Everett. We show up and we make it matter. This is an opportunity to keep that going. I work for the as of last night, the Western Conference champions, the Everett Silvertips. So, I hear a lot of the same question. Why would we build another complex right across the street from the arena? And the answer is simple, because they serve completely different purposes. Angel of the Winds Arena is an indoor venue. They're really good at what they do, from ballroom events, conferences, concerts, the Washington Wolfpack, and as of last night, the Western Conference champions, the Everett Silvertips. Uh but an outdoor complex opens up the door to an entirely different event, things we simply can't accommodate the same way now. It fills the gaps where the arena has had to say no. And every time we say no, we are turning away people, energy, and revenue that should be landing right here in Everett. More events means more people. More people mean full restaurants, busy storefronts, and yes, heads in beds at local hotels. It's not a competition, it is momentum for downtown, and that's already building something incredibly special. And on a personal level, this one matters to me. We need to keep the

AquaSox here in Everett. I've spent the last decade working in my career in hockey, but I've sent spent over 50 plus years as a baseball fan, and over 20 years as a baseball mom. The Everett AquaSox, and even back when they were the Giants, that's part of my story. From high school nights with friends to watching my son run the bases after AquaSox games and seeing local players like Trent Tinglestad put on that AquaSox uniform, step up, and hit a home run his first time at bat. Those moments stick. Because baseball, just like soccer, concerts, community events, it brings people together. You don't have to be a die-hard fan. You just have to show up. And when people show up, community happens. And I've also heard that there are concerns about parking, and yes, on big days it can be tight, but I've heard someone say, but I've never heard someone say that they're not going to come downtown because parking's rough or it's too expensive. In fact, just this past weekend, we had multiple events in downtown. Two events in the arena on Saturday night. Um the Tips did have 7,000 plus fans uh for one of the games, and people didn't stay away. Everybody came out, and there were events at multiple venues. They came early, they spent money. We need to keep doing that. So, I am here in support of that. Thank you. Thank you, Katrina. Thank you. And if Pete could please come to the podium. Please state your full name and city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. Pete Psychov, I live in Everett. Honorable council members and honorable mayor, nice to see you, especially the newest members. I've been here very rarely, but the last time I was here talking about the baseball stadium. Um I mentioned that

I was a baseball fan. I'm glad that baseball will be here, uh but that there were details that would need to be addressed. And uh there have been. I just like to point out a couple of them. Last time I was here, I did talk about parking. Pointed out that at the AquaSox current location, there's lots of parking, and people fill them, and that if there wasn't parking designed into the new stadium, that would be more on the street. And 7,000 people do show up for important events, and the streets do get filled with cars, and then people drive around and try to find a place to park, but they cannot always, and I can attest to that cuz sometimes I can't park in front of or even near my own office. And my office is here in downtown Everett, where I uh own a real estate investment company uh that serves as my office for investments in multiple states across the country. I don't know if there's anything planned for parking, but I hope you'll think about it some more. Um Location, location, location, absolutely correct. Uh those of us who have purchased property in that location understand the concept, and you've selected the most expensive location in the city to do a new stadium. But I've been offered 48 cents on the dollar, an appraisal done by an independent appraiser hired by Mountain Pacific Bank, presented me with the appraisal uh when they were going to make a loan to me. And I've been offered 48 cents on the dollar. And a few minutes later after I used a few choice epithets, it was raised to 74 cents on the dollar.

And what that tells me is that I was going to be cheated unless I knew something more than other people might. It's a hard thing to say. It's not something you want to hear, but I'm being honest that there'll be plenty of people going to court. And if you think you can buy location, location, location for cheap, you're mistaken. This is the best location in town, and you should recognize that, and not think you're going to get it cuz I've talked to my neighbors on each side of me, who happen to be people of ethnic minorities, and immigrants, and women, and they're unhappy. And I'm unhappy. So, I just want to let you know, this is an important fact. We need to be cognizant that this is the best location, and it's not cheap. I want to also thank all the people in the orange today as a former teamster and former shop steward. Thanks for coming. Thank you, Pete. Thank you. And if Miguel could please come to the podium. Miguel. Please state your full name city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. Perfect. Thank you. My name is Miguel Edmonson. I live in Lynnwood, Washington. My office is on 2810 Lombard, and I'm the apprenticeship coordinator for Laborers Local 292 out of Everett here. So, uh there's a lot of reasons to talk about why a stadium like this would be absolutely wonderful for our city and our community, but uh the one I'm going to focus on today is for specifically apprenticeship. I get the privilege of uh going to all of uh all the high schools around Everett and Snohomish County, um doing all kinds of hands-on events, concrete chipping, uh doing other kinds of uh jumping jacks, if you guys know what those are. Um all kinds of fun stuff with uh high schoolers and stuff, and and as

