City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, residents of Everett, Washington. I'd like to call to order the Everett City Council meeting of July 29, 2026. For information on council meetings and how to participate, please visit our website at everett.gov slash city council. Please note, we do not allow comments of any kind or 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. For the record, Council Members Bader and Zarlingo will be attending this meeting remote. Clerk, please take the roll.

Mayor Franklin. Here. Council Member Bader.

Here.

President Ryan. Here. Council Member Brabant.

Here.

Council Member Tuohy. Here. Here. Councilmember Weir. Here. Councilmember Zarlinko.

Here.

President Schwab.

Here. And at this time, I'd like to ask Councilmember Burbano to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. And at this time, I'd like to ask Council Member Weir to read the land acknowledgment.

The City Council wishes to acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Stooges people, and their successors, the Tulalip tribes. Since time immemorial, they have hunted, fished, gathered on, and taken care of these lands and waters. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water. We will strive to be honest about our past mistakes and bring forth a future that includes their people, stories, and voices to form a more just and equitable society.

Thank you. Well, good afternoon, Mayor.

Good afternoon, President Schwab and Council on Community. I think we've recently heard from families that are a part of our figure skating community here in Everett, and they shared concerns about the future of figure skating at our Angel of the Winds Arena, which, as everyone knows, is managed by our public facilities district. State law limits our oversight of the public facilities district because it's managed by a board of directors. But today I asked the PFD to send a representative from the Oakview group, Assistant General Manager Richard Dana, and he's going to share just some more information. So Richard, thank you so much for being here today. Really appreciate it.

Okay. Good afternoon, Mayor Franklin and members of the Everett City Council. Mayor Franklin, thank you for introducing me. Thank you all for the invitation to provide an operational update regarding the Everett Community Ice Rink. As the venue manager is under contract to the Everett Public Facilities District, it is a unique opportunity to speak with you today. As operators of the Everett Community Ice Rink on behalf of the EPFD, we have a responsibility to maximize full community access while ensuring the long-term sustainability of this important public asset. Ice time is our most valuable resource, and demand for that resource continues to grow across all our user groups. Our rink-operated programming has experienced tremendous growth with increases in memberships, public skating, learn-to-play, summer programming, both youth and adult hockey, and other rink programming. Our learn-to-skate program, in particular, has more than doubled in participation over the last year and under the leadership of our rink director and programs manager. Over the same year, despite rink management increasing ice time for EFSC-run programming by more than 100%, actual participation in EFSC's run programming has not seen the same level of growth, and in some cases has actually experienced attrition. We believe figure skating is an essential part of the Everett Community Ice Rink, and our commitment to figure skating remains strong. With the full support of U.S. Figure Skating, we are expanding rink-operated programming to include higher level figure skating and create more opportunities for skaters at every level. For example, this summer, through the efforts of our rink management staff, local skaters had the opportunity to learn directly from Team USA coaches. It is through rink-run programs we are able to present these types of opportunities. At the same time, we continue to invest in the future of the sport through growing programs like Learn to Skate and bringing premier, internationally recognized events such as Skate America to our facility. EFSC has tried to paint a picture that we and the EPFD board have made an adverse decision against them. That is inaccurate. EFSC's ice rink use license expired this past March. Since that time, we have continued to provide ice times as a good faith effort and in the spirit of partnership and collaboration. EFSC has ice time reserved through the end of August. We have also chosen to continue our U.S. figure skating home ice designation for the club. Since April, we have made multiple attempts to meet with EFSC in person to discuss scheduling and rink run programming and find a path forward. Scheduled meetings were canceled by EFSC. Subsequent efforts by us to reconnect have been rebuffed despite EPFD direction to the figure skating club that the best path forward was direct conversation with our management team. It was only this past Wednesday after 7 p.m. did the EFSC reach out requesting ice time for the fall. Everett Figure Skating Club has a role at the rink. In addition to renting ice time, they can continue to operate test sessions, present their annual Christmas show, host Spring Braids on Broadway competition, as well as other activities. This is the model used by most figure skating clubs across the country, and it is the model EFSC followed for the majority of their existence. The decision to offer and expand rink operated figure skating programs is a decision rooted in our commitment to increasing public offerings, maximizing the use of available ice time and ensuring the long term financial sustainability of the facility. Most importantly, this was a decision to grow figure skating. We have a proven track record of successfully managing and expanding programs at the Everett Community Ice Rink, and we know we can achieve the same success with figure skating. By strengthening connections with our other skating programs, enhancing communications and responsiveness, and providing dedicated staff support, we know we can create even more opportunities for current and future figure skaters. While we could have provided advance information regarding this decision, it was a decision that was made with the EPFD board involvement. It was discussed during public EPFD board meetings and made with full transparency. As an independent public entity, the Everett Public Facilities District Board hosts a public board meeting the fourth Wednesday of each month at 9 a.m. Meetings are hosted both in person at the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center, located inside Angel of the Winds Arena, and virtually. The public is welcome to attend, and time is set aside for public comments or feedback. The EPFD website hosts a forum for written feedback, and our leadership staff is on-site and welcomes direct feedback from our guests. We appreciate this opportunity to share this information with you and the community. As participation continues to grow, we must continually evaluate how our limited ice inventory is allocated to best serve the public. Our focus remains on serving the entire ice rink community, maximizing participation, and ensuring the rink continues to provide opportunities for residents of all ages and skill levels. We are excited to expand our programming and create even more figure skating opportunities for skaters throughout our community. Thank you again.

