City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, residents of Everett, Washington. I'd like to call the order the Everett City Council meeting of May 27, 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. We have some changes in the agenda today. We will be moving the items and I'm going to go ahead and list them by council bill numbers. So if you're taking notes, after council bill 2605 or 08, I'm sorry, 2605-28 we will go be going to council bill uh 260526 and then to council bill 260527 and then at the end we'll be we'll be doing 260525 for the record clerk will you please take the role

Mayor Franklin. Here. Council Member Weir. Here. Council Member Zerlingo.

Excuse.

Vice President Ryan. Here. Council Member Burbano.

Here.

Council Member Tuohy. Here. Council Member Bader.

He's excused.

President Schwab.

I'm here. At this time, I'd like to ask Council Member Weir to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Stan, if you're able. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,

and indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

At this time, I'd like to ask Vice President Ryan to lead the land acknowledgement.

City Council wishes to acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Stahops 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 waters. We will strive to be honest about our past mistakes to bring about a future that includes their voices, their stories, and their people for a more just and equitable society.

Thank you very much. Well, good afternoon, Mayor.

Good afternoon, President Schwab. It's a beautiful day. Hope everyone gets a chance to go out and enjoy it. Tomorrow is a big Sound Transit meeting, so I anticipate taking a vote that will help keep the Everett Link extension on track. The board's making a lot of tough choices, and there's a lot of advocacy to do things differently, but I'll begin raising my voice to ensure that we complete the spine from Everett to Tacoma. Right now, the package proposes doing that without cutting any stations. But if you are able, it would be great to have folks speak at the board meeting. You can log in via Zoom or go in person. I'll be there in person. You can also send comments to meetingcomments at soundtransit.org, or you can sign up to speak at the meeting on the Sound Transit website. The meeting is Thursday, 1.30 at Union Station. and uh look forward to taking that vote tomorrow to keep light rail on track to Everett no further comments um question on the if someone wanted to speak I might understand you have one minute yeah you know it depends on the will of the chair um it could be two minutes but you could you know at least prepare for just one minute but you might get two minutes

And do we sign up online in advance? When does that, when can we do that?

You can sign up online in advance, but you can also sign up right at the meeting or you can come to Union Station too.

But yes. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay. On to old business. Do I hear a motion for approval of the minutes for May 20th, 2026?

Motion to approve the minutes.

Second. Okay. Motion and seconds are made. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Weir. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Council Member Barbano.

Yes.

Council Member Tui. Yes. President Schwab.

Yes. Okay. 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. Person submitting their comment must provide the name of the residence, their name and the data or the location of the residence. Good afternoon, Angie. Could you give us the scenario of our comments today?

Yes, well, we did receive a couple of written comments so read the individuals names that wrote in about utility tax, and that was Kurt breeze and Eric fremont and those are provided to Council administration city clerk to be part of the record. And then we have two individuals online and two in chambers so we'll start with those online and if Jeff could. unmute. and turn your camera on if possible and when you see the timer on the screen you can start you'll have three minutes and if you could state your full name and city of residence in just one moment here i don't hear a sound angie oh because he's muted how about now there we go

It's only 6 years of dealing with zoom calls. Why would I know how to use it?

I'm going to turn you up a little bit.

Okay, that sounds good.

That sounds good. I'm going to restart you here. Okay, go ahead.

Good afternoon. My name is Jeff Clark and I live at 4, 8, 0, 9 lane in. So, why am I testifying at an Everett city council meeting? Well, I have learned that the Everett City Council is considering imposition of a utility tax and that such a tax would apply on all water sales by Everett's water system and sewer services provided by your treatment plant. Those systems serve many people outside your boundaries. More than half of Everett's water is sold to and used by homes and businesses outside Everett. And therefore this tax will be paid by people such as myself who live outside your city. In reading the language of your proposed ordinance, I learned that the purpose of this tax is to close a budget gap in paying for city services unrelated to water and sewer treatment. Water and sewer rates are designed to pay our fair share of the operating costs of those utilities. I do not expect Everett citizens to pay the cost of providing us with such services. Yet the council is proposing that homes and businesses located outside the city of Everett pay a portion of the cost of operating city services, which do not in any way benefit us. The city of Mukilteo has its own budget issues, as do Linwood, Mill Creek, Edmonds, and other cities. I recognize that cities and counties are in a bind, that service costs are rising quickly, and revenues appear unequal to the task. But I'm not aware of any of those other cities coming hat in hand, asking Everett to pay part of their own shortfalls. Some 250 years ago, the English Parliament passed the Townshend Acts and later the Tea Act, which imposed taxes on the import of goods to the original 13 colonies. This led in time to a group of concerned taxpayers dressed as Native Americans boarding a merchant ship in Boston Harbor and dumping chests of tea into the waters, the famous Boston Tea Party. Their rallying cry was, no taxation without representation. which has been a basic premise of our nation ever since. Yet that is what we have before us today. Everett voters may well approve of what you are proposing because it would lighten their own tax burden, but those same individuals would strenuously object to being required to help pay for Mukilteo's shortfall. Rubbing salt in the wound, Section 5 of the ordinance says it is subject to the referendum procedure. However, the only people who can sign such petitions or vote in such an election are the Everett citizens who benefit, not the outsiders who are being asked to pay. I am no lawyer, but I do not believe this is a legal exercise of your taxing authority, and I am positive that it runs counter to the founding principles of our great nation. For those reasons, I ask you to reject this ordinance and return staff to the task of having Everett solve Everett's problems with Everett's resources. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, if. Joe could please unmute and turn camera on. And once you see the timer you can start and state your full name and city of residence.