well as some of the pre-apprenticeships um in our in our county uh with the WRAP program, the Advanced Manufacturing Skills Center has a construction pre-apprenticeship down there at Paine Field. Um I work with the Tulalip Tribes uh Tero Vocational Training Center with their pre-apprenticeship, and uh have a project like this go through with a project labor agreement and ensure that we have apprentices have having jobs in this in this uh county, in this city, jobs to go to instead of having to go down to uh I mean, I have some apprentices that have to go down to Tacoma for work. And so they'd be able to live here and work here and be a part of this community while they're on the clock and then of course after when they get off the clock. I'll just end with saying with my office being on Lombard during the hockey season watching uh Hewitt and Colby turn into you know from the daytime these thriving business communities um and then slowly turning into an entertainment district at night with everyone going to the game all the restaurants and the bars and the community it is before the game and of course after a glorious win it is too. So this is this is a really crucial project that you're going to invest in a lot of different ways. So thank you Council. Thank you Mayor. Thanks Miguel. That's it for items 13 and then we have two for 14. Great. Do I have a motion a second to bring discussion to the table for item 13? I have a motion. Motion.

[laughter]

Second it. Great. Any questions or discussion from Council? Councilmember Rivera. Yes, thanks Council President Ryan. Ben Scott, can you address again I know I've asked this multiple times and I think you've addressed it multiple times why the Funko Field option did not work out that it was would cost us more net um and then for so again I thank you for addressing it. Yeah, Councilmember just real quick a couple of the key points. The Funko Field facility would not support both soccer and baseball. And so the overall revenue would be significantly diminished. And then more fundamentally the city does not own that site. So you'd be investing millions and millions of dollars in a facility and land that you don't own or control and so you'd have far less revenue to serve and support any investment you'd make. So if you issued debt on that you were your debt service would not even come close to be being covered by any revenue from the facility. So those are the the main factors there. Can you talk about the there was also some issue with the size of Funko Field and why it couldn't accommodate both but also some challenges there in the construction. Correct Mayor. The size of that parcel there even with a renovated Funko Field you still would have a non-compliant outfield. So there'd be some risk that MLB would come back and provide some level of fines to the AquaSox fines that they're incurring on an annual basis today. Any more Councilmember Rivera? Great. Council President Schwab do you have anything?

I did. Yes. If Scott thank you for your hard work and if you could address the north part of the proposed baseball soccer stadium. I know we've been I know that the plans have varied between even going all the way to to Hewitt. But where we're at could you talk about where how that's going to land and what type of access our current plan is for those businesses? I'm not 100% sure I understand the question but I'll take a shot at it. The north end of the stadium would the footprint of the stadium would end about where Wall Street is at. The actual outfield fence would end there and then the team club space would be just north of that. You know obviously attached to the stadium itself.

[clears throat]

And then I think you're asking about the Festival Street which is the street we we talked about earlier that would provide access a loop access from the transit station all the way around the building exiting most likely on Pacific. Yeah, I was referring more specifically to that north boundary. There's definitely this current plan to have a two-lane road on that northbound area. Yes, that's correct. There would be the access road would be two lanes big enough for a ladder truck and you know more about ladder trucks than I do. So you tell me how big that road is. Great. Thank you. And then I had one more question that was brought up earlier and I know it was in one of the proposals. And that was a contingency fund built into the financial plan. Could you add maybe a couple more specifics on that and what we have on the current on the table currently? Thank you. Yeah, so in the $120 million total project cost the direct construction cost is about $60 million we're holding contingencies in two buckets. There's a owner's construction contingency that's about $3 million and then there's a below the line total project owner's contingency of additional I want to say it's like 6.3 or 6.5 million dollars. So of the direct construction cost of 60 million that's about a 15% contingency which is you know you can have on the low end you know a 10% contingency if you have an inordinate amount of risk in a project or you have not significantly advanced design somewhere closer to a 20% contingency could be realized. So 15 is a good solid contingency given where we are in design and that the contractor will also hold on their side somewhere between a three and a 5% construction contingency but the contingencies on the city side is 15%.