Thank you. Appreciate you taking time to be here. I think it's important that you shared the time for the PFD board meetings because I think that is a great space for people to express any feedback concerns. And yeah, that's directly to the board that does oversee the PFD. So thank you very much. I appreciate you coming.

No problem. Thank you all.

I also wanted to take a moment just to acknowledge the devastating violence that took place a few days ago at the bite of Seattle. I know we were all shocked and saddened and I continue to to really struggle with the ongoing challenge of youth violence across our state, across our country. Just wanted to share that my thoughts are, of course, with the families and loved ones of everyone that was affected, especially all those that are grieving this unimaginable loss, and my heart's with them. And with that, I have no further comment, just that I'll be leaving a little early this afternoon. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. So we'll go to old business. Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes for July 22nd, 2026? Council member Ryan, some moves. Seconds. Motion and seconds been made. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council member Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan? Yes. Council Member Burbano? Yes. Council Member Toohey? Yes. Council Member Weir? Yes. Council Member Zarlengo?

Yes.

President Schwab?

Yes. Okay, we'll move to public comment, which includes written comment acknowledgement. Under our rules, written comments shall be considered in the same manner as oral comments. A person submitting written or verbal comments must provide their name of city of residence to be part of the council's official record. And so, good afternoon, Angie. What's our lineup today?

Good afternoon, President Schwab. We received one public comment from Jonathan Peoples regarding the outdoor event center, and that was provided to council, legal, city clerk, and administration to be part of the record. And we have a few people in chambers wishing to speak, none on Zoom. So we will start with Sarah and Ishitha. If you could please come to the podium. And If you could state your city of residence and your full name, and you have three minutes to speak.

Hi, I'm Sarah Sentaki, and I live in Mill Creek. I'm Ishita Gintapalli, and I also live in Mill Creek. So to introduce ourselves, we're both juniors attending Jackson High School for the past three weeks. Sorry, for the past three weeks, we've been interning at the Everett City Clerk's Office.

Now, during our time here, we've had the opportunity to explore downtown Everett almost every day. We visited local cafes, restaurants, and small businesses. And something that stood out to us is how personal and unique each part of Everett is. We've discovered that there's so many small businesses that deserve more recognition because of how central they are to Everett's identity.

However, we also believe that there might be something holding Everett, you know, as a city, back from actually being able to fully communicate this identity. When people think of places like downtown Bellevue or Mill Creek Town Center, for example, they immediately picture destinations where people can gather, spend time with friends, create memories. But for us, at least, when people hear downtown Everett, there isn't this immediate experience or image that comes to their mind.

