City Council - Special Meeting

Good evening, Mr. Peter Sagan. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for interviewing tonight. We'll have about 30 minutes. Deputy Clerk Weaver will be asking the questions. The rest of us will be listening and taking some notes intently.

Okay, let's go. Enjoy your interview.

Thank you.

All right, you'll get the same spiel from me. Each interview this evening will be 30 minutes long and will include eight questions. Please listen carefully as many of the questions have multiple parts. I'll let you know when you have two minutes remaining so that you're aware of your time and I'll be asking the questions, but feel free to direct your answers to the panel.

Do we have limited time for each question or?

Just as long as you have 30 minutes total for all questions. Okay, great. Yep, we started. Briefly tell us about yourself and what unique strengths you'd bring to this role.

Well, as most of you folks know me, I was served on the council for nine years. I was on the policy side of things like you folks are. And through my business experience, I've been on the recipient of those policies. So I know both sides of what's going on in regards to that, how it impacts businesses and people, the decisions that you make. And like I say, I was a direct recipient of that. And so years ago, I got involved in planning commission and trying to help out with land use questions and so forth. That's my forte. I've done land use for a number of years in this, not in Lake Stevens, but in surrounding communities. And through that process, I've seen the ups and downs of business and through my own personal lens, as well as through cities and jurisdictions and so forth. And I do think that having that business experience is helpful. The experience part of it is the calmness that we don't go to extremes on a lot of things. I think when you go through an economic downturn for the first time, your hair's on fire a little bit. I've been there, done that three, four or five times. So the calmness, the rationale thinking process and trying to bring that perspective to the council, I think would be very helpful.

Assume you're selected for this role and inherit its existing policies, initiatives and practices. Based on what you know today, what's the first area you'd consider changing, if any? Would the change be a targeted adjustment, substantial revision or replacement and why?

The things that I have observed from the council here in the first five months of your tenure, there's been a lot of discussion about the budget, obviously. I do think one component that is missing from that discussion is the issue of revenue. The discussion that has taken place has been, the majority of the discussion taking place is how do we cut? And there's two ways to balance a budget. can cut and you can also grow and i would like to bring to the table that option of economic growth we need to come up with a plan that allows the city to generate the revenues that are needed to for our police department for the parks department without raising taxes on folks incrementally and again i think that's been missing from the discussion lately my tenure on the council I tried promoting that. We didn't get too far with that because the economy was rolling along and things were good. But now we're in a test mode. We're going to test our ability to generate revenue and hopefully stimulate the process of tax revenue to pay for the things that people want. Parks, good streets, good sidewalks, parks... and take care of those things, again, without going to the voters and trying to increase sales tax revenue and the like.

Please describe your knowledge of the city of Lake Stevens and your experience working in or with local government. How would you approach prioritizing the city's competing needs, such as infrastructure improvements, public safety, environmental stewardship, and quality of life initiatives while working within limited financial resources?