Hi, good afternoon council members. My name is Joe Bennett. I live and work in the city of Seattle. The reason I'm here today is as general counsel for Alderwood Water and Wastewater District. Alderwood is Everett's single largest wholesale customer. In addition to our rate payers, we sell Everett water to the cities of Edmonds, Lynwood and Mount Lake Terrace, as well as the Silver Lake and Mukilteo water districts. All told, we provide water to approximately 300,000 people, all of whom live outside the city of Everett. And that's the reason I'm speaking today. On behalf of my client and its rate payers, we oppose that portion of Council Bill 2605-27 that would impose a 12% utility tax on Alderwood's wholesale water purchase from Everett. 100% of that water is used by people who live outside the Everett city limits and are not eligible to vote for Everett's mayor or the members of the city council, nor are they eligible to pursue a referendum. The recitals to this bill make clear that the funds raised from this wholesale water tax will not be used to maintain or improve the regional water system. Rather, the revenue raised will go to the city's general fund to pay for core city services. The Alderwood ratepayers will not receive $1 of benefit from this tax. I agree with the previous speaker, Mr. Clark. This is a pure case of taxation without representation. And it's ironic that Everett would turn to this source of income on the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from the British King and Parliament, which also relied on taxation without representation. The proposed utility tax on wholesale water is a bad idea, not just because it's unfair, but because it is unlawful. The state Supreme Court has twice recognized the distinction between retail customers living within a city and wholesale customers residing outside of the city for purposes of a city-imposed tax. If adopted, Alderwood will consider all of its legal remedies to oppose this unlawful tax. In addition, Alderwood will have no choice but to pass this tax on to its own ratepayers, as well as its municipal wholesale customers. It's not difficult to imagine an experienced plaintiff's attorney pursuing a class action lawsuit on behalf of the tens of thousands of ratepayers who would be burdened by this tax. I trust that the council has been advised by the city attorney's office, but with respect, the council would be prudent to take a timeout. Take no action on this ordinance today instead take the time to obtain a second legal opinion on the legality of this wholesale water tax from an outside attorney. The cost of that second opinion would be a small fraction of the legal fees that the city will incur if it adopts this ordinance today, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

I appreciate the sound bite, Angie.

You're welcome. So we'll move to those in chambers. If Pauline can please come to the podium. And please press the button on the base of the mic and state your full name and city of residence and you have three minutes to speak.

Hello, my name is Pauline Anderson. I have an Everett address. I'm here to talk about the future of Everett paratransit and the potential consolidation with community transit. I'm here for myself, but also for my paratransit friends. We heard that there is a change. If there is a change to the bus fares will go up. Also, Everett paratransit covers all of Everett. If DART does replace paratransit, that will mean they will also take an extra Everett riders, which could mean crowded bus conditions, especially for people in wheelchairs. Also, I think that paratransit bus with the ramp for wheelchairs at the side is a good design. I have been riding with paratransit for two years, and they always manage to keep within the half hour window and the call center seems well run with kind people. The drivers are the same way, and we know some of them by their first names. I just want to say I hate to lose something that works so well. I ride mostly paratransit, but I did have a ride with Dart. And halfway through the ride, we ended up sitting in a park and ride station. I was told we were waiting for another dart bus that will be dropping off a rider. We waited a long time. Paratransit never books rides that way. As I say, I hate to lose something that works so well. Thank you for giving us a chance to express our concerns. Thank you.