Now, we don't think this is because Everett lacks things to do. As I believe many of you already know, the city hosts events all throughout the year, whether they're big festivals or everyday library programs. Rather, we think the main challenge lies in making sure that people actually know about these events. Especially younger generations, as they're often the most active participants and tend to spend the most money in their community.

In fact, I could say I spent almost $100 in the past few weeks simply by going to like cafes and restaurants with my friends. I can honestly say a lot of what I choose to do comes from social media. And as Ashita can probably agree, we primarily discover cafes, restaurants, events in the area through social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok.

Which is why we propose establishing a separate youth social media team, a group of local teens dedicated to creating authentic short-form video content to highlight all the things that make Everett, Everett. Yes, Mayor Franklin's Youth Advisory Board accomplishes this part way, but to truly connect with everyday youth, there needs to be a focused group to create accessible and trending content featuring the City of Everett.

Or in other words, we believe that, you know, a specialized effort could be made into creating content that's designed to reach for you pages and connect with modern day youth. If this program is put into action, I believe that it will not only draw attention to local businesses, but can also give more of our local youth an opportunity to build real-world skills in digital marketing, as well as get involved in our local government.

During our time here, we've loved getting to know Everett.

And we believe that we can help others get to know Everett the way we have gotten to do these past few weeks. Wait, but how do we do it again? Through social media, and not just by advertising information, but also kind of showing off the experience of being in Everett.

Thank you so much, everyone, for your time.

I just have to say thank you both so much for the feedback and suggestion. I will definitely follow up with you. I really appreciate it. And I just want to highlight that we have a number of interns here. Love our summer internship program. I think we placed more than 30 interns throughout the city. and lots of different departments. And it was great to hear your experience in the clerk's office. And I'm really grateful that you chose to do your internship in Everett and look forward to working with you in the future.

Thank you so much. We appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next, if Linda could please come to the podium.

Linda Park, yeah. And please state your full name, city of residence, and you have three minutes to speak.

Sure. Thank you. My name is Linda Park. I am a resident of Linwood, Washington. I am here on behalf of the Everett Figure Skating Club as a parent and a member. And I'll begin. Sorry. So good afternoon, council members. This is my second time before this council as a parent of a skater at Everett Frigate Skating Club. I would like to give you further insights into what I am witnessing as a club member and as a parent. The club was denied renewal of its operations service agreement with the Everett Community Ice Rink this past spring. A contract that has been in place for almost 20 years with no issues in renewing it. Almost 20 years. That's an impressive legacy. The club then turned to the EFPD for assistance in resolving this contracting matter because it impacts the operations of a non-profit skating club that has been in operation for that long. While the EFPD has directed OVG to continue selling ice time until this contracting matter is resolved, The EFPD has continued to allow OVG to control the matter and method and whether a contract would be renewed for the club. At this time, it appears that OVG has no intentions of renewing a contract. OVG then began offering skating programs that would be in direct competition with the programs offered by the club. When the club went back to EFPD to formally complain, there has been no action. This was months in the workings. there's been no action to resolve this conflict. Furthermore, club members and coaches have been approached by OVG staff. After months of communication with EFPD and OVG, the club situation has not changed. OVG is offering the same programs as the club while refusing to renew the club's contract. In the meantime, OVG controls the rink schedule. That means OVG decides when to offer rink time to the club. Is this not a serious conflict of interest? Then added to the hostile letters from OBG attorneys, indifference from the city council, or excuse me, the city attorneys. This has been months of the workings and frustrations on the club's part and the member's part. And then more recently, a member of the EFBD said enough. Don't send emails. We're tired of this issue. We have better, more important things, matters to deal with. The EFPD has allowed the serious conflict of interest between OVG and the club. If the club wants to hold a special event, who decides when and where? If the club wants to run its Aspire programs, who decides whether they get ice rink time? When our skaters meet to practice for their theater on ice, we meet at 7 p.m. And there are kids who are under 12.

It is finish up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Jeran, please. Please state your full name and city of residence.