This is going to be a big challenge here in the next couple of years. Hopefully, these aren't in order as to infrastructure improvements, public safety, environmental stewardship. Public safety is foremost. We have a challenge. We've had a challenge for a number of years, for the past six years, recruiting the appropriate police officers for our community. As you all know, we're down with the number of police officers. Fortunately, we do have a safe community, which is attributed to the citizens in this community. But as I've said before, we're once incident away from something terrible happening here. You see it around the country that things do happen. And unfortunately, you know, a lot of folks are not prepared for that. I'm not saying we're in crisis mode, but I think we need to be aware of those situations. And we need to have the appropriate public safety process, folks, police officers in that structure in place. in process. I know it's a challenge right now to obtain police officers. I think every jurisdiction is down. That will be a huge challenge as I understand it. You had a couple of candidates here not too long ago and for whatever reason didn't come through. We have a senior police, kind of the ends of the extremes. We have folks that are at their senior level and we have some folks that are really new to the police department. You know, we run the the jeopardy is losing our senior folks here in the next couple of years. So how do you replace those people? It's going to be a challenge. There's no doubt about it. As far as infrastructure improvements, we all know that we are lacking in infrastructure improvements. I myself would like to prioritize the Trestle Highway 9 improvements. We in this community, we are not going to solve this dilemma ourselves. If we're lucky, we can maintain what we have right now. But so much of our traffic problems are related to Highway 9 and the trestle. And if we can try to get those things addressed and to the forefront, I think it would be very helpful. It's not going to happen overnight. The nine years I was on the council, we talked about the trestle. And it was talked about before with Mayor Spencer. But we need to build that coalition with regional partners, Marysville, Granite Falls, Snohomish, Monroe, Everett, Arlington and get that attention to our elected officials that have the means that we can get ahold of some money and make some progress. It's, it's a very challenging issue, but we need to be at the forefront of leading this process. And I would like to do that. I think it's, uh, highway nine is, is, um, is a mess in the afternoon and, um, it's not going to get any better. Um, So we need to press forward and move those things along. So as far as environmental stewardship, you know, the state drives a lot of those issues with DOE, Department of Fish and Wildlife. You have a critical areas ordinance that's before you here that's coming up that the state is dictating standards once again. You know, we hear the comments about the Growth Management Act and so forth. The Growth Management Act, unfortunately, I was around when it was implemented. It has turned out to be something that was contrary to what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a local control. Everything that happens right now is directed by the state, which is unfortunate. I think, you know, Mayor Gailey said we can do anything short of, you know, Dictating the colors of our draperies is about all we get to choose at this point. It's very difficult to go down to Olympia and try to change that process. So it's a matter of how you work within the process. which requires relationships. And I have a lot of those relationships. So I feel that, you know, it's not a learning curve. I can step right in. We can start with the phone calls and hopefully get some attention and start addressing some of these issues. But as far as the environmental stewardship, you know, we'll be lucky if we can mitigate or lessen some of the requests that are being delivered by Department of Ecology and Fish and Wildlife regarding stream buffers and things of that sort. As you all know, we don't have a lot of buildable land in this area. And, you know, just for instance, if we were to relocate the outfall for Lake Stevens and take it through the south end of town here, at some day that church would be gone, those houses would be gone. it would take out a good portion of downtown Lake Stevens. And it's, again, a situation of when do we get to the diminishing returns? I've been in this business for a number of years, and The issue is always increasing buffer, always, always. And here we are again, talking about increasing buffers. At what point in time do we not satisfy the need? That's the question I have. So anyway, enough on that. Quality of life initiative. Lake Stevens has a good quality of life right now because of our safety. And we have an excellent school district. I would like to kind of foster that relationship with a school district, a little more in the sense that we have a short of record shortage of recreational facilities in the city and. You know i'll use North lake ball field up there as an example. school district put lighting in there not too long ago and if there's some improvements that the city could latch on to rather than building our own field and maybe doing some improvements to that as well that we could partner and utilize those facilities for our own recreational folks here and you know we do have a shortage of all fields active fields things of that sort we've talked about the Centennial Park out here But again, the cost is just how do we do it? So trying to find those partnerships. We've done it with Marysville and the Bayview Trail. And I think we can kind of continue down that road of hopefully doing some other partnerships, maybe with the school district, maybe Marysville to take it a step further. They really don't have any recreational facilities in the south end of their city. They have a few small pocket parks, but they're relying on the Bayview Trail for their recreation. So maybe there's some opportunities in that regard. But again, it's going to be very difficult for the city to pull off some of these things without partnerships and cooperation of various jurisdictions and entities.

Have you ever run for elected office and are you considering running for mayor in the 2027 election, regardless of whether you are or are not appointed to the office in this process? Please explain.

Yes, I've run for election twice or three times, I guess. Two for one. So I guess that's what, 660? It's not even on my radar. Frankly, I don't know what bearing this has on this process, but This is an interim position. And at this point, I don't know as though politics should play into this. I'm here to pledge that I'm going to get 100 percent to work on the initiatives that I've just talked about. And we'll let you know where the cards fall at this point in time. I'm not running for this for the idea of running for election in 27. I want to do the best job possible in the next 18 months. We'll see where it takes us.

Mayors often operate under close public scrutiny. What concerns do you think might arise about your appointment and how would you respond to them? Please share an example of how you handled an ethical or transparency-based challenge and the steps you took to ensure your actions remain trustworthy and principled.

Well, I would assume this question is directed at me. I know the other candidates will have to answer this as well, but obviously I ran for reelection for city council last November, and obviously I lost, as did a couple other council members. My response to that is changes have been taking place dramatically throughout Puget Sound, our state of Washington, and on a national level. Not to say that I was swept up in that, but the accusation that I was profiting because I'm in the real estate industry is unfounded. And that issue in itself, granted, turns off a lot of people. I know that by doing projects, not in Lake Stevens, but in other municipalities. If you want to rile up some folks, go propose a 35-lot subdivision in the midst of existing houses. You will gain some immediate enemies just by posting the application process on the property. So with that, I have said repeatedly, I live in this community. I have never done a project in this community. And we'll pledge never to do one as long as I'm in elected office. I it's because my profession is real estate, for some reason, that is a knock against me, I think is especially when it impugns your integrity, which has been done. I I don't know how to pacify or soften that other than the fact I'm proud of what I've done over my career. I've been successful. And because of that, I'm willing to extend that expertise to the city for the benefit of the city. So this issue of taking money from real estate folks for a campaign. Each one of you folks have your supporters and each one of you folks have accepted campaign money from your constituents that are in your same industry. So I don't, you know, it seems to be a far reach as to, uh, the accusation. Um, I think I'll leave it at that. But again, I've never done a project in the city of Lake Stevens. So I don't know how I profited from anything. I can lend my expertise. The most recent example is last September. And correct me if I'm wrong, if I may not get this name right. The folks that contracted to do the improvements up at Frontier Heights Park up there, that contract was just scuttled. There's an issue, I think, with that. I was the only one of five that voted against that contract because I could see through that contract that those people were simply buying the business. And that's what I lend to the council. It's being in the industry. You folks deal with real estate. And the level, I'm not trying to say this as a slam, but the level of expertise is fairly limited. And that's what I would offer to the council is a level of expertise in that regard.

