City Council - Regular Meeting

Or blue.

Okay, are we go Okay.

We ready? Okay. Yep. We know that. We're working on that.

We need the library because we need that.

We're just trying to live stream it. It still will record. So it will not live stream, but it will record. So we'll begin. Good evening, residents of Everett, Washington. I'd like to call to order the Everett City Council meeting of May 20th, 2026. For information on council meetings and how to participate, please visit everettwa.gov slash city council. 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. Clerk, will you please take the roll?

Mayor Franklin. Here. Council Member Weir. Here. Council Member Zarlingo.

Excused.

Council Member Ryan. Here. Council Member Brabano.

Here.

Council Member Toohey. Here. Council Member Bader. Here. President Schwab.

Here. At this time, I'd like to ask Vice President Ryan to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand if you're able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. And this time, I'd like to ask Councilmember Bader to read the land acknowledgement.

Council.

The City Council wishes to acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Stahopsha people and their successors, the Tulalip tribes. Since time immemorial, they have hunted fish, 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 very much. Well, good evening, Mayor.

Good evening, Council President, Council and community. It's Memorial Day weekend, so hope everyone has an opportunity to remember the service members that we've lost. I got the opportunity to attend a ceremony this morning at Snohomish County campus and read the names of the fallen service members from this past year and remember. Just remember how important this day is. It's not just the start of summer. It's really an important holiday to remember those. So I hope you have the opportunity to do that. It's also a Cruising to Colby weekend. So if you're downtown and you like old cars, it's a great time to come out and see some great cars and enjoy our beautiful downtown. And then also just wanted to, again, congratulate the Silvertips for winning the WHL championship. It was really fabulous to attend an impromptu celebration on Saturday and welcome them back home and thank everyone. I think there's like nearly a thousand people there that came out and so great to see families cheering on our team as they came back home. So hope everyone has a great weekend. Thanks.

Thank you very much. Okay, on to old business. Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes for May 13, 2026?

Council Member Ryan, so moves.

Second. Motion and second has been made. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Weir? Yes. Vice President Ryan? Yes. Council Member Brabant?

Yes.

Council Member Tuohy? Yes. Council Member Bader? Yes. President Schwab?

Yes. Okay, on to public comments, which includes written comment acknowledgement under our rules when written comments shall be considered in the same manner as oral comments. The person submitting comments must provide their name and city of residence. Written comments require this to be made part of the official rules. record. And good after evening, Ayanna. Do we have any requests to speak comments?

We do. We have seven general and one for item nine.

Okay. And so should we begin with the online?

Anika Beach-Garcia, would you like to speak? Anika? Yes. Hi. Hello? Okay.

Hi there. I'm here.

Oh, we found we heard someone.

Yeah. Sorry. I kept getting remuted somehow.

All right. You have three minutes if you'd like to make your comment, please. Yeah.

Wonderful. Thank you. Oh, and we're not doing video because Hold your timer.

Can we get her on? It's nice for Yeah.

Okay, there we go.

Okay.

Wonderful. Go ahead.

We'll start the timer when you're ready.

Wonderful. Good evening, Council. My name is Annika Beach-Garcia. I'm a resident of Bellingham, Washington. I am a Masters of Social Work student at Eastern Washington University attending classes at the Everett Community College campus. I've worked in Everett in the past and have many friends and colleagues that live here. I am a part of a group of students studying social policy and the impact on societal well-being. I'm here to encourage the continued discussion among council members of the revision of Everett Municipal Code 16 Point 16, fees for vacant commercial space registration. This code, as currently written, allows for the City of Everett to collect fees up to $1,000 per year for buildings that sit vacant. My classmates and I are proposing that the code be revised to reflect square footage of vacant buildings and more appropriately target big box stores that hold onto vacant properties for extended periods of time. This has been seen most recently with the still-vacant Evergreen Way Fred Meyer, the formerly-vacant Kmart on Evergreen Way, and the formerly-vacant Walmart on Evergreen Way. I was lucky to have gotten to speak in person with council members Paula Rine and Luis Burbano a few weeks ago at The Village on Casino Road. This generated thoughtful discussion and feedback on issues immediately addressing the Everett community. I believe that Everett Municipal Code 16.16 can be revised to be self-sustaining, covering both administrative costs and bringing revenue that can be used to have a positive impact on the Everett community. with the overarching goal of using generated revenue to revitalize impacted areas for the benefit of citizens and businesses alike. I appreciate their recent attention to the issue, and I would encourage you to please keep looking at the revision of Everett Municipal Code 16.16 so that it is a benefit rather than a burden to the community of Everett. I support further discussion of this issue at the upcoming Parks and Built Environment meeting in June. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so we have one more okay.

Good evening Council, can you hear me okay.

Yes, we can thank you.