Thank you. Thank you. Moving to members in chambers comments or questions on item 13? Oh. I want to just acknowledge that this is a it is a huge undertaking and big bold projects take time and risk and investment but I also have my you know I've I've shared with all of you my concerns cuz it is you know scary to kind of look at this big astronomical amount of money and like not seeing where the details all line up and what how those gaps are closed and I but I also know that you're working really really hard on that. So I'm hoping kind of bouncing off Councilmember Ryan's request for some more detailed outlines of what all those finances are going to look like. I mean I have questions like the the the fund 148 the parks impact fund like that number that you're using as part of this project what portion of the overall park impact fund is that and you may not have that information but just you know if you can kind of help us understand like how that plays into it and um where that money may be being pulled from that it would have gone to you know so we can really see that big picture on it. Do you know that answer that Jennifer? No, but I have an answer. Oh okay, tell me. There there is a long-term plan that identifies how we invest in our parks and what future parks are needed and I'd be happy to have either Executive Director Leonard or Parks Facilities Director Moore get get back to to you and to Council if that's good with the Mayor. With the more of those details. There isn't um it's not accurate to say that there's an impact like there's a park that was pulled off the list. That's not how that fund functions. And also important to note that impact fees are for future needs not existing parks. So but we can get more

information. Right. It's just like I things I'm still trying to I'm still learning a lot of this as I go as well. So I appreciate your grace in that. But yeah, just like is it a one-time allocation of funds? Is it a something that's over time and how many if over time how long? Thanks Bob. Sure. The park impact fees is something that's relatively new. I think we passed the park impact fees in 2020 we started collecting the impact fees and that really does pay for new growth. So the idea with the impact fees as people move in to the city they pay for the new park amenities so that we can keep our service levels at the same pace that they have been. So the idea with this park impact money impact money has always been to purchase new park amenities. And as you've heard as you have seen this will be this will include new park amenities. So we really do believe that this is a good use of park impact fees that will be supporting new park amenities in the downtown area. We've recently in the last pros plan incorporated a new type of park an urban park and this will definitely fit into that classification of this urban park environment. I'll just add it's a park deficit area of the city where we don't have enough park infrastructure and that the more downtown urban areas parks look very different. What more Plaza is a perfect example of a different style park. But yeah, this is uh we tend to want to prioritize areas that that don't have robust park infrastructure already. Thank you. I appreciate that cuz like I said I'm still trying to understand a lot of these little

[laughter] subtleties and and what all these different funds mean and what the what the broader impact is to other parts of our our city budget. So I appreciate that. Thank you. What else? And yes, thank you to all of our residents and public and to fellow councilmembers have spoke up with questions and their concerns and thoughts and the great the the positive sides of things cuz that's it's all good to hear. Um Scott's sick of me hearing hearing me say parking. [laughter]

But I that's another thing I I am really curious to see how that's all going to play out in the access. Yeah, you've done a great job of talking about that access to some of those properties, but just it'll be interesting to see what you what you really envision the overall traffic flows and impacts to be and the you know, how that affects the downtown aside from the foot traffic of people coming through. So Yeah. I think it's a it's a renderings are beautiful. It's a great project. It's just there's it's I think we all have reason to be cautious, you know, so Thank you, Councilmember Weir. Councilmember Tuohy? Yeah, well, yeah, I agree. I think the renderings look great. I think that the whole design looks very Everett-centric and I really appreciate that. My question [clears throat] today is about the 10.6 million that were loaning from an inner fund and I'm just curious, where is that going to come from? This is kind of financial stuff. Oh, we've got an interim finance director, Mike Bailey here. So, thank you.