What do you consider to be the number one responsibility of the position of mayor? What specific actions will you take to ensure that responsibility is met?

I think the number one responsibility of the mayor position is to be honest with his constituents as well as city council. I mean, if I were to be selected for this, we're all on the same team, regardless of what our political affiliation is. And so doing the best that we can for the citizens at large. Safety is a huge issue. You know, we have a number of young people in our community. Due to the schools and so forth. And I think ensuring that that safety for those kids is, you know, a number one priority. But again, being honest with the constituency out there as to what the city is doing, why it's doing it, and having an open door policy to any citizen that wants to come and have a conversation. Yeah.

If selected, how would you develop strong relationships with local businesses, schools, community groups, and staff? Please address each group in your answer.

Regarding local businesses, I know a good portion of the local business owners in this community, so it's a matter of contacting them. I don't know as though that has been a priority of previous administrations, having a one-on-one conversation as to what their needs are and what they would like to see in the community. I think that's important. We have, I'll kind of say it kind of a fragile business community in the sense that we don't have a lot of heavy hitters. We have Costco, we have Safeway, Higgins, which is Safeway. Um, and from there on down, we kind of have that second tier of, of entities. So, um, trying to foster their businesses for them and help them. It's almost like a chamber of commerce role as to what do you need, what do you see, what is lacking from the city, and meeting with those folks and trying to communicate that to them. I think that would be very prudent as far as local business. As far as schools... We have an excellent school system. That's why we're growing in this community. And there's so many people that have moved here because of the school district. I mean, it's so why not have that relationship with those folks? I think the relationship in the past is probably. It's there, but again, getting back to that partnership, I think those discussions need to take place as to what can be done jointly. It's just, you know, I think it was Monday night, everybody's standing out in the rain. People that, I mean, we don't have any kids in the school district, but everybody's cheering the graduates as they go around the lake. How many communities do that? I mean, gosh sakes, it's... the sense of community around here is awesome. And again, I think it's largely due to the schools. So I think that communication level with them is very important. As far as community groups, I'm assuming you're talking about, you know, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Kiwanis. I don't think there's a Shroftimus group in here, but the other groups as far as the arts and parks and some of the other groups that are out there. Again, just the dialogue that needs to take place with those groups. What are you about? What do you need? What do you got going? And as far as staff, I would say I have a pretty darn good relationship with staff. As Council President on two terms, we worked with them setting in the agenda. Granted, there has been staff turnover. But I would say for the most part that the staff does support my efforts. And that is one of the reasons why I'm here today, because I have a good relationship with the staff and some folks encourage me to apply.

Describe how you would respond to concerns raised by staff and or the community, especially when those concerns challenge your own plans or priorities.

Well, I guess it would obviously depend on the type of concerns. If we're talking about personal issues within the personnel issues within the staff, that's probably a separate issue. respond to concerns raised by staff and or the community? As far as the community, I would reach out and say, let's have a discussion about this. What are the specific current concerns that you have? And I guess I would offer, do you have a remedy as to what they are? As to my own plans and priorities, I mean, if there's anybody that's speaking against working on the trestle, let me know. The priorities that I would immediately want to embark upon are our infrastructure issues directly related to the trestle and Highway 9. So I don't know as though there would be a lot of challenge to that. As to other plans and priorities, I don't know as there would be some opposition to working on our parks. And I don't know as though, I hope there wouldn't be any opposition working against our safety in our community. So I would believe that I'm hopeful that I'm in concert with, you know, 80%, 90% of the folks in our community on those issues and that we could move forward with them.

Excellent. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate your interview.

Wow. That went fast.

All right.

Thank you, counsel.

So we'll have a five minute break until our last interview.

Good evening. Yes. Good evening, Kurt. Thanks so much for being here.

Thank you. As C.S. Lewis said, you're on the dot.

You'll have 30 minutes for your interview. Deputy Clerk Weaver will be reading the questions to you. We're going to be up here listening and taking some notes. All right. Enjoy your interview.

Okay. So she said each interview this evening will be 30 minutes long and will include eight questions. Please listen carefully, as many of the questions have multiple parts. I'll let you know when you have two minutes remaining so you're aware of your time, and I'll be asking the questions, but feel free to direct your answers to the panel.

Okay.

Briefly tell us about yourself and what unique strengths you would bring to this role.

Well, my name is Kurt, and this is now my second job. time I've put myself forward to be mayor of Lake Stevens. I'm a fire captain, and in that role, I lead a group of people who are public facing every day, solving problems and finding solutions. I view that really analogous to the role of a mayor, is to be public facing, to not back down from whatever issue it is. You don't always get to choose your issues. Sometimes you think You're prepared to choose the issue, and then from left field, something else happens. It's very much what a fire captain does. You've got to shuck and jive with it and respond. My leadership style is one that is one of collaboration. It is... Relational. It's also very intentional. Collaborative. We listen to our staff. Sometimes we're following our staff because they have the expertise and they're running in front of us. And sometimes you're walking alongside them and coaching them. Often you're doing that at the same time when you have a big team, particularly with a big team like we would have here at Lake Stevens.

Relational.