Okay. Good evening Council, my name is Spencer Jones. I live in Anacortes, but I am a concerned well-wisher and friend of the city of Everett. I attend grad school here in Everett, and I am pursuing my Master of Social Work degree through Eastern Washington University. As a social worker, it is my duty and privilege to uphold the inherent dignity and worth of all people, and to carefully consider a person's situation in the context of the environment in which they live. It is the physical environment of the city of Everett I wish to speak about tonight. Research has consistently shown that people who live in communities that are clean, safe, walkable, and diverse, both in terms of demographics and amenities, have improved lifelong outcomes for both their physical and mental health. Urban communities with high concentrations of vacant, dilapidated, and abandoned buildings are strongly correlated with increased crime, poorer health outcomes, economic stagnation, and increased stigma. While this may be a multifactorial problem that will require a multifactorial solution, one solution already exists in the Everett Municipal Code. It simply needs to be updated and enforced. When the Fred Meyer on Casino Road closed last year, it left behind a resilient but vulnerable community with a need and a right to easy access to affordable and nutritious food. Under EMC 1616, as it is currently written, Kroger, A company with a year-over-year revenue currently over $34 billion will only have to pay $1,000 if Fred Meyer sits empty for three years and only $1,000 for every year after. This is a paltry amount that Kroger can easily afford to pay with negligible consequence. Meanwhile, the city of Everett and its citizens are left holding the bag. In three years' time, the consequences of Fred Meyer remaining vacant can be dire for the Casino Road community and deprive Everett of much needed revenue to reinvest in city services and public amenities. A flat rate fine is an insufficient penalty for a large company like Kroger and EMC 1616 fails to take into account the size and frontage of a vacant property. It is my humble request that city council consider updating EMC 1616 to keep up with inflation and set fine amounts on vacant commercial properties that are proportional to their size. A timeline of EMC 1616 should also be halved from three years to one and a half years in order to expedite the sale of the property to another business that wants to do business in Everett. It is my hope that the Parks and Built Environment Committee will discuss this proposal in further detail and that the people of Everett will feel empowered to make their community an even better place to live, work, and play. Thank you for your time and attention, and go Kips!

Thank you very much. All right. Rene, would you like to make your comment?

Rene, could you please hit the button on your speaker? Thank you. Okay. Again, my name is Rene Pairó. I live in Everett. I'm a voter in Everett. And I would like to make some comments regarding the merger. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to just read a little bit. The other day I was driving. I work forever transit. I'm a driver. So just to make things clear, I was driving and I saw somebody with a sign that says, save democracy. And I thought to myself, save us from democracy because, you know, democracy is an idea that can be double-edged. Knife, if you want to. All depends on how it is used and all the rules that we put in between in order to control one over the others. Anyhow, the thing is that a real democracy exists only if the people is educated and is healthy. That was just a comment. My second point would be that back in the day, I was a business loan officer in a national bank down in South America. And two of the things that I can get from my tenure there or my experiences that apply to the merger is that my fiduciary responsibility towards my employer basically is that based on the principle of loyalty care and good faith and the message was you know if you want to do charity do it with your own money so basically if I want to lower the interest rate or extend the period or anything else do it with my own money Number two is that sometimes when we are so much involved with clients, this is when I was a loan officer, we tend to create more empathy with the client than anything else and feelings. And we tend to advocate more and lose a little bit of perspective. So they call it the Stockholm syndrome. So basically, if you get too close too many times, you start advocating for that. That was the message. If you understood, perfect. If not, it will come to light later. And all this is coming because it's based on the principle, if I see something, I would like to say something. And I have the right to say it. I have three minutes to do it. So great. Thank you. One thing is that whenever they talk about the merger, they give a lot of reasons why. And I feel like I'm being patronized. And I don't like that feeling. I still do have some cognitive ability, so please don't do it. And if I use those arguments in order to build the boat, the arguments in order to justify the merger, that boat will sink, will make water and sink. I might be a simple person, but I still have some cognitive ability, so please respect. And the other point is the merger was so good. It is so good. Why didn't it happen before? I believe that the numbers did not square then, and they are not squaring today.

It goes by fast. Could you finish up, please?

Yeah. The number two is that the taxes are going to increase. This is $30 million, $650 per household in Everett. This is basically a corporate warfare to city, and the taxes are going out of the city. Number three, disposal of assets. You're supposed to be custodians of the assets. not liquidators and if you want some money for some projects okay thank you thank you very much leverage them do not sell them thank you yeah thank you uh mr dwayne dowell please hello

My name is Dwayne Dow. I live here in Everett. I've been working for the city of Everett for 32 years, driving the paratransit vans. We start in year 33 here in July. I would just like to say that the paratransit customers that have ridden with us and have ridden in other parts of the country that have talked to me over the years, that have told me that we are the best that they have ever ridden on. I actually wrote an email to council a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully you all have had a chance to read it. Somebody has to be the best. We are currently that as far as I know, and there's no reason that other people can't look to us to see what is the best service that can be provided, even though we go above what is currently provided under the ADA for the paratransit customers. But I would just like to say, too, that since the sales tax will go up with the merger, I think that council has the right, from my understanding, to actually let the people of Everett vote on if they want that sales tax to increase. And I think that you having that option ought to give it back to the people to say whether or not they want it. And then we can respect the people's vote. Thank you.

Mr. William Parent, please.