Three minutes to speak. Okay, great. Thank you. So my name is Ceren Metin, and I'm here. I live in Bothell, Washington, and I'm speaking today as a parent and someone with more than 25 years of corporate experience internationally. And I want to, you know, I'm not here to discuss, you know, the scheduling conflicts or, you know, the agreements. I have, like, you know, the simple questions for you to, you know, the answer. What we are... Successful organizations, they don't rely on individual decisions or informal conversations, right? Successful organizations have standard work that's been documented and policies that everybody adhere to. But unfortunately, and then all these corporations, again, operate with documented process, standard work, clear policies, and transparent decision-making. These systems, they create consistency, accountability and trust. Unfortunately, this hasn't been our experience at the RING. And we parents, we struggle to understand how these decisions are made, how priorities are established and what processes govern ICE allocation and scheduling. without clear policies decisions appear inconsistent arbitrary very unpredictable and making it extremely difficult difficult for us parents to you know to plan basic you know to our day daytime i'm a working parent i need to you know to plan my day according to you know the consistent you know scheduling at the ring my daughter is skating for since she is six years old And beyond these operational concerns, I also have personally experienced what I perceive as threats and retaliation after raising legitimate questions and advocating for greater transparency. And in any well-managed organizations, parents, community or partners without fearing fear, should be able to speak up and voice their concerns. Unfortunately, this is not the case here. Right now, the culture we are seeing is a culture where stakeholders feel intimidated or discouraged from speaking up inconsistent with good governance and effective leadership. Again, we're not asking for a special treatment. We're just asking to be transparent and also like being transparent and have a clear defined operational governance. That's all we're asking for. And again, I'm coming from a different city to this city every day. And I volunteer as well in Everett, not in Bothell. So I spent a lot of time in the city. I really want to continue to be able to do that. And that my only ask is for you, you know, the council to respectfully review whether the ring management has established appropriate operational policies, governance practices, and also stakeholder engagement processes. Over the course of my time, what I've seen, and I will, you know, sorry, I will say it looks like a hostile takeover. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dottie. If you could please come to the podium. You state your full name and city residence. You have three minutes to speak.

It's Dottie Medaglia, Arlington, Washington. I come before you again to talk about Everett Figure Skating Club. I actually wrote up something today, but I'm tossing it out because I do want to appreciate Richard for coming in today. He's only been here for a few months, and so he doesn't know the years of history and things that we've been fighting at this rink. I will say the few months that he's been here, he's been more than nice to me. I do have to object to several of the things he stated. We did give three contracts that they just said, no, we're not going to work. We did not get offered to come to the table and talk about which part of these contracts was Bothering them. We even said recently to the PFD of just fine said to Corey, just give us our old contract back last year. If that's what the general one is given to everybody and they still have up until this point refuse to do that. As for talking about the national team that skaters just got recently some lessons with when they came in for the week, I want to remind you that we also have an international coach that we've made present to all of our skaters for years. She's recently going to Finland again and had two Olympians this year in the Winter Olympics. Kim is always here to help our skaters. When I stepped down from learn to skate last year, I had 28 coaches that could help out learn to skate in the figure skating club. They're down to 16. That's 12 coaches loss. Now, since then, when we've had people jumping ship, I have now recently brought on three new coaches from friends of mine and colleagues at Kraken. I have a new dance coach and two new higher test power coaches. And I have two other coaches wanting to move here, one from Wisconsin and one from Tennessee to work with me. So again, what they keep saying is that they're opening up this better figure skating program with what experience and what coaches have you brought to help our skaters? Because we have skaters and parents jumping ship every day. The other thing that I want to talk about is the ice times. You know, he says we just recently gave our ice times. Our ice times were put into place a year ago when they were told they were we were running four programs and they were year long programs. So put them on the calendar for a year. The problem is, is that every season I'm having to beg right before the season of like, where's our four spots? This should not be this hard. I shouldn't have to request a full year program to be on the calendar. It's four spots. So yes, on the other matter of a US figure skating. Yes, US figure skating did grant them that they could start an Aspire program of their own. It's a bridge program from learn to skate to the club. Our rule book does say very clearly that they cannot start another club in our rink without our permission. So please check your facts, and if you truly want to know if their Learn to Skate program is growing, there's Live Barn. You can count the skaters on the ice. It's low. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Monica, if you could please come to the podium. And please state your full name and city residence.