Thank you. And Elaine, if you could please come to the podium. And please state your full name and city of residence and you have three minutes to speak.

so my name is elaine kesey i live in the city of everett on 124th street southwest but i've been a resident of the city of everett since boeing moved my husband up here in 1969. so i'm here also to address the situation with the everett paratransit and this snohomish county dart I've written it because I'm not very good at speaking. Okay. Boy, and I'm not seeing very well either. I'm here to ask you not to put the effort paratransit operations under the same as the CT DART program. Your current system is efficiently run. The DART system is not. It is broken. I've only been writing for six months, these systems, and the DART system several times has made me late for my appointment and a few times has left me stranded without a ride. Please, please, please leave things the way they are. Thank you.

Thank you. And that concludes our public comments.

Okay. Thank you very much. Let's move to our council comments beginning with councilman Weir.

hello sorry a little frog in my throat there um thank you to everyone that has uh spoke up and shared their um views with us today we appreciate you being active and in the process here um so last night I attended the historic commission meeting we had a great presentation from our parks department regarding the proposed uh re vampy or rebuild of the old Clark Park gazebo and what that would entail as far as having it be, you know, it would likely be more of a clear replica than because so much of that wood was not reusable. So I know there was some disappointment there from people, but they've really done some great planning on how to make that structure be true to the original design. And there was talk about locations and what that would look like as far as best use for that neighborhood and that park and really making it a nice amenity for Harborview, which doesn't um have any structures to per se that would um so it's a nice little place for weddings or gatherings or you know families to gather and have a picnic or whatnot so that was fun to hear about and see their renderings for that um other than that there's some fun things coming up this weekend in everett so Don't forget that the city is hosting the Everett Clean Day from 10 to 1, and so it's a great opportunity to clean out your garage or your patio or your spare room. There's going to be a host at Cascade High School, Lowell Elementary, North Middle School, and Sequoia High School. Also free helmet day and bike safety event is happening at the Seattle Children's Hospital parking lot off 13th Street from 10 to one. So you can go down there and get bike helmet fittings and free bike helmets for the kids. And the Shack Art Center is having their artist garage sale. So those are all this weekend. So lots of fun stuff you can pop from. Then please join us. The community is invited with Mayor Franklin and I for the District 1 Town Hall meeting next Tuesday at the Everett Performing Arts Center from 630 to 8 p.m. And we look forward to seeing everybody there to hear more about what's going on, have an opportunity to ask questions and talk with us. And that's all for me.

Thank you. Council Member Ryan.

Thank you. I just wanted to follow up on the Sound Transit opportunity or the opportunity to provide comment at Sound Transit. If you folks do want to sign up to give comment virtually, the sign up form opens tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. And so when I had gone down a couple of weeks ago, they did limit public comment for in person and online for a total of I think it's 45 minutes. So they only took the first people that signed up online. So if you do want to sign up to give public comment, at 8 a.m tomorrow morning have a timer set to to make sure you get on the list and get your name uh included um this last week's been pretty exciting i had last friday i had the opportunity to join for the republic of the marshall islands constitution day celebration at everett community college and it was a fantastic celebration um of their independence and um and their sovereignty so glad to join and have uh uh the Marshallese community as part of Everett and also wanted to give a shout out to uh former council member and state representative Mary Fossey for her hard work to cultivate the relationship with this community over the weekend I enjoyed cruising Colby I feel like the clouds parted just the right amount of time for folks to come out and enjoy all of the hot rods downtown so thanks to everybody for their hard work to put that on Jessica Gronsbell- Yesterday I went to the Lowell Park grand opening, and I wanted to give another shout out to our incredible parks team for the intentional outreach that they did with the Lowell community. They came to several community meetings and neighborhood association meetings to run to run the drafts of the proposals for the playground by the community. even down to what color scheme they would like to see, and it's just a really fantastic park, and it goes to show how community input can really inform the good things that the city do. So thanks again to the staff for their outreach effort. This morning I joined for the Everett Public Facilities District monthly meeting, and I I believe I heard that they were considering changes to the management and administration of the ever figure skating club, which I have concerns about, and i'll be tracking closely. I did have a really hard time hearing the meeting, even though I was joining virtually, and is over teams. So that was really frustrating. So there's been kind of an ongoing barrier for public participation, because the audio has been difficult to here just join in. So for a facility that has a jumbotron, it's been a little bit frustrating that we can't figure out the audio for the meeting and it's causing problems for people being able to participate. So I'd love if they could get that figured out by next month. But what I did hear definitely was that a reminder that we're coming up on busy graduation season as well. The Angel of the Winds is going to be hosting 19 graduations over the span of 13 days, which is pretty um phenomenal and also uh just a reminder to everybody in Everett you know between FIFA the graduations Pride sort of culture all of the things uh please plan ahead for your trips downtown uh consider taking public transit uh taking a bike walking and scooting all of the fun things so uh downtown will be pretty busy over these coming weeks that's all thanks thank you Councilmember brabano uh no comments this week thank you okay Councilmember

No comments tonight.