William Parent, Silver Lake. This is about the storm. stormwater management, and this is a good afternoon, as ever, continues to grow, we also face increasing challenges with flooding and stormwater management i'd like to propose a practical forward thinking solution and selling an underground storage or stormwater storage tank we need beneath the. New baseball field. This is not a new or experimental idea. It's already being used successfully in cities around the world. There's three main reasons. I wish I had a timer. There's three main reasons. Efficient land use in growing urban areas like Everett. Space is limited. Baseball field already provides the kind of open footprint needed for infrastructure like this without requiring additional land. Second, flood mitigation. During storms, the tanks can capture and hold excessive land. excess water reducing pressure on the drainage system and help preventing flood damage. Third, the dual purpose design. This approach allows us to combine recreational and infrastructure, getting more value out of every acre. And importantly, with the community's concern about the potential increase in sales tax to fund the baseball stadium. I hope I got that correct. this type of approach would help address those concerns by integrating storm water infrastructure into the same project the city can show that the investment is doing good or doing more than building a stadium it's also solving real infrastructure problems like flooding what i've what i've seen in the current plans there hasn't been much discussion about innovative storm water solutions but built into the stadium itself that means there's a real opportunity here to improve the project by adding infrastructure not that not only supports recreation but also helps solve flooding challenges at the same time in closing placing storm water tanks beneath the baseball field is a practical proven way to improve really resistant making better use of limited space and help ensure that public investment delivered the greatest possible benefit to the community.

Thank you good we have one more.

Thank you miss June would you like to make a comment.

Uh, it's working. Okay. Good. Good. Uh, good evening city council. Uh, my name is June sober and I am a resident of district 3. Uh, thank you for assuming the, uh, transit consolidation study. The study will ensure full due diligence on our long term transit infrastructure planning. The interlocal agreement method that the study is looking at offers a unique opportunity to codify and export select priorities in the event that consolidation is pursued. I ask of you to please expedite the start of official outreach efforts to keep citizens informed and to provide an official feedback channel as the study develops. Thank you.

Okay, does that conclude? And then we have one more for when we get to item nine? Yes. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, so we'll move to council comments beginning with council member, member Weir.

Hello, everybody. Thanks for everyone that came out to speak online and in person today. As Mayor said, cruising to Colby's this weekend on Memorial Day weekend and as well as the farmer's market on Sunday. So it's going to be a busy hopping time downtown, but should be fun. We have the shack artist garage sale happening on May 30th. And this week, Delta and Northwest neighborhoods have their meetings tomorrow evening. So if you're in the north end in either of those districts, I encourage you to get involved and join those. Last thing is the ice cream bar on Colby in downtown Everett is doing a donation collection for high need items for the new women and children's pallet shelters. And that's ongoing through the end of the month. So stop by there. They've got some QR codes and lists of the most needed items that those shelters are hoping to gather. And that's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice President, Councilman Ryan.

Thank you. I've been busy this last week. I did a ride along and a stand beside for two separate for two departments with the city. The first was a ride along with the crisis response team. It was really eye opening to, you know, to ride along with one of our social workers to see through their lens and through their work of how they respond to folks in the community that are needing help. and how they're able to approach with kindness and caring and compassion. So I'm really grateful for the city's continued commitment to addressing homelessness and behavior and mental health challenges that some people in our city are facing, but also fully recognize that Everett as a city and as a government body can't address it all on our own. So kudos to us for doing what we can. Thank you. I also had a chance to watch over the shoulder of the drone as a first responder program, and that was also fascinating to see. I did not fly a drone, and that's probably lucky for the taxpayers. It was great to see it in action, but I also really wanted to remind the public about the commitment to transparency with the program. There is a public-facing dashboard. that the public can go to. It's kind of a longer website. So if you Google, you know, Everett, Washington, drone as a first responder, the dashboard shows you can do it by timeline. So you can have the starting date at a certain time to an ending date, and it'll show you how many calls the drone has responded to, how much time it has taken on average for it to respond, how many calls it has cleared so that an officer didn't have to go to that scene themselves to clear the call and it's a and you can also watch the calls themselves as well so you can see the commitment to protecting people's civil liberties and also to protecting our officer safety as well so i encourage folks if you have questions about how the program is working to please visit the dashboard uh look through the commitments of the city in the program and also uh through the dashboard to see what a great work what great work it's been doing so that's awesome On Saturday, I attended the Archangels Coptic Orthodox Church Egyptian Bazaar, which was more of a mouthful than I was expecting. I'm really grateful for the amazing hospitality that the church community showed to me and also very delicious samples that they provided. So that was fantastic. Also on Saturday, I attended the tips rally welcoming home our championship team uh we the tips fans really are the best fans in the whl and it was so great to be surrounded by the community and uh join in the celebration of our championship team and i look forward to celebrating the memorial cup winnings first games on Saturday. Thank you. And then also on Monday, I attended the Lowell Neighborhood Association and was glad to share about the Lowell Park ribbon cutting event coming up this next Tuesday at 4 p.m. And all are welcome to join. Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Bonnell.

Let's start with Friday morning. I went to visit the Madison Family Shelter. I was really happy to learn a bit more about the Pallet Shelter and how it works and all the rules they have for the guests in the shelter. So it was eye-opening, very interesting. Then I went to celebrate the National Bike Month. At the Everett station, I rode my bike from South Everett. It was discouraging to see that the city of Everett is using paper maps instead of digital apps such as Google Maps to inform the community where the bicycle infrastructure is. I have not used a paper map in 20 years. If people don't know where the bike lanes are, they end up in the wrong road, and they got in trouble. Please make sure the bike lanes show up in Google Maps and other applications. Saturday, I rode on paratransit. Something that caught my attention was the quality of service our senior neighbors receive, and people with disabilities as well. We were supposed to be picked up at the Starbucks, but the person who arranged our pickup forgot to check her phone for the paratransit call. Therefore, we were not where the driver was. supposed to meet us. Instead of leaving, the driver came to the Starbucks to look for us. I also noticed that some of the riders know the drivers by name. Talk about a big city with a small town feeling. Paratransit delivers that. After that, I went to the town hall in my district, District 4. Major Franklin was there. Yesterday, I went to the Everett Police Department award ceremony. I'm always grateful for your service. Finally, my daughter Hannah graduated from kindergarten today. It has been a very special day so far. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Councilman Artui.