You have three minutes to speak. All right. My name is Monica Thurgood. I'm an Everett resident. I was here last week. Hi again. I'm a figure skating mom. First off, thank you, Mayor Franklin, for your leadership. I know you're the first female mayor of the city. I also know you're an advocate for law enforcement. I have family that's law enforcement and one cousin who's Everett PD. So thank you very much. Take that time for myself. Sorry. I'm, I'm a mom of a figure skater. I, I feel sick to my stomach right now. This feels very adversarial and I know that's life. Things like that happen. But, um, what I feel like is that Everett, and I know your, your power legally is limited, but your leadership and influence is not. That's very powerful as well. Um, As a mom of a newer figure skater, she's only skated for a couple of years. I feel like I am trying to fight for others to see and hear and validate the worth of Everett Figure Skating Club for the girls that skate for Everett Figure Skating Club. Which is a familiar story to many of us in this room in different scenarios. I'll just leave it at that. But we do have somebody who is a leader in doing things for the first time. So it's I'm not saying but it feels unfair. It feels I don't understand as a parent why I don't know. for the next month, what times my daughter is going to be able to participate in the programs that have helped her develop so far. Blades on Broadway, which is held here in March, is one of the biggest skating competitions in the state. It brings people to town for three and four days, nights. My daughter skated in that as her very first competition this year and Skating for the club, representing the club. These girls walk around proudly with their Everett Figure Skating Club jackets on. They're not only promoting Everett Figure Skating Club, they're promoting our city in ways. And girls, keep going. You're amazing. Like they're going places. So they don't wear Angel of the Winds arena. And I understand people have good intentions and different ideas about how you get to the same place. But I guess I don't understand from just a mom who would like her daughter to continue to develop and use the expertise and breadth and depth of knowledge of the people that have been in the figure skating business for years. I want her to be able to continue to access that and access that in the same way that if I had a son that age, he could be playing hockey there every single night. Thank you. Appreciate your time.

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

Hello. My name is Carl Newey Lawson. I live on Camino Island. That being said, I was born Born and raised here. And when I was 10, I got to move to Camino Island with my dad. But my mom has almost always lived in Everett. I'm here to speak about the proposed consolidation of Everett Transit and community transit. Personally, I am opposed to it. I've been a driver for Everett Transit for almost 27 years now. And if this happens, I will check out. I will retire. because I have no desire to work for Community Transit um the and I'm opposed to how this is happening it's happening with that it you know it sounds like it's going to happen without a vote of the people on July 21st of this year the City Council of Seattle unanimously voted to send to the citizens a proposal to double their transit tax which is what will happen if this consolidation happens but without a vote of the citizens of everett so i think uh yeah it would be better if you followed suit and you send it to the people to vote on because i don't know anybody who wants to have their taxes doubled or even a portion of their taxes doubled without even being consulted on it. I know the citizens have ever voted and voted you all into office, but I don't think at that time this issue was before them. Anyway, thank you for your time.

Thank you. David, if you could please come to the podium.

Not a professional speaker, never talked to a group like this.