back there. I was hoping you would be here. Uh Mike Bailey, I'm helping the city on an interim basis in the finance role and the council has previously adopted a resolution which is cited in your materials that authorizes staff to make an interim loans as needed to address cash flow needs. And so we are leveraging that resolution council's put into place to enable us to provide for a loan. We anticipate it to come from the general fund which has sufficient cash resources for this purpose for the duration of the time we believe the loan will be in place. Um and quite honestly and transparently, the reason we want to use the general fund is because that would be a fund that does invest the idle cash and earns a nominal rate of return in very safe investments. And by using this general fund for this purpose of this loan, we don't have to assess the project the interest that would otherwise be due if it was from another fund. Uh so the project is not further encumbered with interest payments for again this relatively a short period of time. We anticipate beginning to provide project funding in in the funding marketplace for the project sometime late summer. So the loan duration would be relatively short. So we would replace this the 10.6 with the bond financing. Is that kind of the plan? Uh in short, yes. What form that bond financing takes is still a subject of some discussion. Even just this morning we were talking with you know, experts in the marketplace about the best way to manage the the borrowing so that we can keep the cost as low as possible. So it may be a bond, maybe an interim loan during construction to let some of these things that are still coming together become better formulated so that when we go to talk about the bond in the

marketplace, we have better answers about the same kinds of questions that you're asking today. So this is kind of a scenario, but there's always that possibility that we can't pay that back by the end of the year. So what does that do with our budget deficit that is projected at 15 million? Yeah, so there's always a possibility that for for some reason the project if it wouldn't weren't to proceed, then we would have this loan outstanding. We'd have to repay part of it. Since a significant amount of the funding up to date is for property acquisition and things of that sort, certainly the city has some assets that would be able to be used to help sort of unwind and whatnot and pay back these monies. There is some risk that some of the money would have to become from other city sources again if the project weren't to proceed. So so there's there's an element of risk here. Again, we believe it's manageable or we wouldn't have proposed it. And but the project proceeds, we'll proceed with financing the project and the loan will be repaid with the proceeds from the project financing. Okay. Uh I think that was all I have on that one. Thank you. Glad he was here. Any other questions or comments from council on item 13? I have a comment before we vote. So I don't know I think they think we're Yeah, we're Okay, ready to do that. Okay, well first I just want to be clear that I really support the project. I like the stadium design and I want the AquaSox to remain in Everett and I believe bringing USL here would be a tremendous asset for our city. I also support the vision of a more bright vibrant downtown and appreciate the creativity and hard work that has gone into getting us this far. My concern is not about the vision. It's about the timing and financial stewardship.

Having spent decades raising funds and managing projects, I have learned that enthusiasm to be matched by disciplined that enthusiasm has to be matched by disciplined financing financing. And until all the major pieces are in place, at least the majority, risk remains. And I believe we have a responsibility to be cautious with our public funds. Today we have four to five big crucial elements that are still unresolved. Uh we don't have a you know, a buyer for the soccer franchise, the two team leases, uh the remaining 25 million to be raised, the issuance of 40 million in bonds, and other funds that represent 10% of the total. So once any of those or a combination of those are secured, I would feel better about adding 10.6 million from our city's coffers for the project at this point. Um I know my vote tonight is not a vote against the project. It's really a vote out of caution regarding the city's financial risk. We need to ensure that the funding foundation is in place before we commit more of our city dollars. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Tuohy. Any last questions, comments? With a motion and a second on the table, clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weir? Yes. Councilmember Arlingo? Yes. Yes. Councilmember Schwab? Yes. Councilmember Barbano? Yes. Councilmember Tuohy? No. Councilmember Bader? Yes. Vice President Ryan? Yes. Moving on to item 14, Council Bill 2604-22, third and final reading an ordinance authorizing and providing for acquisition including through the exercise of eminent domain of land and