Relational is something that I really value because that buys trust. Trust is really the cornerstone, in my opinion, of what leadership really is. Because often you have to have those hard conversations that can be really unpleasant. And spending the time with the individuals or with the community or with your employee, whoever it is you're dealing with, is... I just find no other way around that. And that's my style. And then the other one is intentional. It really comes to the why. Why are we doing this? We're not just doing this because in the fire service, we say a hundred years of tradition unimpeded by progress, right? It's, we're not just doing this because we always do that. There is a, there is a why to that. We're not here to waste people's time. Yeah. In my previous role as a city council member, I have advocated for many of the issues that are going on in Lake Stevens, transportation growth, gone through five different budget cycles. Then stepped away after I ran, had a good showing. I felt that I did well, although I didn't prevail, which is fine. I did have a strong show in the community. And then, you know, after Marcus passed away last year, I came back and I was able to serve again in a role that's somewhat similar to this, unexpected vacancy, although being one of seven policymakers is considerably different than being the person who would be, you know, the mayor running. But But there's similarities in there in that you're stepping in and you're inheriting something that may not necessarily be your own. And I see that that's one of the questions later on, so I'll save it for that. So that's it. That's my style, collaboration, relational, intentional. And I think with the city's issues that we have, those are particularly the collaboration and the relationship. You know, two of our big issues, our big issue in particular has been growth. In the last 2 legislative cycles of legislature has attempted to address housing. But it's had some side effects that were not necessarily beneficial for some of the cities and we're not alone in that and so the next 2026 or 2027 session 2028 sessions it's going to be the time for the cities to volley back and that's just a natural cycle and so being collaborative and and being relational with our other cities and those who have the same needs and issues as we do regarding growth and some of those, as well as the economics of what the state is expecting us to do. I think those two skill sets and traits that I have are going to be particularly valuable to the city.

Assume you're selected for this role and inherit its existing policies, initiatives, and practices. Based on what you know today, what's the first area you'd consider changing, if any? Would the change be a targeted adjustment, substantial revision, or replacement, and why?

I think the big one would be reviewing the budget and the forecasts. We have been very generous and spent a lot of money. I don't think the city is in dire straits, but when you look at our forecast for... I can't remember what page it was on the budget, but it's a graph. It's a five-year graph, and it's going like that. Revenue's down and expenses up, and... We would like to have that at the five-year, where those two, where the red and the black line meet. But for some reason, it's a little pushed forward to 2027 and 2028. Some of that, of course, is because of spending that was from earlier years, money that was funded from earlier years is being spent in 26 and 27. But when you look at our actual balance of our budget, of our reserves, that is a little bit lower than what I'm comfortable with, right? About one and a half, $2 million, depending on, you know, how you're looking at those programs. So I would think that would be in a... And this actually coincides, the timing is great because we're coming up on budget cycle or budget season starting actually in June for us. It's already started. So that timing... Actually, it's a natural timing, and I think that'd be the first thing I would look at.

Please describe your knowledge of the City of Lake Stevens and your experience working in or with local government. How would you approach prioritizing the city's competing needs, such as infrastructure improvements, public safety, environmental stewardship, and quality of life initiatives while working within limited financial resources?

competing needs that is the uh wow that's the crux you have you have a dollar but you have five dollars worth of needs um and that really is a policy decision that would need to be collaborative between the mayor and the council with the mayor and the staff providing the most accurate the most um timely information in this case, the budget, I think is our big priority, the one that we do control. So like I said, I've had five budget cycles under my belt here, and I've had a few others at South County Fire that I was privileged to be able to be the be a part of that in public finance um extensive work looking working in local government obviously i i think i know most you a couple of you i've met but haven't worked with you uh run before been on the council before um worked on our projects i've advocated for the trestle I've advocated for Highway 9, worked with the legislature on a lot of the projects that we had there on Canaveral, as an example, working with the legislature on the capital budget. How do we prioritize those? That can be difficult, particularly when you have, you know, I started out saying these are competing needs and it comes down to really what your dollars are and that may shift from year to year. Quality of life, obviously, they're all tied together. And that is a challenge. I don't think there's one simple solution. I do like what we have done. Our approach has been a little bit of everything. And then as something has come up that's been prioritized, that would probably be my approach to that. And obviously, financial stewardship. You can't spend $2 if you only have one.

Have you ever run for elected office, and are you considering running for mayor in the 2027 election, regardless of whether you are or are not appointed to the office in this process? Please explain.

I am. I ran for council in 2015 and prevailed, and then I ran again for the mayor instead of running for council. It was either up or out in 2019. I ran against Brett. We had a great campaign and I think he got 52, 53%. I got 48. So we both had good support, but he prevailed. And, you know, someone asked me, why didn't you seek? I think this is a good story to tell. Why didn't you seek that open position? Not that I was guaranteed it, but, you know, I could have, I could have petitioned to be on it. And I just felt that it was better that the new mayor had a clean slate and that he didn't have his competitor, you know, or at least the perception of his competitor breathing down his neck. I felt that was best for him in the city and for him to be able to have the ability to just go and do what he earned and what the voters had given him. Will I run again? I do plan on running again in 2017 for this position.