My name is David North. I live in Edmonds. I actually, hence the hat, worked for Community Transit for three years. I've been at Everett Transit since December 1st, almost eight months. There is a world of difference between Community Transit and Everett Transit. I'm not trying to scare you guys. But swift drivers, which is what I primarily did we call them swift tails you won't see event reports for Community transit did not want us to bring up these reports about open drug use and anything and everything that happens on late night swift. For the most part, they did not want us as drivers to interact. It's one of those, I've always heard about these mergers and whatnot. Everett Transit, it's a much smaller operation. Like these two teenagers are talking about, Everett's a great place. It feels like Ballard used to feel before it's been developed. It is a beautiful city. I grew up in North Seattle. I wasn't really familiar with Everett until working for Community Transit. Just like Carl said, I would love the people to have a say. I don't live in Everett currently. I live in Edmonds, but Everett Transit goes above and beyond. I was told when I started with Everett Transit, we're city employees. There's a higher expectation for us. We're at community transit with ADA priority passengers. There's a strict hands off. They need to be able to get on the bus himself. They need to get off the bus himself. If they need help, you call dispatch. They'll send a supervisor if one's available. I just spoke about like open drug use on the bus. If we radio stuff in, oftentimes they'll just say proceed. Nothing we can do. In the last year or two, they got TSOs, Transit Security Operated Officers. They're not police. They will do some event reports. They're more than a driver. They can push, get people off the bus and whatnot. But Everett has real public safety. Since we're city employees, if something happens on the bus, they can call the police. The police seem to have access to our radio services. So if something goes wrong, police can respond reasonably quick. When I was in training, they warned me, because I came from community transit, that if something happens, don't ignore it like community transit. Let us know and we'll take care of it. I've already noticed in the eight months We don't have the same, for lack of better words, riffraff on the bus. It feels like there's already a precedence that Everett Transit will not tolerate this on our bus. We are a public service for everybody, whether you're a citizen of Everett or you're passing through Everett. We don't have fare enforcement. If they say they can't pay, we just say, you know, don't worry about it. Next time, whatever, just take a seat. and serve our community. Community Transit operates in Snohomish County. They don't operate in any one city. I brought a fellow driver here who can't even talk because the city doesn't want him, excuse me, Community Transit doesn't want them to. Just please think of the people when you make your decision.

Thank you. Jane, if you could please come to the podium.

Jane?

Yes.

My name is Jane Zimmerman. I'm a licensed professional engineer. I have lived in the city of Everett since 1224 of 1989. My ex husband and I bought a little two bedroom one bath house in the Delta neighborhood. While I was still within my six month probation after I was hired in the city of everett on 619 of 1989 to implement the new stormwater management Program. I spent 30 years here bought and scrapped for every last minute of that to retire June 21 the 2019 with 30 years of service. Since then, I have not fully been retired because I went into full-time service for my dysfunctional family. And I have been an unpaid caregiver for my elderly father as he dealt with the issues of old age. He's still misogynistic. He's still narcissistic. He's still emotionally, mentally abusive. As the result of all of the trauma and drama resulting from trying to guide him since his last wife died, March 18th of 2018, I finally emerged from all of that. He moved in with me November 15th of last year on May 11th after a nightmare. He finally went and lived with my half-brother in Sequim. A complaint was lodged to DCAESHS and APS on May 15th, and I was accused of financially exploiting and abusing my father during his time there. I was not cleared of that until I was 62 years old and 26 days. I did not have the final outcome report from DSHS APS until July 17th. of this year, I have been going through an extraordinarily traumatic time with my family and have been absolutely doing the absolute best that I could do, given the fact that I live with a disabling psychiatric disorder. caused by severe and recurring childhood trauma by that very man I was trying to hold and house in my own home. Numerous things have happened since then as a result of that complaint, like the Everett police pounding on my door, like me getting into challenges with situations at the Everett Senior Center, because I started going there for caregiver support meetings when I was in the midst of trauma, when the mask came off, when I didn't perform according to my father's expectations over Christmas. I am in a world of hurt and trouble right now because my behavior has not been deemed acceptable to the city of Everett, just like it wasn't. I was basically forced to retire at 55 from the city of Everett because I could no longer behave professionally enough to be a professional engineer. If you could finish up, that would be good. I'm done, but I will be back because I dedicated my working career to the city, and I will now dedicate my retirement to my neighbors and the residents of this city.

That concludes our public comments.

Okay. Thank you very much.

All right. The next section of our meeting is council comments, and we'll begin with Council Member Bader.

Thanks, House President. I don't have any report, but I did want to make one comment. Obviously, you've heard recently about the Grand Avenue, the elevator for the Grand Avenue Bridge there. In the past, I brought up the thought that maybe we should consider security cameras in our parks. And I want to raise that issue again and see if our Parks Department or the appropriate entity that would cover the Grand Avenue elevator, I assume it's parks, but maybe utilities, would re-examine and take another look at that issue. Certainly obviously discouraged about the fire last year that took out the play structure at Wiggins Hollow as well. So I've raised this before. I just want to see if our parks would be willing to take a look at that again. That's all I've got. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll have parks look into that for you, Council Member Bader.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Ryan.