Yeah, I attended the Council of Neighborhoods meeting on Monday, this past Monday. They had a guest speaker, Vicki Fontaine, with Emergency Planning and Operations, the Office of Emergency Management, and she gave a recap of their meeting. most recent emergency exercise that they did in April. So that was always interesting, lots of good pictures. And then Holly James from the Northwest neighborhood had engaged the whole group there on talking about neighborhoods and civic engagement and funding. So they had a good conversation. And that's it.

Thank you. Councilmember Bader. Thanks, Council President.

Like several of the rest of others here, I attended the Silver Tips Rally. I just want to say thank you to those who put it together so quickly, and especially people like Police, Fire, others on our city team who came to support that, as well as the Everett School District for letting us be there on the front of the Everett High. And then, again, like many of you, I attended the Everett Police Awards ceremony last night. Great, just extraordinary stories of what our law enforcement people do. And, of course, we know the great service they bring us. Just regret it wasn't something we could have recorded and put on YouTube because I would have loved to see it. All our constituents have the ability to see award ceremonies like this, whether it's for fire or other things we do, because I think it shows our constituents really the great service and support they get from so many who work for our city, obviously last night, especially our police department. So anyhow, just a great event and nice to be there for that event. That's it for me. Thanks.

Thank you. Well, I can tell you, for me, this was a wild week, and I really appreciate the mayor. Even more of appreciation for the mayor and the police chief. It seemed like I saw you guys every day at some different event. Hats off to Councilmember Barbono and Zerlingo and Vice President Ryan and Bader for just being at all these events and participating. It's really neat to see. I attended the 4th District neighborhood meeting. I thought that was really well. It was Councilmember Barbono's first one. great job thank you mayor great job on your part and having the chief there too of course um congratulations to the silver tips of course um and that rally was well done at the last minute i think they put that together in like four hours so scott pattison and the silver tips staff did a great job and i know i could just tell from the from the players they were excited i know um there were social media pictures being sent to them while they were on the bus coming up to the event, and I know they are very appreciative, so that was great to see. Congratulations to the Everett Herald. Yesterday was their 125-year anniversary, and I am so appreciative of having a local paper still in production in our city that cares about our city, instead of some regional paper. It's really appreciative to have that. And I too attended the award ceremony. So congratulations to all the merit and valor recipients. And I really appreciated the chief, the police chief's recognition of the fallen police officers over the year and the research that came in to appreciate someone that was lost. And I don't remember the officer's name. What's that right yeah amazing research in the finding of a fallen police officer of the past and giving giving credit to him and to his family that was just amazing experience so thank you very much for that event. Okay, so we'll move on to administration Jennifer I have no report tonight, thank you have our city attorney. No report no executive session, thank you, thank you very much we'll move to our consent items we have 5 do I have a motion.

Council Member Bader-Zemmous.

I'll second the motion. Motion and seconds were made. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Weir? Yes. Vice President Ryan? Yes. Council Member Brabano? Yes. Council Member Dewey? Yes. Council Member Bader? Yes. President Schwab?

Yes. Okay, and our proposed action items, items 6, 7, and 8, they've all been read into the record. Each one of them is, the third and final reading is May 27, 2026. We have a special improvement project for Clark Renovation. We have a city and water sewer utility tax proposal and utility rates establishment. Are there any questions from council at this point on any three items, six, seven, or eight? Council Mayor Bader.

Thanks, Council President. Obviously, we talked at great length last week about the utility tax, and I'm not necessarily asking for an answer now, but I think some information that might be relevant to our constituents and to us is if we weren't to go forward with the utility tax, what would that mean in terms of cuts to city departments and budgets? What kind of... What likely cuts would we see? What services would we be putting in peril by not moving forward with that? with this tax increase. I know obviously something we don't like to do. None of us likes to see tax increases, but the other side of this is we're trying to fill a hole in the structural deficit here. And so I think it'd be relevant for all of us to know, or at least have some thought about what likely would happen. I've gone back and looked myself at what departments have seen the biggest increases over the last decade or so in excuse me, in expense and FTEs, things like IT, engineering, permitting, I'm trying to remember, animal services and economic development. And so those are the ones that come to mind. But Obviously, I think we're coming up on this next week, but I think for me, I'd love to know from administration some kind of thumbnail about what kind of likely impact we would have so our constituents would know what the impact would be if we didn't move forward with this. So long-winded. Not sure if it's a question Ryan can answer. Not Ryan. Ryan can answer, but throwing that out to you at some point for the next week. Thanks.