Mayors often operate under close public scrutiny. What concerns do you think might arise about your appointment and how would you respond to them? Please share an example of how you've handled an ethical or transparency-based challenge and the steps you took to ensure your actions remained trustworthy and principled.

I can see the perception of an appointment versus being elected is one of mandate versus not having a mandate. What do I mean by that? It's, yes, you're the leader of the city and you need to make that position your own, ostensibly, you know, the chief executive. But there could be view that you didn't run for it. And so maybe you shouldn't be as aggressive implementing policy or change your review or accountability. I don't buy that. I think if the council and through them, the residents of the city appoint the mayor, that person should be free to exercise and lead the city as they feel that they should and what their convictions are. Obviously, my style of leadership would be collaborative with the council and with the staff, As far as an ethical or transparency based issue. So the fire service, I work in emergency medicine. Emergency medicine is often, what's the right way to say this? It has rules, but because of the nature of the environment doesn't always follow them. And one of those rules was we just we weren't as high and tight with accounting for our controlled medicines, our morphine, our Valium, some of those medicines. And so there were a few times where my crew and their accounting team was not what it should have been for those medicines. And so now you have the medical community, you have your employer and you have the DEA looking down your throat. And so it really came down to, I own the problem. There was no malfeasance. It was just bad accounting and is what it was, but it was owning the problem and then working with the authorities to rectify that and not hiding behind it and certainly not blaming someone else for it as the team leader. No, this was my fault. I didn't have that oversight and we're going to be transparent. We're going to be ethical and we're never going to do this again.

What do you consider to be the number one responsibility of the position of mayor? What specific actions will you take to ensure that responsibility is met?

I think it's ethically and honorably representing the city. That has all sorts of probably nuances and formats to it with the different stakeholders. Start internally with staff. Staff looks to the mayor for leadership. to not be thrown under the bus, to be led, to be coached, to be mentored, to be cheered, to be admonished when necessary. The other Part of that internally would also be the city council. They've got seven policymakers. You've got to present them with the information that they need to make good decisions. And there could be mentoring, coaching, and admonishing with them too. But then again, you know, that comes down to having that relationship and spending time to be able to do that. And then I i'm tempted to say, most importantly, would be externally to the public to the voters and your next question number seven all the stakeholders within within that the schools, the Community groups of service groups. Are. Other partners, fire department, sewer department, or sewer district, schools, I already mentioned them, but those other stakeholders as well. And really, it's representing and listening is probably the most important thing. When I was, I had the opportunity a few years back to be part of leaderships in Homage County, and I thought I was a good listener. Until I realized that I was not. And through that process, I've really endeavored to, you got to listen. Because one, you don't know everything. And then two, I like saying that there's 40,000, 42,000 people in Lake Stevens and there's 80 elected officials. The ideas are out there. And we need to listen. And we don't have the expertise for schools or necessarily for business because we have our own lane we operate in. And so it's really, really important that we listen and take note and not just listen and walk away, but listen and then execute.

If selected, how would you develop strong relationships with local businesses, schools, community groups, and staff? Please address each group in your answer.

mentioned a little bit of already in question number six, you know, with schools, it comes down to going to their events. You know, I'm serving right now on the Lake Stevens Arts and Parks Foundation. And so I'm, appreciating more the talent that we have in our community. And so going to those musical concerts, going to the theater, we have a great theater program in our middle school and our high school and appreciating those and championing those and being present. You know, that's part of the job of the mayor is being present for everyone, not just the staff and not just for the council, but being present for the community as well. Like I said, the chief person who represents, or at least that figurehead that represents. With community groups or service groups, our service groups do not get enough recognition. If you're ever involved with a church or a school or any sort of group, it takes the volunteers. And in this case, for us, the service groups, the Rotary, the Lions, the VFW, all those groups do great work. And so recognizing them, listening to them, and participating alongside them, not just from up high, but getting down and dirty, going to their events, helping them out when they ask for help. And then staff, as I mentioned before, I'm assuming that is talking about city staff. I'll interpret it as city staff. It doesn't really, really, really mention because I think this is important. The next, anytime there's avoidant leadership, even if someone wants to keep a steady, a steady, what's the word? A steady course because there's good stuff going on with them, with the direction of what staff's working on. Everyone, every leader is going to have their impact. That's just because I'm different. I'll be different. The next mayor would be different than the past three mayors were. And so there is going to be that impact. And so it comes down to recognizing your staff, listening to your staff. As I mentioned earlier, I'm kind of a broken record here. And championing your staff, listening to your staff. And sometimes you're going to be out in front of them. Sometimes you're going to be right beside coaching them. And sometimes they're going to be the racehorse that's already gone down the track because their expertise and they're excited.

Describe how you would respond to concerns raised by staff and or the community, especially when those concerns challenge your own plans or priorities.