real property rights for parcel 26 for the purpose of construction constructing the Everett Outdoor Event Center project and authorizing the mayor to enter into agreements related to acquisition of parcel 26 and amending ordinance 4100-25. Do we have public comment, Angie? Yes, if Zach could please come to the podium. And please press the button on the base of the mic. And state your full name, city of residence. You have 3 minutes to speak. Yeah, Zach McCown, Fir Island, one of the members of the Carpenters Local 425. Uh it's been a lot today. It's been exciting to be a part of it. I just want to start by saying thank you to everyone here, Mayor Franklin, councilmembers, those virtually. It's a lot of work. You guys care a ton not about not only just the economic future of Everett, but the workforce of Everett. We spent a lot of time and energy over the years trying to get the support and I appreciate it. It really means a lot. Um I'm not going to go too far into what comments have already been made besides the fact that when you build a bigger future, you're going to draw more people to that future. I was going to touch on the tadpole reference cuz I thought it was pretty creative. And I just wanted to say, you know, as far as a tadpole goes, there's a pond. And with that pond, it can be stagnant or it can be great. It can be clear and it can attract all the life that comes with that. Opportunities like this are where we're attracting more people, more opportunities, and a metamorphosis from not only Everett, but other cities who might see this as an an opportunity as traffic flows from King County and possibly works its way this way. So when we're building a bigger future, there's risk associated with that. I just want to say if you wait too long, the cost of this project is only going to get higher. We've seen that in our world and we've seen where projects don't have the finances to do it because we waited.

So take all that in consideration. And I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for the time and energy spent. Appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you, Zach. Thank you. Charles, if you could please come to the podium. And please state your full name, city of residence. You have 3 minutes and please press the button. There we go. Thank you very much. Charles Burgess, Laborers Local 292, business manager, secretary-treasurer. I live in Edmonds, Washington. Um I'm going to piggyback here off what what my brother Zach just spoke about. Thank you all. This is an incredible amount of work, immense amount of work. Scott, your your team, fantastic job. Mayor Franklin, from the beginning, you've you've you've looked at every opportunity, every avenue and the city council asking the questions. Thank you. Uh I represent roughly 1,300 members here in Snohomish County. We represent apprentices. We represent females and minority construction craft laborers. We represent people who live here, who work here, who, you know, would plan to live here, plan to move here, and raise families here. They volunteer their time here. This pro- This This project is more than just about the AquaSox. Although the AquaSox have been here for 41 years, we can't we can't forget that. But, it's also about USL soccer. It's about creating civic pride. There you can't put a value on civic pride. Think about how many kids, uh, you know, get their first taste of freedom going to an AquaSox baseball game in the summertime. Think about how many kids have spent their time their spent their nights and their money at Angel of the Winds Arena. That was a publicly financed arena. And this Friday and Saturday, next Friday and Saturday, I'm going to be there with 20,000 of my closest friends. That wouldn't have happened if we hadn't hadn't an arena. I don't know if you guys remember back in the '80s and the '90s when the the Everett Mall was was built, this became a ghost town overnight.

That arena and that public finance and that public money that built that place changed this city. It created new opportunities for restaurants. Created new opportunities for housing. People now want to move here. Not just because of that, but it's a part of it. It's a huge reason it was a huge contentious reason when my wife and I decided to move was we're going to be missing out on the the Everett Silvertips. I mean, a minor league hockey team. But, that's how important it is to the community. My son plays hockey there at the community ice rink. We were there this this last night. Um, this project is just is just more than than money. It's just, you know, it's more than just the community. It's going to be built here. It's going to be It's going to stand here. It's going to be represented here. It's a representative of of the city. AquaSox are representative of the city. It's going to create jobs, obviously. It's going to be built under a project labor agreement, which means it'll be built faster, cheaper, and safer. And you're going to put the next generation of construction workers to work on this project. So, I thank you all for your hard work. It's not easy what you guys put forward and what you guys do every day. I thank you. We're ready to build it. We're ready to work on this. Let's put us to work. Let's get moving. Thank you so much. Thank you. That concludes our comments for everything, actually. Great. Uh, to move to discussion, do I have a motion and a second for item 14? Move to approve item 14. Second. Second. Great. Uh, moving on to discussion, I see Councilmember Bader's hand up. Thanks, Council President. Um, say just one other remark here as we move forward to this. Uh, you know, and I think I my colleagues might share some of these sentiments that how frustrating this all is and the complexity of this project. Um, and how much time this takes. But, I think that's the nature of these