Well, thanks, Council Member Bader. I did see you're asking that question of our interim finance director. And so I saw that information that actually is on the website now. And I thought you might ask about it. So I did a little thinking about Just for your information, like at this stage in the process, we have the budget process, of course, where those decisions would be made and where it would be weighed against all those priorities. But thinking about how you framed it, you know, the departments that have grown over the last 10 years, if we were, if the council was to choose not to use revenue as a tool to fill our structural deficit gap, Any further cuts into departments would really require reductions in service levels and programs. You mentioned some of those departments, so that means permit review timelines would really be lengthened because a lot of that growth has been to respond to that priority. General response times in all of those departments that you mentioned and in others increased. The court is on the list of places that have grown over the last 10 years. If we were to make a significant cut there, that might mean they can hear fewer cases. It would impact public safety. And it's also kind of, of course, as you understand, an arbitrary way to look at it. So we could look at IT. IT has grown significantly, but threats to cybersecurity have grown significantly. So a big cut in that department would put the city at risk and not just sort of the city, but our infrastructure. So we haven't seen lots of headlines this year, maybe last year, maybe the last few years, but water infrastructure actually related to this topic, of course. So, as you know, we've made about $100 million of cuts over eight years. And I really appreciated your conversation at the retreat about revenue being an important tool at this phase. If we don't, if council doesn't take that action, then those are the kind of impacts that you'd see at a high level. Of course, the full conversation would need to happen as part of the budget, which you know, and so yeah.

Understood. Thanks, Jennifer. Appreciate that. I know I'm... Somebody's getting the car before the horse, but we're making that decision now about the revenue side. And I just think constituents who are not excited about higher utility tax need to know what the trade-offs are as well. So I obviously appreciate anything the administration can share. And if other things come up between now and next week, I'd be grateful if those could be shared as well, other thoughts about what the administration might think of if we weren't able to do this. Thank you. Thanks.

And then I asked Ryan to come and just follow up with some of the questions from last week. And so he's got a few slides here to go through with you.

Great. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor, Council members, Ryan Sass with Public Works and Utilities. And again, I have Sean Bridge, our Finance and Support Services Superintendent with me. Tonight, I've got just a few slides and a little bit of supplemental information to respond to questions from last week. On utility bill assistance, we've grouped this into three different groups, things that we can do more or less immediately in advance of September 1st when the proposed rates would take effect, things that we're working on in progress, and things we could do before the next rate ordinance. So by September 1 we can increase the annual maximum benefit for our low income assistance program from $700 to 875 that increases more than represents that more than the annual increase in our base residential rate under the amended ordinance. We're also evaluating income qualification metrics other than the federal poverty level of 200% of the federal poverty level of income that we currently use. These may include area median income, state median income, Utility burden threshold and categorical eligibility. And then we also had previously scheduled a meeting with a nonprofit to explore what's known as an ALICE program. And ALICE in this case stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained and Employed. And this may be an opportunity to increase the threshold of eligibility for future assistance. And with our next rate ordinance, which I hate to tell you is only two years away, a little over that. So we recently reviewed and approved a request for proposals for our next utility billing software system. And our RFP requires that that system be able to implement a good neighbor type program, allowing customers to round up their payments to help those in need. We also intend to develop a program specifically for low income renters, which has been an area difficult for us to address. Another question that came up was about construction cost inflation. Excuse me. The Mortenson Construction Cost Index tracks costs for non-residential construction. That's a good metric for us and the type of construction that we do. It's useful in understanding, this is useful in understanding our current rate structure. When we developed our current 25 to 28 rates, we were looking at over 39% inflation during the previous four year rate period during 21 through 24. Now we have full data for 2025 and you can see that inflation is again increasing in its rate and we expect to see more acceleration of that trend in 2026. You saw these last week, and we'll just go through these quickly, but the point is that that inflation coupled with these large non-discretionary infrastructure projects are really what drive our rates. Always got to get the meal team in there. Okay, one other thing that I wanted to address about our current rate structure is that Due to the tremendous capital burden of these mandatory projects during a time of inflation, we deferred half of our planned capital improvement program across water, sewer and storm drainage during our current four-year rate period to beyond this rate period, which would be 2029 and beyond. We did that because it helps maintain affordability during this time where we have the heavy lift of these mandatory capital projects, but those needs do come due in future rate periods. And that gets us really back to where we are today. The top line represents the current rate ordinance along with the previous two years. There was a request to see a little more past data. What you'll see here is that we began to raise capital in 2023 and 2024, and that was purposeful at a midterm adjustment so that we could have some cash in place to start building the projects that are now under construction. And so we raise capital in advance of those major projects that are currently being built. Now, returning to the issue that's before you is the proposed ordinance to amend rates will add $11.74 or about $12 a month to collect the additional revenue needed to fund the proposed water sewer utility tax and filtration addition to retire debt. That's what it takes for us to collect the revenue to essentially pay for the water sewer utility tax and add a dollar to our filtration rate.

Thank you.

I'm a little confused. I thought this number here was with the utility tax that we were going to put out there that would go towards the general operating budget. But you just said it goes towards paying for the projects.

No, the. Yeah, the green, which is the action, you know, before council is the addition to pay for the water sewer utility tax and adding a dollar to filtration.

Okay.

Misunderstood.

So for clarification, you're specifically speaking on the rate increase, not the additional tax rate. Any other questions, counsel? Counselor Wrenn?