I would hope that my plans and priorities are consistent with what the community wants. If not, then there's a problem. That's not just me. I think that's any leader. It doesn't mean that the leader shouldn't have their own ideas, but an effective leader has got to listen to the community. And the third time I'm going to say this, not just listen, but respond accordingly. And I know that's been criticism when I was on the council last time, or at least the first time is we got a lot of, we're coming here week after week and telling you things, but it doesn't seem like you're listening because we're saying one thing and then something else is happening. That for me is a lesson learned. I've also learned that the hard way at South County Fire. When your crew is telling you something, you should probably listen to them. Because they will see something that you don't. And in the fire environment, that can get someone hurt or killed. Here in Lake Stevens, in the role of the mayor, there obviously isn't that acuity to it. But I use that example to underscore, you've got to listen. And if your community is telling you something, you have to listen to them. And if it challenges you, then then I'm going to stop and listen and seek counsel. And there are seven other people to start with because they also have the ear of the community as well.

And then staff, staff has the ear of the community as well.

And they're working hard and they have moreover, they have the expertise on the particular, on the particular subjects.

That's it.

All right.

Thank you very much for your time.

Yeah. Anything else? I'm free to be extemporaneous. I don't know if that's your style or not, but.

I think we're done. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for your time. Yeah. And I was supposed to give this to someone. Okay. All right, just to give folks an idea of what the process will be now, we're going to go into an executive session, which means you'll all have to leave for a little bit. The seven of us will enter into discussion, do some deliberation. When we're done with executive session, we will have people come back in. There is expected to be action to follow. And so you will be, if you choose to stay, you're welcome to come back for that section.

Yes, thank you, Council President. So again, the RCW 4230110 says the Council can go in to confidential session to discuss and evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office. So they are requesting up to 45 minutes. We could be out sooner, but we'll ask for 45 minutes. And again, there could be action to follow. We may need a motion to extend. In fact, we are going to need a motion to extend.

Oh, we should do that now.

Yeah. So 45 minutes plus whatever you think may be for open session.

So I, I, that, I mean, if we just did the 45 minutes, that would bring us back to 815. I think we're going to need at least an additional 10 minutes or so. 830. So do you tell 830? Okay. Do we have a motion to extend until 830?

I move that we extend the meeting until 830. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Sorry, I'm concerned an extra 10 minutes post-executive session for voting and deliberation. I'm afraid that's not going to be enough. So we can extend again if we need to.

We can.

Okay.

Any further discussion? All those in favor of extending the meeting until 8.30, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thanks. Motion passes.

So again, confidential session until up to 8.15. I will come out and let you know when session's back in.

A little overview about what to expect next. Each of the council members will take a few minutes and just share with you their thoughts and feelings about this process and about the candidates. Once we've all had a chance to speak, there will be nominations that follow and votes that follow that. And then we will likely be done with our meeting. We will adjourn. So I drew the short straw, drew the long straw. I don't know. I'm going to start. We interviewed three candidates tonight. I just want to share how that went for me and what my what my thoughts and feelings were and what went into my decision. I appreciated each candidate, their willingness to put themselves out there and really step into this role and share their sort of personal motivations. Brian McManus was our first applicant. Brian, I really appreciated your sharing just the broad experience that you bring, the variety of roles that you've that you've had. And I think your energy and your passion is just really evident for this for this type of work. I think my concern really is around your lack of municipal experience. And so that was that kind of stood out for me. Gary Peter Sagan was our second applicant, I think that your counsel experience and just your active role in our community really really shines through. I think that you're clearly really invested in this community and what you've participated in. I think that my concern is really the recent vote and the community has used their power of the vote to make that decision about not having you in municipal government. That was a pretty recent decision. So that's my concern. Sort of my, when I look at pros and cons, that's one of my cons. And then Kurt Hilt was our third applicant, shared his counsel experience. I really appreciated the humility that you brought to your interview, shared the experience that you've had and the importance of being a listener and being collaborative. I've seen that and appreciated how you were able to step in last fall. Um, and the value that you added and sort of your decisive presence. Um, and also I think in the, you know, my concern is, uh, also having lost an election in 2019 to our former mayor. Um, uh, that sort of stands out for me as one of the cons. So I think those are my pros and cons of the three applicants and I'll pass it on just to council member Raya.