projects. These certain dominoes have to fall before the next domino can fall. And if we it and we've just got got to let that hap- happen. Um, you know, despite what we hear, the concerns we hear, and especially when it comes to property negotiations, as anybody who's ever bought a house knows how co- even that can be complex in the back and forth. And so, I hope the the public and the media appreciates that that there are things that all of this that happen in public and things that per, uh, you know, per per state law happen, as with any negotiation, in private. So, I just hope that people are aware of that. Um, you know, we can raise all the concerns we want about this, but I think we're at a cro- we're at a crossroads and we have been for some time that if we don't move forward on this, the Aqua- I think the AquaSox would leave town and MLB would tell them to do that. So, you know, we can raise the concerns we want, but if we And I appreciate the intellectual honesty of those who say they don't care if the AquaSox stay or not. But, for those who do, we've got to move forward on this project and and keep going forward to to make make this happen. Because if we don't, then, uh, again, my belief is the AquaSox would leave town despite, uh, our cons- you know, our frustrations and the complexity of this project. Thanks for letting me, uh, make those comments. Um, eager to vote forward and move forward on this. Thank you, Councilmember. Any other comments or questions on item 14? Councilmember Tuohy. I just have one clarification. So, in our last, uh, item, we, um, the 10.6 million, is that dollars that's been allocated in 14 through 18? Or is that separate dollars? Uh, no, the items that you just listed are included in that 10.6.

Okay, so that rolls up to that. Okay. Correct.

Great. Any other questions, comments? Uh, we have a motion and a second. Clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weier. Yes. Councilmember Zaringo. Yes. Councilmember Schwab. Yes. Councilmember Barbano. Yes. Councilmember Tuohy. No. Councilmember Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Moving on to item 15, authorize the mayor to sign amendment number one to the design-build contract with Bailey Construction LP in substantially the form it provided. Do I have a motion from council? Move Move to approve. Do I have a second? Second. [clears throat] Uh, comments or questions on item 15? Clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weier. Dealing with allergies suddenly. Yes. [laughter] Councilmember Zaringo. Yes. Councilmember Schwab. Yes. Councilmember Barbano. Yes. Councilmember Tuohy. No. Councilmember Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Item 16, authorize the mayor to sign amendment number four to the professional services agreement with Shields, O'Malley, Johnson & Incorporated to extend the current professional services agreement through December 31st, 2026. Uh, most Do I have a motion from council? Move. Sorry. I can't get [laughter] the words out. Councilmember Weier moves the the, uh, authorization. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Uh, any questions or comments from council? Seeing none, clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weier. Yes. Councilmember Zaringo. Yes. Councilmember Schwab. Yes. Councilmember Barbano. Yes. Councilmember Tuohy. No. Councilmember Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Item 17, authorize the mayor to sign amendment number two to the professional services agreement with Intelligent Partnerships Inc. to extend the current professional services agreement through December 31st, 2026. Do I have a motion from council? Move to approve. Do I have a second? Second.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none. Oh, uh, Councilmember Zaringo. Uh, reiterate, I think Intelligent Partnerships is a long-time consultant with Everett on things like PLAs. That's correct. They're providing PLA services and guidance as this project moves forward. Yeah, from from what I've heard, those do take a lot of experienced management and something that's not inside the city of Everett's expertise. That is correct. Yeah. Any further questions or comments from council? Seeing none, clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weier. Yes. Councilmember Zaringo. Yes. Councilmember Schwab. Yes. Councilmember Barbano. Yes. Councilmember Tuohy. No. Councilmember Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Item 18, authorize the mayor to sign amendment number two to the professional services agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates Incorporated to extend the current professional services agreement through December 31st, 2026 and increase the compensation amount by $500,000. Do I have a motion? Councilmember Bader so moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any questions or comments from council? Seeing none, clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weier. Yes. Councilmember Zaringo. Yes. Councilmember Schwab. Yes. Councilmember Barbano. Yes. Councilmember Tuohy. No. Councilmember Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Item number 19, authorize the mayor to sign all necessary documents accepting the Washington State Department of Commerce 2023 to 2025 state capital budget appropriation and grant award acceptance for the new outdoor event center project in the amount of $7,400,000. Do I have a motion from council? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any, uh, comments or questions? Councilmember Zaringo. Uh, also, do I remember that, uh, Department of Commerce is someone we had