Thank you. Thanks for taking a look into the AMI and federal poverty level. I was thinking more about it this last week and how great it would be for a constituent or a resident to come to the city and say, I need help, and then if there was a standardized measurement across all city services, then we could say you'll qualify for this, this, this, and this. So I think continuity would be fantastic. So I just wanted to share that sentiment. Also this last week, I got an email from a resident at one of the manufactured home facilities where we recently passed the ordinance for an overlay zone to help with protecting housing affordability. And they'd shared that there had been changes recently to how their water bills had been metered. And so they were paying a lot more in water. So it felt almost like we were unraveling our own goals of protecting housing affordability. But the way that they're... community was being metered for water, their rates were their monthly rate was going up quite a bit. So if I was hoping to get a comment on that, and then also, you know, as we're looking at affordable water utilities for residents, if there's a way that we can also relook at how we how we build the mobile home communities and maybe not hold them to the same standard as like a regular single family home since they're obviously as much smaller footprint.

Yes, staff are familiar with that request and are currently working on it. And we also think that this particular constituent may be eligible for one of our rate assistance programs as well.

Great. I think just your question might be helpful. Anyone who qualifies for the property tax exemption for senior or disabled folks over at the county. Basically meets our exemption programs. And so when they call in to the utility billing folks, they will say, you already have that form. You already did that. That is great. We'll be able to offer this to you as well. Just to speak to your like the consistency. So we have that going on to make things easier. Appreciate your other point and we'll be happy. The global we will be looking at that.

Yeah, since we did such a great outreach effort for the mobile home overlay, it seems like we already have email addresses and contact information. So the majority of those folks would qualify. It might be good to use that email list to let them know that it's available for them. So thanks for looking into it.

Catherine, right to you.

And I think you guys talked about how we're switching over the billing from one month to two months. And so we're seeing 40 days of billing. So our bills are higher now and they will go back down. I can't remember when you said that.

They'll go back down in late June, mid-July. So yeah, so there'll be a little adjustment then. Then it'll go back to what it would have been without that consolidated bill cycle. Yeah.

And then my other question, I had a question from a constituent about the dollar for the filtration to pay off a bond. When do we project that will happen? And, you know, will that we not pay the dollar after that point? How does that work? Or will we have less on our bill? I doubt it, but...

What it really does for us is by paying off that debt early when the call protection comes off the bonds is that it lowers our overall cost and will force dollar prevent future rate increases.

So do you know when that might happen if this passes?

Yeah, we have three different bonds that we're able to pay down.

If we look at the next three years, which is why that dollar is so important, we've got 14% of 1320s. about 37% of our principal that's outstanding infiltration. They'll be retired in the next three years by leveraging that dollar. And what that's going to mean is we go into our cost of service analysis in early 2028, setting 29 rates and beyond. i don't want to say 100 certain but high 90s um that we won't need a rate increase in filtration um because those projects that ryan talked about um you know the regulatory required projects at pgs f and at 36th street and those are causing a ton of upward pressure on our sewer rates and our storm water rates um but most of them you know our you know rate payers are concerned about the total bill right and what we're trying to do is eliminate that rate increase in filtration and minimize the one in water as much as we can because we don't have a lot that we can do about the regulatory required rate increases in sewer and storm water. Gotcha.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Yeah, I'll make just a couple of comments for those who might be watching. This is a utility bill hurricane that has happened. Just to recall, this council was concerned and wanted to improve the billing process for our users here in Everett. And it admitted that it didn't go that smoothly, changing the cycle. And at the same time, we're adding a $12 a month increase in the actual rate, very respectively and responsibly. And then the third thing is that we are adding additional tax to the utility rate, which I remind everyone here and maybe watching is considerably less than majority of the cities on the I-5 corridor. So in prudence, you know, the intent and the end result will be positive. But this process has been confusing and pretty difficult. And on behalf of the city, yes, we could have handled it a little better. Things could have gone better. But I think here in a few months when things get ironed out and we can get to that plateau, it will be intended and improved. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you guys for all your effort. I know it's been a rough, a rough challenge. Okay, so that was our second reading. So now we'll go to item number nine, which is Council Bill 2605-28, first reading, adopt a ordinance creating a new chapter of the Everett Municipal Code relating to massage and reflexology services and prescribing penalties. And we'll do a briefing and then we'll have public comment. Thank you. Welcome.