Thank you. I would like to start by thanking everyone who applied for the position. It's not an easy one to just put yourself out there. And I appreciated the caliber of candidates we had and the ones that came to interview today. For Gary, I think that was one of my curiosities in having lost the election. I found it bold that you put your name in the hat, your hat in the ring. And I appreciated that. I think that takes a lot of courage, great experience with municipal government. I found it a bit concerning that there was no, it didn't seem to be a pivot in lessons learned from the election. So that was something that I thought was important. And the fact that running for mayor in 27 was not important, that also had some weight for me in the conversation. Kurt, I found, I didn't know Kurt or too much about Kurt. I found the resume and the letter to be a little bit lacking. So I found him to present himself very well, very calm, very positive. extensive experience in government and essential services, which is important. I appreciated that he has run for mayor before, he is thinking about running and he is committed. And Brian, I thought that having just won an election by such a large margin, that there would be strong community support. I found your experience to be very diverse and federal at the federal government level and contracts and big business and the negotiator aspect that really does come through and how you present yourself. I felt that very compelling. I found your priorities and the fact that you would run for mayor to be valuable. And yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. I will likewise go in the order in which the applicants interviewed. So Brian, uh, it's been, it's been great working with you. Um, I will echo council member George stats comments and that I think you have a lot of desirable leadership skills. Uh, I'm excited to see what you can do for the city going forward, given what you've already done for the city. Um, I do feel that on the con side, just in as far as technical depth of some of your answers, um, I think there's more municipal experience to be gained and that would benefit some of the things that I personally am looking for in this role. Gary, I've worked with you and I have nothing but good things to say about my time with you. I know through your comments what you think about the last election and some of the motivations that came into play. And I have to say, based on my experience, I agree with them. I only ever saw you use your experience and your line of business to benefit the city and converse with staff and external parties in a way that the rest of us couldn't. On the con side, as you well know from our discussion over fireworks, anytime I have the chance to have a data point from the entire city, in the form of a vote. That is something I take very seriously, even if it's something I don't personally agree with. My job sitting in this chair is to represent the community. And so for me, that recent vote is a pretty big data point and hard to overlook. Kurt, likewise, you know, my time with you, I have, you know, lots of great things to say. The way you stepped in, you know, into Marcus's seat, one of the things, you know, in one of our conversations that always stuck out to me, you know, So you said i'm i'm not here to rock the boat i'm here to help you guys and help the city get through this and that's always stuck with me, even before this process for mayor began and. You know that that's one of the things i'm looking for in this role, I will say, one of your comments that did concern me was you know about the mandate. and a mayor coming in and feeling free to, you know, exercise the authority in a way that, you know, might not be any different versus, you know, the seven of us choosing versus the citizens choosing. That said, seeing you operate in this type of role where you're filling in, I know that you will be communicative and judicious in the use of any of that authority. So those were my thoughts on the three candidates.

I just would like to, just like everyone else up here, thank everybody for, all three of you for stepping forward to fill this role. It's not an easy role. It's a very time-consuming role. It's very forward-facing when it comes to our community. I want to take a moment also as we were in the process of executive session to thank my fellow council members for a very respectful and productive conversation behind the scenes. I appreciate that. In the order of the candidates, Brian, you're very forward-facing in your personality, very charismatic, very self-confident, have a lot of career success and experience. My only concern is I would like to see a little more depth in your political experience as you're not quite six months. Well, I guess now we're six months into your term as a council member. I'd like to see a little more experience under your belt prior to stepping into mayor. I do have a firm belief that a mayor is not an entry-level position. Gary Petershagen, I served on council with him for a couple of years. listened to him talk about building and that type of things, and his knowledge was very in-depth. He knew questions to ask that nobody else did, and would, didn't hesitate to question whether or not something looked right. And so I appreciate his knowledge on that. He was very specific on his goals, focusing on the trestle and Highway 9, and very specific in his answers. The only concern really I had with Gary is, again, the public response. And we've received many letters as well prior to this about the last election. I don't necessarily agree with the public. Things that were said during the election, that's for sure. But the public did speak. Kurt, this is his second time, as he mentioned, stepping forward to fill a temporary role. As you know, he filled Marcus's position after he passed and was a great team member before. just came and did what he could to help. He's got experience as a captain, you know, so he's got that leadership role, you know, in his resume. He's got quite a bit of public service as well in that he was an elected city council member. He wasn't elected to mayor. Mayor Gailey was, but again, it was a very close race. It was a very clean race from what I saw. And he seems like an honorable and humble person. My only concern really with Kurt was this is a very forward-facing role. He's a very humble man. As mentioned, his resume was a little bit not as in-depth as some of the other resumes were. But all three candidates were very different people, had varying strengths. And like everybody, everyone has areas they can work on as well. And I appreciate all three of you stepping forward. Thank you.

Council President, I'm sorry to interrupt.

We do need another motion to extend. Of course, it is nearing the end of our time together. Do we have a motion to extend?

Motion to extend the meeting.

Should we do until 840? Let's go 845.

845.

Is there any reason not to go 9 and if we end early, we end early? It's not on executive session, those that are here are here.

I'll make a motion to extend the meeting until 9.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Motion passes. Meeting extended until up to 9 o'clock.