Councilmember Bader. Thanks.

Just one quick comment, segueing from Councilmember Weir's comment about clean every day. I usually help out and volunteer with that. I would just encourage anyone who's bringing stuff to check the website to make sure they're bringing things that they can't actually throw away. It's always disappointing to have to tell people that they have an item that we can't take, but most of they can, but it's always good to check in advance.

Thank you. That's me. Thank you. Yeah. A couple of things. Congratulations to the sever tips for the Memorial Cup. What amazing. Also, I want to congratulate publicly council, Mary, Julie, for her long standing commitment to the to the arts in the city of Everett and. She has a well-deserved retirement coming up. So thank you very much. That's Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Schock Center. For those of you interested, come out and celebrate. They're one of the coolest members of our community. Also, I attended two neighborhood groups, the Harborview Seahurst and View Ridge Madison. And the majority of the discussion was about, of course, traffic and speeds and traffic safety and a long discussion in support of the fire EMS levy. Okay, on to our administration report.

I have no report today.

Okay, how about our city attorney?

Um, I have no comment, but I am asking for an executive session and I'm asking that we take this out of order before we get to the consent items. This would be based on forty two thirty one ten sub one sub I discuss city action that could potentially result in litigation. I'm asking for fifteen minutes.

Okay granted. So we'll take now. We'll do executive session for fifteen minutes. Okay. All right. We have concluded our executive session. Thank you very much for your patience. So we'll go into consent items. Do we have a motion and a second for items one through five?

Council Member Ryan moves consent agenda items one through five.

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

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

Yes. All right. Moving on to our proposed action item. And that is Council Bill 2605. dash 29 first reading adopt ordinance creating a special construction project entitled rotary park floating dock repairs fund 354 program 112 to accumulate all costs for the project third and final reading is june 10th 2026. are there any questions or comments from council Okay, moving on to item number seven. It's Council Bill 2605-28. It's been read into the record. This is the second reading. Are there any questions or comments from Council? Council Member Ryan.

Great. Just a comment unless you had any updates as well. I know that there's been some work to include potentially include building owners, property managers in with this ordinance, and i'm hopeful that my fingers crossed that it could be ready for the third reading next week. I understand if the timeline won't work out, but I just wanted to share on the record that from my perspective. I would love to see the full spectrum of everybody who is financially benefiting from sex trafficking on the hook through with this ordinance instead of letting folks off the hook and punting it down the road for including them in this ordinance so I was hopeful that I will be able to bring that back next week but I understand if it needs to come back at a later date thanks

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, the third and final reading will be June 3rd. All right, so we'll move on and we'll open a public hearing and an action item on Council Bill 2605-26, third and final reading, Adopted Ordinance Amending Everett's Established Utility Rates for 2025 through 2028 operating years. And this is separate than the, we'll address this separately than the utility tax, which will be in our next item. So the public hearing is open. And Angie, do we have any other comments?

Yes, we do. We have Jim Langus, if you could please come to the podium. Thank you. And please state your full name and city of residence. You have three minutes to speak.

Jim Langus, Everett. I'm here to speak on the utility matter before you. First of all, what's the rush? You know, Mike Bailey said in a monthly financial report that revenues are a bit above budget and expenditures are tracking below. And the fiscal year wasn't closed yet and would remain open until the audit was completed. And that may not be until June or July. and it seems like it's awfully late, but there's a lot of information that you don't have. And so I asked myself the question, what's the rush? But importantly, what brought me here was the heading on one of the presentations that I followed that said urgent aging infrastructure projects. That's a way that's been in some ways sold to the city council is that we have all of these projects that we need to pay for. and this has nothing to do with those projects doesn't have anything to do with the poor gardener storage facility 36th street container uh combined sewer or the reservoir three replacement what is the real reason what is the intention is it the deficit or is it something else but we seem to uh to try and market this on the matter of of uh urgent uh infrastructure projects Spent a lot of time talking about those, and it has nothing to do with why we need this particular tax increase at this time. I go back to a city council retreat on June 26, 2020, six years later now, when we were facing a lot of problems, financial issues. And some of you will remember that. And we talked about a structural deficit at that time. A structural deficit is when you are really spending more than you have. And it's been six years. And we really haven't taken steps to address all of this issue. I know there's things you've done. But, you know, I think when we really get down to it, it's really more of a – It's not really an income problem. I think it's a spending problem. And so with that, I close by saying this. You know, there's not a lot of fulfillment for me personally coming to these city council meetings. I don't enjoy it. But I'm worried about what's happening in our community. And I worry about people. You know, we've got five things that we're looking at. We've got the EMS levy. we've got the utility tax we've got the tax that may very well come along with our uh with our merger with uh that you're going to be considering at some point we've got a regional fire Authority issue that's hanging out there somewhere and that's going to come back before the city council you can you know that's going to come to you and then we've got this matter of the multi-facility project and you know uh There's some of us that can afford to pay these different taxes or increases in cost that you make choices on. They just come our way. It's part of being in a government that needs support from folks like all of us to be able to support the services that we need, the essential services. But you know, there's folks that need essential services and food and hygiene, and they aren't able to afford this. And it's not a wealthy city. Okay, thanks, Don. We need to be watching out for those folks that can't afford more. And thank you for the opportunity to be before you today. I hadn't intended to speak. This came up in about 11.30 for me, and I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And since I ran out of forms, is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item? Okay, so that concludes our public comments on that.