to apply to, um, be able to use the design-build process that they reviewed our separate state board. Separate from this, but yeah, there was a process to apply with the state of Washington to be eligible for the project, uh, progressive design-build process. I seem to remember that the Department of Commerce was the part of the state of Washington part of that. Yeah.

that, but I I wasn't Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any further questions or comments? Seeing and hearing none, clerk, please take the roll. Councilmember Weier. Yes. Councilmember Zaringo. Yes. Councilmember Schwab. Yes. Councilmember Barbano. Yes. Councilmember Tuohy. Yes. Councilmember Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Uh, before moving to item 20, I'd like to comment that, uh, the next council action items for the outdoor event center coming in a few months will be essentially the final funding packages and bond approval for the and uh, basically the final off-ramp for council. And before those items come before council, I'm requesting that the stadium fiscal advisory The is reconvened to review pertinent funding information to provide a recommendation to council. We'll be happy to do that. Thank you. Item 20, approve Build the Spine to Everett comment letter to Sound Transit. Uh is there a motion from council?

Emphatically move to approve. Do we have a second?

Second the motion. Fantastic. Uh thank you everybody for your support on this. I was happy to provide a draft and edits which were forwarded to council. Thank you everybody who sent in edits and thank you to Jennifer compile for compiling and wordsmithing all of the edits to the final draft that came before council. Um before let's see I want to before we vote on this do I did want to mention that as if you do vote in the affirmative it is a signal that you would like your signature added to the letter. So I'd be happy to open for any comments or questions. I see council member Bader's hand up. Go ahead. Uh thank thanks council president for putting this together for us leading leading this effort. Um I I just want to say I'm supporting this resolution because after all the tax money that Everett residents paid to Sound Transit we're due a return on investment and by having Sound Transit complete light rail to downtown Everett. And I do just want to make a couple of comments and I say this is probably most frequent transit user on usually on the dais. Um I I I I do though believe that light rail has basically been a has been a boondoggle. Opponents of light rail with every ST vote said they were underestimating the time and cost and have been proven correct every time. Except for ridership to sporting events and maybe to SeaTac ridership has been almost entirely from those who were taking bus transit already. It hasn't got more cars off the road during rush hour which is what CT or ST implied would happen. And in fact transit ridership as a percentage trips in this area has dropped over the last three decades. I think it's also important to note that a majority of Everett voters as well as Mill Creek and much of unincorporated Everett voted against ST1, ST2 and ST3. The long delay in fulfilling the promise of light rail to Everett I believe has made voters in the area dubious about Sound Transit's commitments to us in the north end. For example, while we wait at least another decade for Link to get to Everett, Sound Transit could gain credibility among North Sound voters by

immediately increasing service on the already existing Northline Sounder commuter service which has languished from inattention by Sound Transit with still only the four original trips they started with 25 years ago even while the Southline service has tripled in those 25 years. Noting that I'm voting yes on this resolution because Everett taxpayers deserve a return on the taxes they paid to Sound Transit. Thanks for letting me make some comments. Thank you council member Bader. Uh any other questions? Comments from chambers? Fantastic. Um Clerk, please take the roll. Council member Wier. Yes. Council member Aralingo.

Yes. Council member Schwab. Yes. Council member Bader. Yes. Council member Tuohy. Yes. Council member Bader. Yes. Vice president Ryan. Absolutely. With that passage I wanted to share that I will be sharing the letter and comments to the Sound Transit Transit Executive Committee meeting on May 7th. So next Thursday and I invite the public and no more than two other council members to join me. Coordinating an envoy with Sound Transit to join at the meeting to let Sound Transit know that Everett won't be left behind. Please see my Facebook page or reach out to me if you'd like to coordinate on traveling together or if you have any questions about these efforts. And with no further business we are