All right. So before I talk about the candidates, I want to just take a moment to let the public and the community know some of the things that I looked at when making this decision. We had a staff survey that went out to our directors of our department and asking them what did they want to see in our city leadership because, you know, they work very closely with the mayor and under their direction. and we want to make sure that there's a good relationship there. Some of their top priorities were demonstrating integrity and sound judgment, approachable and supporting staff, showing respect and being respectful and professional, and being calm, steady, and solution-oriented. Some additional thoughts from staff were someone who's present and engaged, And someone who will help to remove barriers for staff in the city For citizens priorities it was overwhelming the feedback that we got not only via email but just running into people at the grocery store at community events that people do not want someone who was elected out of The council position to be their mayor. I think that our job here as council is to represent our city our community members and our staff here, and I think that in good faith, I would not be able to vote for someone who lost the most recent election at 33% of the vote. As far as our candidates, I think... Brian McManus, I absolutely adore your excitement for this role, and I think that you're very good at what you do, and I appreciate that. However, I think that here in our city, we need to remember that we are not just businesses, we are people. And I think that in the motion of getting into, you know, the negotiations and the art of the deal, brokering a deal, we sometimes can forget about our individual community members. I do appreciate that you want to take care of the sewer district lawsuit and get that kind of under the bridge. Okay. I was a little taken back by the comment of not anticipating any bad feedback. I think that you're going to get bad feedback no matter what position that we're in. And I would have liked to have heard a little bit more about that. For Mr. Peter Sagan, you know, again, I think the primary concern justification for my decision is the voice of the people. I have personally sat in the chambers here and watched Mr. Peter Shagan up here as counsel. And while I do appreciate your expertise in the building industry, I think that, again, we kind of forget that we are people here. One of the comments made that we don't know how to pacify things. And I think that that's a strong testament to just putting a pacifier in someone's mouth and hoping that they'll just be quiet. And so I think that we need someone who's really willing and open to to hear people out and work towards a common solution of good. For Mr. Hilt, I do want to say I really appreciate your public service. I think that, again, being around people and knowing the people that we serve is really important. And your, you know, decades of community service says that, you know, a lot about the struggles that people in our community face, especially with public safety. I do. I do. acknowledge the fact that you ran and lost for mayor however as one of our other council members mentioned it was a very small margin of 2% and I think that that shows that you were almost our mayor and I think that our community supports you and so I think that from our interviews today we really need to have someone who stands out that our community can trust and conflict of interests, you know, whether they're true or not, the public perception is important. And I feel like we do not need someone sitting in our seat of mayor who is going to be defensive and accusatory. And so I hope that helps clarify. And I do invite anyone to reach out to me directly if you have more questions on my decisions.

Yeah, I also wanted to start by just saying thank you to all the people that submitted their applications, both those that are here tonight and those who submitted applications previously. Brian, I appreciate a lot of the comments that you made. I got a good sense of your leadership style. Yeah, I appreciate a lot of your comments around getting to yes. I think that's really important. In particular, I liked your comment around... You know, you can't solve all the problems, but you can solve many if you can find some common themes and do some key things. I'm paraphrasing what you said there, but I appreciate that sentiment. You're not going to make everybody happy. There's going to be people that disagree with you, but if you can look for those solutions that can appease as many as possible and help the greater good. And then, ultimately, if they don't agree with you, at least they understand where you're coming from, and I appreciate that. Gary, I appreciate your willingness. I think as Angie said, I think, or Sabina, that it was bold for you to put your name in, and I commend you for doing it. I'm sure that wasn't an easy thing to do. I... Yeah, I feel bad for some of the public sentiment that you've received. I know it's not warranted. I know that you haven't – well, that the whole council, right? I think a lot of the public sentiment online has been very vicious regarding perceived – challenges, and I think that's unfair on many fronts, and you took the brunt of it in your position, but the whole council has, and I think as a city, we need to do better to change the way we approach problems and look for solutions that work well for everybody, and when people throw things out and lash online, it's not how we want to operate as a city, right? And so, yeah, we don't want that, but I do struggle with the fact that the city voted so... demonstrably in the one direction. And so that's been one of my primary concerns. Kurt, I also appreciated his leadership style. It was clear to me how he wanted to approach problems. In particular, I was most happy with the response on question five around handling an ethical situation about a medical emergency or issue with medicine. His comments were around identifying the problem, owning the problem, not hiding from it, not blaming anybody else, and then working to resolve it. And that says a lot to me about leadership in any, regardless of the situation, whether that's a silly disagreement, whether it's a perceived injustice, whether that's somebody's fundamental concern about lack of sidewalks or whatever else is going on in the city, right? How do we approach those problems? When the city is at fault, how are we going to respond? And so that was something that was really important to me and I appreciated some of your answers in that regard.

Thank you, Council. Is there any further discussion before we open up the floor for nominations? Okay, the floor is open for nominations for appointment of the Lake Stevens mayor.

I'd like to nominate Curt Hilt for mayor.

We have a nomination for Curt Hilt for Mayor. Is there a second?

I'll second it.

We have a nomination and a second. Are there any additional nominations?

I'd like to nominate Brian McManus.

We have a nomination for Brian McManus. Is there a second? Hearing no second, that nomination will not move forward. Do we have any further nominations? We have a nomination in a second for Kurt Hilt on the floor. I will ask Clerk Schellen to proceed with the roll call vote.

Absolutely. Council Member Packard. Aye. Council Member Shipman. Aye. Council Member Araya.

Yes.

Council Member Edwards. Yes. Council Member Donahue.

Aye.

And Council Member Jarstad. Yes. It is unanimous.

Thank you. Thank you, Council. Thank you, applicants. Thank you, community, for being here. At this point, we will move to adjourn the meeting. There will be some housekeeping we need to take care of after this, and a press release will go out announcing the timeline and when our new mayor will be starting in his position. So keep an eye out for that. Thanks again, everyone, for being here.

Do you need him to stay? Wait, do you need him to stay?

Mr. Hill, we would like you to stay for an extra five minutes if you are able.

Thank you.

Can we get a motion to adjourn? Yes. Do we have a motion to adjourn?

Nathan should make it.

Given that it's 840, I make a motion to adjourn. Second.

Motion is second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you again.