Okay, do I have any other any questions or comments from Council, and this is on the rate increase. Councilman aware.

So I think because we have two different things coming to us at the same time that are both related to the utilities, there might be some confusion on how those are separated and what that is for. And I don't know if Ryan can speak to that a little bit, just for clarification, because even I appreciate Jim coming up and speaking, but it sounds like there's

um I believe there might be other people that are still having confusion and for clarification yeah right now we have a public hearing on the rate increase right later just for those watching um after this presentation then we'll have another action item on a utility tax which also does affect the the total cost but they are two separate items thank you

Good afternoon, Ryan Sass with Public Works and Utilities. I just wanted to provide a little clarification in terms of how this works and how it affects the utility. So the utility tax is a tax on the utility. It's a cost of doing business for the utility. And then that tax is then part of our cost basis that affects our rates going forward. And so that's how the two things relate. In terms of the amount is to keep in mind, it's important that we're starting at a point where we currently pay a 6% payment in lieu of tax, which is very much like utility tax. And the action you're going to do today will essentially change that to a 12% utility tax. And so it's a net change. It's not an entire increase of 12%. It's an increase of 6% in terms of utility tax.

Okay, so just a little more clarification. We have the rate increase is what we're talking about now. And as you had presented before, this is more about the cost of, could you kind of explain what the separation of the dollars would be? Even though if I'm someone on this getting a bill, I may not know all those details about difference between a rate and an attack. Could you go just a little more in detail here about that?

Yeah, the tax is applied to the utility. That cost is a cost of doing business for us, and that's figured into the rates. And so this rate amendment enables us to do business and to continue to pay our bills and provide service and incorporate paying for the utility tax as well. John Potter, And as we talked about earlier at previous meetings, the impact on a typical rate payer is going to be about $12 a month for someone paying the base rate of water and sewer. John Potter, In 2026 for the remainder of the year after September 1 and about $13 a month and 2027 and about $14 a month in 2028.

So just to clarify again, the rates were set by this council a couple years ago, and we're still in that rate ordinance, which covers those things that Mr. Langus mentioned, those big projects. That's why our residents saw an increase in rates recently. last year and again this year to cover those big infrastructure projects that we have to provide to protect and ensure clean amazing drinking water that we all enjoy here in the city of Everett and then as council considers this utility tax that rate increase that you approved before has to be adjusted to keep the utility whole we're taxing the utility And like any business, they pass those costs on to customers. And in the utility, that means that their rates get adjusted just up from where we previously had set the rates to cover those big infrastructure projects to also include this additional 6% increase of tax.

Council Member Weill?

Yeah, and so this utility rate increase, part of that, if I recall correctly from the previous presentations you've done, it's because we have some regulatory issues coming at us that we need to do with our treatment centers and groundwater and things like this, right? Filtration, surface water management. So that's...

I understood that is why this was kind of a critical thing to do now as far as this rate increase to make sure that we have the funds necessary to moving forward to cover these and not be hit with fines on environmental you know because or we're we're essentially at the midpoint of our current four-year rate ordinance and it's not uncommon for us to adjust rates at that midpoint and so in addition to the utility tax we're adding one dollar to the base of filtration rate so that we can retire some debt early, which is a good business for utility.

Yeah, thank you. Council Mayor Toohey.