Good evening Council, thank you for having me back. A reminder for those listening at home, those who might be here in the audience, I'm Lacey Offit, I'm the police legal advisor, one of the assistant city attorneys. And I'm going to walk through the proposed ordinance on for first reading tonight that was just introduced. Walk through the ordinance and then kind of give you the landscape of what the police plan is moving forward. Happy to answer any questions. And Chief Goetz is here to answer questions that may come up from the investigative side. So just by way of introduction, the goal of this ordinance before you is to provide a framework for ensuring minimum standards for massage and reflexology businesses are met and maintained when those businesses operate within the city of Everett. Identifying the problem. There are numerous illicit massage businesses here in the city of Everett. It's been one of those problems that is growing regionally, and it's growing at a pretty steady pace. So what once may be something that our residents don't notice on a regular basis, that time is coming to an end. We're seeing increased complaints from businesses that neighbor these other businesses, from people who want to live and work in the areas where these businesses are popping up. They're interrupting the healthy economic activity that the city wants to attract and retain. And regionally, as I said, we're seeing this problem become a greater problem. And so what you have before you, I think, is a very comprehensive. 1st step 1st, several steps in addressing some of those concerns. It is not the only step and certainly there are other things that we're taking into consideration for addressing that issue. But this ordinance is intended to adopt, incorporate and adapt state law, existing state law into our local code to provide us some tools to address some of those issues. It provides avenues for enforcement and the intent is to better serve the health and safety of our practitioners, their clients, their neighbors and their employees. So I just want to walk through some of the provisions of the ordinance. I know it's not small. So I'll just walk through each section starting with, of course, as all laws start with, a definition section incorporating the definitions in the existing state. scheme that governs massage and reflexology businesses. That's RCW Chapter 18-108. So you'll see a reference to that throughout this ordinance because we're adopting a lot of the good ideas that the state already put into practice in the RCW. So, um, the proposed ordinance, um, section, uh, eight, seven, two, zero, two, zero. And I'll reference each section by the last three digits. Zero to zero. Um, uh, makes that any massage business operating in Everett is required to obtain a city business license. This goes without saying, but we wanted to say, um, that part upfront and also provide for the, um, The consequence for that failure to obtain a city business license and engage in city business. It's already a gross misdemeanor in our existing code. And so wanted to incorporate that upfront in this code as well. Moving on to section 030. This incorporates state law, which requires that anyone representing themselves as a massage therapist have an applicable current license from the Department of Health. As I said, this is existing state law. Incorporating it into our own code allows us to enforce when that is not the case, when we find that that's not the case. Section 040 largely incorporates RCW 18108035, which makes it a misdemeanor crime to allow or permit unlicensed practice of massage within a person's business, with subsequent violations being a gross misdemeanor. I say largely incorporates the RCW because that provision and the penalties associated with it are RCWs. But of course, we have to tailor it to who our city officials are and who's going to be doing the enforcement. So if you look at that RCW, the language is almost identical. Um, it also explicitly makes a violation of that section grounds for revocation of a city business license. And so this is 1 example of what I mean when I say we make the, uh, the consequences local. Um, and so I want to explicitly state that a violation of this provision is a grounds for revocation of that city business license. Um. Moving on to 050, this incorporates advertising standards that, again, already exist in state law. It provides that advertising massage services without having a license is a violation and requires the provider's name and license number to appear, quote, conspicuously on advertisements. The section explicitly makes a violation of the section grounds for revocation of the city business license. You're seeing a theme, I hope. And also provides for a civil infraction for a penalty and a process for how to process that infraction. Section 060 requires a practitioner to display their credentials at their principal place of business, and that credential must also match their government-issued ID, again, incorporating some provisions in state law, and again, explicitly making a violation of grounds for revocation of the city business license and providing for a civil infraction penalty and process. Section 070 restricts the hours of a massage business when they may operate in the city of Everett, making it unlawful to operate between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This does not apply to home solo practitioners. It doesn't apply if the employee is made to do so by an operator, but it does explicitly make a violation of the section grounds for revocation and provides for the civil revocation or civil penalty process that we've already discussed. Section 080 is... sort of an incorporation of RCW, but also tailored and adapted based on some research that we did. This allows for inspection by city officials in order to ensure that the provisions that we've already just talked about are being complied with the display of the licenses, making sure that anybody who's offering massages and putting themselves out as a massage therapist, in fact, has a state issued massage therapy license. It's very difficult to enforce anything like that if we can't get into the business and actually ensure that those things are happening. State law already provides for inspection process by the State Department of Health for those same provisions. And so this is incorporating an inspection process here in the city of Everett by city officials. One thing I want to know on this one is that if you look at the parallel inspection process in the RCW, the one that you see in front of you for our ordinance is, in fact, more robust and, in my opinion, more protective of people's rights to privacy when they're in these businesses or operating these businesses. So it provides that city officials can only do these inspections during business hours. There's a time restriction on the inspection, so it's only as long as is reasonable to verify or verify. to investigate any obvious violations. It does not authorize non-consensual searches into private spaces. It explicitly states what sort of documentation city officials are permitted to obtain in order to prove the violation. And it explicitly does not apply to home practitioners and solo practicers. We don't want any city officials barging into anybody's home when they are offering a massage, either. Just full stop. We don't want to do that. So moving on to Section 090, this more, it provides for more prohibited acts than what we've just talked about. So prohibited acts being like offering massages without actually having a license. But what this does is it states explicitly that it is a separate crime to commit, permit, aid, abet, etc., criminal activity on the premises of one of the massage businesses or reflexology businesses. It creates a misdemeanor to engage in sexual misconduct as defined in WAC 246-16-100. What this does is this incorporates rules that already govern the practice of massage therapy. So that definition of sexual misconduct is already something that massage practitioners are expected to adhere to. And so what this does is it creates a misdemeanor for violating that provision of their license requirements. Um, so as I said, uh, each of those provisions is a separate crime creates that misdemeanor that we just talked about, but also, um, creates a higher penalty for a person who forces another person to do any of those acts. So specifically we're wanting to target, um, any person who is, um, who is making employees offer, uh, sex acts in exchange for money, um, or something to that effect. So. We want to penalize that appropriately. That's why you see that in there. So the standards that I just outlined, they take existing state standards governing the practice of massage and reflexology, and they set them as the standard here in Everett with meaningful local consequences. The next steps are still sort of being created, but we have a really good idea of how we're going to move forward on next steps if this ordinance were to things like an education phase where we're developing some education materials for all practitioners here in Everett, letting them know what the expectations, what expectations are changing, things like making sure that your business license is posted conspicuously and those sorts of things. We've put together a multi-department team of folks, so not just police who have a plan, bless you, to Move forward with that education and then, if need be inspections and enforcement that team is going to include fire officials it's going to include our care team in the event that when. City officials are doing these sorts of inspections. They find evidence of sex or labor trafficking and our care team is already doing some exploration of partners that they can hand off individuals to and get them the services that they need. If that's something that we do find when we're doing these sorts of inspections. And of course I mentioned earlier that the ordinance itself isn't all the tool. There are things that don't require an ordinance like outreach to outreach to all of the practitioners about what the state expectations already are and some education pieces to that too. So I'm happy to answer questions. And otherwise I will be back next week and the week after that for your final vote.