Thank you for all that, both of you. So I was looking at my bill, and I would like, and we talked about assistance for financial assistance, but I would like us to put that on our bill somewhere. uh currently is not so if we can have that information I think that would be really helpful because we're expanding that program and I would like when you get it all figured out if you could come back and tell us when it's going to start and what it's all going to look like that would be helpful great thank you

That's a great idea. Great input. Thank you. Any other questions? Council Member Weir, any other thoughts?

I agree with Council Member Toohey. That's a great idea because that's been a concern of mine and I know others have raised that we don't want you know for for some folks that may a 12 a month may not be a huge hit but for others that that really could be impactful for them so um we want to make sure that people know that there's assistance available if they need it and how to go about getting that those resources thank you councilman right thank you i i think now is a good time to ask for an update on the income threshold levels that we had discussed or is that for the other item or no

uh yeah as as we talked about last week we will be researching a bunch of different other metrics in addition to the federal uh poverty level uh looking at state ami uh area median income and some other tools like that and so that's something we'll be working on uh something like that would likely roll out in the next great period okay great

And you had mentioned that, or it was mentioned before, that if somebody has been approved for a property tax reduction from the county assessor's office, that they would automatically qualify for a reduction in the yearly bill.

People that qualify for a property tax exemption at the county also qualify for one of our assistance programs, the disabled and low-income senior program and so the city already has a record of those because there's part of that exemption affects our our rate collection we compare uh and and cross-reference people back and forth so so typically if we get a request for that program we will make them aware of the county program and vice versa thank you councilman

So when you said it would become effective with the next rate hike, or what was that?

Those kind of changes. If we change the assistance programs to a different basis from federal poverty income level to some other basis, that would likely be rolled out in our next four-year rate ordinance, which is about two years from now.

So we can't have this. Is there a reason we couldn't roll it out by the time this, if this tax goes into effect, then I'll pass it at one time?

As we presented last week, we are expanding the amount that people are eligible, like from, you presented all this last week, so I don't have the slides in front of me, but... so there was one level of additional assistance that we were able to accomplish right now in time with this and there's other things that that the team is looking into to see if there's additional ways to expand eligibility um beyond that that we would bring to you at the next rate increase and okay i'm just asking we are that

We are increasing our low-income assistance program amount from a maximum of 750 to 875 or from 700 to 875.

I just would hope that it wouldn't take us two years to see additional expansion of the program.

I looked at your notes earlier today, so I can maybe help refresh what you presented last week. So by the time these rates, if you pass them, go into effect, so the amount of assistance, the benefit that folks who have lower incomes can receive will rise from 700 to 875. And that will cover this whole increase. So it won't have any greater impact on folks that qualify for those benefits. Moving forward, so like from right now into the next several months, they're looking at different kinds of income qualification, like things that Council Vice President Ryan brought up, different metrics than the current measurement that is used pretty widely in the utility field, but they are looking at them. And they've also already been meeting and are going to kind of continue to explore a conversation with a nonprofit that could establish a new program to help with eligibility. So that we think we can, those things are not on a one year, two year timeline, but we are working on them right now. The next rate ordinance will happen and come before you at the end of 2028 because the current rate ordinance has the rates for this year, all of 27, and all of 28. So this is a little farther out. When we get to that phase, then we'll be able to evaluate the idea, one, of a good neighbor program. So if you are able to pay your bill, you can contribute a little extra to help cover others in the city who do have challenges with that to help support households in need. And we're also going to explore, although it's a little bit tricky, but we're going to take the time to look into a low income assistance program for renters who pay utility bills. So in a lot of cases, renters aren't customers of the utility. They're paying it like through their landlord. That's why it's complicated. But we heard that that was something that was important and it's a need. And so we're going to take that extra time to explore that.

but right away all of the increase that you might vote on today will be covered for folks who qualify for low income assistance customer beta oh I saw your hand there earlier but other than other than I think we need a motion on the floor so I will move we have to close the public hearing is that what no again I would question why there is a public hearing when was I mean obviously I understand this public comment but it wasn't advertised as public hearing only action items

It's a rate change, so that's why we have to have a public hearing.

Okay.

So. We'll move to close public hearing. Okay.

Council member Ryan seconds.

Okay. Motion and seconds are made to close the public hearing. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council member Weir. Yes. Vice president Ryan. Yes. Council member Burbano. Yes. Council member Tuohy. Yes. Council member Bader. Yes. President Schwab.

yes okay the hearing's been closed now we're on to um council bill 2605-26 third and final reading i'll move council bill 2605-26 president seconds yes president schwab yes i believe you need to do a motion for the ordinance still that's what we're doing right now we just did you're doing the rates first yes the rates that's the swap on the agenda that we did okay sorry we're doing the rates we're right now we're on two five zero two six zero five dash two six yes that's what we're on okay thank you so motion and second has been made so is there any more comments or questions from council members on council 2605-26 Okay, motions been made. So we will go vote for it. Clark, please take the role.

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

Yes. Okay, now we'll move to Council Bill 2605-27, third and final reading, Adopted Ordinance Opposing a Utility Tax on the City Water and Sewer Utility, amending Chapter 3.28 of the City Everett Municipal Code. Do I have a motion?

Council Member Bader's almost.

Second, OK, motion and second. Are there any comments or questions on the utility tax rate? Oh, yes, thank you. Let's move to our city attorney. Yes, please.

Thank you briefly. In response to the comments we got today and were written, I want to let the council know that the city attorney's office has been working on this ordinance for several months, and we have engaged outside council anticipating a lot of the legal challenges that you heard today. And we've taken all that into account when in drafting and preparing this.

Okay. And then for one clarification, it was mentioned, it's actually we're paying currently those utilities are paying a 6% right now.

Correct. We have the payment in lieu of tax at 6%, which is then being replaced with this.

Okay. So they have been paying this type of tax.

Correct. They've been paying this type of tax this entire time.

Any other questions? Councilman Ryan.

Ramsey, would you mind making a comment too about the taxation without representation concerns?

Yeah, sure. I think it's important to know that the utility does not pay property taxes and is not subject to a typical B&O tax. And so these are the utility taxes meant to account for that and account that the city subsidizes the utility through its police service and everything else that property tax normally pays for. And so the courts have looked at this issue and recognize that it doesn't violate the principle of taxation without representation.

Any other comments or questions? Council Member Weir, do you have any other thoughts? Sorry, I thought I saw your hand there. Okay.

it's just anticipating me that's good yeah I want to make sure no I appreciate that I appreciate that clarification because it is hard for us to hear these you know concerns are raised that were kind of came to us last minute about um legality issues and so it's reassuring to know that the due diligence has been done on City legal um to kind of look through all that and also the clarification on that we're, you know, residents are, and these outside wholesale buyers are already paying the 6%. So this is not truly a 12% hit to people. It's a more moderate increase than that. Nobody wants more taxes. I know that, but it's also kind of the, that's what pays for the services that we all enjoy. And so it's like, where do we... It's a tricky one. It really is a tricky one. And we know that a lot of people are have concerns about it. So appreciate all the information.

Thank you for that, Merrick.

Yeah, I just wanted a reminder that this is very common, that cities all across the state, all across our county have implemented utility taxes at a far greater level than what the city of Everett has done. We have not raised utility tax since 1983, and yet the cost of maintaining our beautiful, clean drinking water where we provide drinking water far outside of Everett, continues to go up. And we have to take care of this business like any other business. And like any other business, businesses do pay taxes. And that helps provide for the basic services that cities provide. So I'm quite comfortable with this recommended tax because it is very much in line with our surrounding jurisdictions. Edmonds at 20%, Marysville at 13%. Linwood at 10%. So us moving into a 12% rate puts us right with neighboring cities. So thank you.

Mayor, I have a question for you. You'd mentioned that it was Edmonds is providing water for Montlake Terrace.

Yeah, they provide sewer or some service. And so they have a 20% utility tax. And that also impacts residents outside of Edmonds on that receive services through Edmonds utility. So this is an unusual same as Seattle, same with other anyone who provides regional level service, those taxes are impacting residents and entities outside their jurisdictions as well.

Councilmember Bader. Thanks, Council President. Yeah, obviously I recognize this is a tax and we're using this to help balance the city budget, make sure we have revenue going forward. And I would say, and this could potentially lose with a $7.5 million hole if we didn't move forward. Um, and I, as I said, uh, back at our council retreat, as I said, a couple of weeks ago, um, and I think, and I think this even came up when we were put the property tax levy on the ballot. Um, the challenge to me and I would challenge our constituents is if you don't want us to do this, show me where there are seven and a half million dollars in cuts in the city budget. um today even dating back to when property tax levy was put on the ballot i've had no one take up that challenge um i would note that at least by my analysis of going through uh over a decade of city budgets um the growth in spending and in ftes has been the greatest in economic community development, IT, engineering and permit services, animal control. And I can't imagine what we would do to those departments if we paired them back to the increase in the average increase in revenue for uh for the city and had to cut the seven and a half million out of those departments that have seen uh above normal increases in um fts and expenses over the last decade plus we had to do that with parks library uh in the wake of the failure of the property tax levy and obviously that was uh not it didn't i mean it's not been a good thing obviously for our parks and our library to see that Finally, I would note that at least, and I made this point in an earlier question to Mike Bailey a few weeks, or at least not last week, I believe, or the week before, that if we look at the, at least the property tax increases, revenue increase over the last decade or more, That actually that rate has gone up less fast than the increase in Social Security benefits. So, you know, I get that people are challenged economically. But if, you know, we're being we're constrained even more than those on fixed incomes. And so it. again that I have not not had anyone come back to me uh to suggest where we got seven and a half million dollars out of the city budget without inordinately affecting departments uh that we've uh that need that we need to provide services to our constituents and our residents um and so for that reason I'm uh I'm uh going to support this uh uh utility tax increase thanks Catherine