Okay. Questions, comments. Okay. Thank you very much. All right, and so we have public comment on this item. Thank you. State your name and residence, and you have three minutes.

Hi, I'm Sonia Baj. I live in the Delta neighborhood in Everett, talking about the massage parlor issue. A few years ago, I noticed an increase in massage businesses opening around my neighborhood. Frankly, they looked sketchy and possibly associated with prostitution. First one opened, then another, then another, all with the ubiquitous temporary vinyl sign saying massage, covered up windows and locked front door. I looked up the names of a few on the city, state, and business license sites and failed to find any listed under those names that was on the business. This led me to believe that the suspicions about their activity are probably correct. I've walked into about three of these businesses in North Broadway in the past couple years, and none displayed any city or state license. I even confronted the lady and said, there's no license here or there. So I've seen it with my own eyes. They each had a very small foyer leading to a back area that did not attract me to become a customer. At past Delta neighborhood meetings, if the topic ever came up, I would talk about my concerns and experience. I remember at one of our meetings, an officer said that EPD may be attending a law enforcement meeting in Gig Harbor that would focus on human trafficking. So I know I voiced my concerns then. At the end of summer last year, I began walking to work in the mornings along Broadway. I've seen a lot on those blocks between 17th and 20th. I reported litter, human feces, encampments, parking violations, and other zoning code violations. I can tell you that although I can't prove anything for sure, if I were in front of one of the massage parlors and there was a few in particular, I'd be taking a photo for the at work app to report something. And on occasion in the mornings between 7.30 and 8.30 usually, um some guy would pull up park idle there and i'd stand there you know because i don't have in the mornings i can get to work whenever i want um and i just stand and wait and wait and watch him and watch him and inevitably he'd just go not worth it i'm not getting out of my car i'm not going in there push that little button to go in and off they drive that's my impression after That actually happened last week at 19th and Broadway. So I urge you, and I can give you guys this website, to check out the website called rubmaps.com. Of the 73 businesses listed on Broadway between 41st and 16th Avenue alone on this website called Rub Maps, there are about 10 active massage parlors listed on Rub Maps. I was just talking to somebody, the one over by Midnight Groceries listed, you name it, they're all listed. I find it interesting that part of the site has a newest forum post feature, which I have. It has some topics that have nothing to do with physical therapy or massage in the broader sense. They say things like, extremely flat-chested providers, things I do at the massage parlor that I would never admit to, hands-only pretty girls, and that doesn't include the South End, you know, what's listed. And this is on the website that these businesses are listed on. Anyway, I'm in favor of this ordinance, and I urge you to look at this. I'm a little concerned about the part in the ordinance, though, that was mentioned about not taking time to look into the private places. What if there's no residential living allowed in the space? If the usage isn't residential and they need to look into private areas to make sure people aren't living there, unless it's a home-based business, I could see that, but maybe just think about that a little bit.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Council President Schwab. Yeah, I do have a question for Lacey, actually.

Okay, good.

Thank you. Lacey, I was curious, maybe it's in the ordinance, and I didn't spot it. But I was curious if there's an obligation by a building owner to make sure that they're renting to a legitimate business that isn't participating in these types of activities.

Remember when I said that there were many phases to come? The idea behind sort of a landlord program and letting landlords know sort of what the activity is, is an idea that we're exploring for either future code updates or frankly, some of that may not require a code update. So it is an idea that is very, I think, well understood in law enforcement circles when they go to these trainings and something that we're definitely exploring.

Yeah, I think it's worth looking into if a building owner willfully and knowingly is renting to an entity like this that they are also responsible for the problem.

Yeah, I had asked the legal team to work on this just a few months ago and then asked again with some urgency to bring something to you so that we could at least begin to address because I'm seeing new massage places like every week. And so I wanted to address this with some urgency, knowing that we might need to come back later with additional tools to further address it, but at least have something in place to begin to tackle it. But we will absolutely look at how we can hold landlords accountable as well.

Thank you. And then we'll have one more chance next week to two more.

Two more.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Moving on. We'll go to our action item. Item number 10, Council Bill 2604-24, third and final reading. Adopt an ordinance amending Chapter 2.74 of the Everett Municipal Code, which pertains to appointed employee compensation and fringe benefits. Do I have motions?

Council Member Bader-Sumos.

Council Member Ryan seconds.

Motion and seconds were made. Is there discussion or comment or questions? Okay. Seeing none, clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Weir. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Council Member Brabano. Yes. Council Member Toohey. Yes. Council Member Bader. Yes. President Schwab.

Yes. And with no further action, we are adjourned.