Yeah, just a couple comments. You know, I really view this as a request every aggressive tax. And so I struggle with that because of our citizenship that we have here in Everett. The folks that live here and the lower amount of salaries that we make our median income is still one of the lowest in the county so that concerns me. Yes, we haven't raised this rate since 1983 which is I say shame on us for not being business like and reasonable. I think we should take slower steps as we go as you know inflation takes but we didn't. i also think regressive taxes like this should go to the voters but this is one that doesn't do that um so that that's i'm glad that we are increasing our financial assistance to those that that would could really really use it i just hope that they get the message and understand that we do want to help them and that's a concern for me And so this will all, this tax go to our general operations, right? It'll all go to the general operating budget?

Yeah. Okay.

Just want to make sure that it doesn't get waylaid or sidetracked to another project that doesn't directly relate to our general operations. So that's my comments.

Okay, thank you. I'd like to say that I too, and I appreciate the input that we've gotten from emails and from speakers, that everyone in our community is feeling the pinch about increased costs of everything. And of course, here we are as representing our community, raising taxes, of course, As we had spoken earlier, I think as a group here, we're looking for a balanced approach. And for one, this utility tax is not going to solve all their problems. And it is, it's just part of a long term. We still, even with this increase, we still have a lot of other challenges. As Council Member Bader had mentioned that, what do we cut? Well, we may still have to make some more cuts. um so this is like an overall just part of the big big pie here that we're dealing with so i mean i appreciate the council's reluctance i do nobody here in this group is saying let's yay let's raise taxes right we are all doing this and we're scrutinizing everything we do so it gives me the confidence that we are trying to do the right thing and every every increment cost no matter where it comes from it's still it still puts a hardship on our our community and so i just want to thank the council for being you know scrutinizing this be reluctant And I do appreciate that the thoughts about those are less the income levels and more need and the tighter budgets that we always keep them in mind. So I appreciate your thoughts on that. So I will be supporting this reluctantly. So thank you. Okay, seeing no comments or questions, clerk, please take the roll on. We are on Council Bill 2605-27, the utility tax on city water and city utility.

Council Member Weir? Yes. Vice President Ryan? Yes. Council Member Burbano? Yes. Council Member Tuohy? Yes. Council Member Bader? Yes. President Schwab?

Yes. Okay, so we'll move on to... It was originally item eight. We're looking at rejecting all bids received on May 12th, 2026 for the main library building envelope improvement project and authorize a new call for bids. Council, I guess we'll need a motion.

Thank you. Council Member Bader-Samos.

Second. Okay. So we have a motion on the May 12, 2000. It's not a council number. And our council bill numbers are all messed up. So I just want to make sure. This is for the main library building envelope improvement project. Any comments or questions from council?

Yes, I don't know if Ryan could address this, but can we talk about why we're rejecting all the bids? If someone can. It's a pretty extraordinary situation where we do this, so it doesn't happen every day.

Hi, Kimberly Moore, Parks and Facilities Director. We received some bids that were penciled in, which they're supposed to use pen. We had a significant difference in prices, and the lowest price was the one that was penciled in. And so based on advice from legal, they said it would be better for us to reject all bids and re-bid the project.

Thank you, and apologies if there was something I didn't read that I should have explained.

It's okay. It is an unusual situation.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Weir. Yes. Vice President Ryan. Yes. Council Member Burbano.

Yes.

Council Member Toohey. Yes. Council Member Bader. Yes. President Schwab.

Yes. Okay, now on to our last item, and that's Council Bill 2605-25, third and final reading, adopt an ordinance to amend and close a special improvement project entitled Clark Park Renovation and Off-Leash Dog Area. Do I have a motion? Council Member Bader, so moved. Second. Second. Motion and seconds have been made. Are there any questions or comments from council? Okay, seeing none. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Weir. Yes. Vice President Brind. Yes. Council Member Burbano. Yes. Council Member Toohey. Yes. Council Member Bader. Yes. President Schwab.

Yes. And with no further business, we are now adjourned.