Thank you. Thank you so much to the youth that joined today, all of the interns, and thank you for your comments as well. You have excellent timing about the suggestion for the campaign. Our Greater Everett Chamber of Commerce is launching a Meet Everett campaign, and I do think there's a great opportunity to integrate youth voices into that. So I'd be happy to reach out to Wendy Poishbeg, who's the CEO for the Chamber of Commerce, to make sure that the youth perspective and youth input is included in that Meet Everett campaign, because I agree. I think it's a good opportunity to make sure we're using the right channels to reach everybody in everett of all ages so thank you so much for being here today i thank you to the commenters about ctet and i just want to reiterate that i would love to see a broader opportunity for public engagement jane before you go thank you for sharing your story uh it does sound like there's some uh legal Thank you. Appreciate it. For anybody who is experiencing some legal troubles, particularly around housing or concerns about estate work and custody and whatnot, I encourage them to reach out to our Snohomish County legal, Snohomish legal services team. It's a nonprofit organization that can help with providing services. input and legal advice for folks who are in need. And at the approval of the chair, and if Richard also doesn't mind, I did have a couple of questions, follow-up questions from the presentation today, if that would be okay. Richard, do you mind? Thank you. Thank you again for coming today and I appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and for the report that was provided to us as well. I want to be very clear and important. It's important to me to acknowledge the separate lanes that we do have and be respectful of the delineation between those two. those two, and also that the council does not have the authority or oversight of your daily operations, I understand. However, when a community group is in a place where they came to us because they're desperate for transparency and dialogue, I do feel obligated to provide some support. So my understanding is that this snowball started with a request from Everett Figure Skating Club, like we have heard today about the ice allocation policy. So my first question is just yes or no. Does the rink have a written ice time allocation policy?

Yes, we do. It is not to the detail or depth I believe that the Everett Figure Skating Club would prefer. We do have that policy designed that way intentionally because we are dealing with a lot of different requests, a lot of different users with a lot of different needs. It's a very diverse group, both of people as well as activities. And so we want to be as flexible as possible so that we can make sure that We allocate our time to our public so that they have their time to skate. We have our time for our rink run programming. And then we have this ever-shifting puzzle of who needs ice and when they can use it. And so by keeping the policy flexible, we're able to serve the needs of more people and more skating groups.

Thanks. And so I'm struggling with how to reconcile what I've been hearing from the letter that was provided from Oakview and from Everett Figure Skating Club. Oakview shared that they do support figure skating and I'm personally very excited about Skate America and getting to have Alyssa Liu right here in Everett. Um, and I'm, but I've also been hearing, um, from Everett figure skating club that the struggles about predictability of ice time and, uh, struggles with ice management on ice times, you know, it's difficult when there is that flexibility. I know there's a sweet spot of. how to provide flexibility without impinging on predictability of when parents and skaters can expect ice. So one of the questions that I feel like is the elephant is the room is why not just support the Everett Figure Skating Club nonprofit and their program with their established skaters, their coaches and cultures? Why not help them grow? and provide them the support that they need to continue their 20 years of legacy here in the city, instead of having a separate branch for programs.

So what we believe and what we've seen is that the pipeline, as Dottie talked about, and as I kind of alluded to, from learn to skate to higher level figure skating, we're not seeing it. We're seeing people go from learn to skate, show their love of skating, both whether it's youth, whether it's adults, and moving up. And they graduate from level six of the learn to skate program. And then we're losing. We're losing them. They're not continuing with figure skating. A number of them do go to learn to play or go to hockey, but there's a significant drop off. We've shown over the last year underneath the leadership of our rink director and our programs manager that we can over double the participation at Learn to Skate. We believe there's an opportunity there to capture those skaters and bring them along with figure skating. So it's not about competing with the figure skating club. It's not about taking anything away from them. It's about providing programming that we know we can run and that we can succeed with.

So it feels like the writing's on the wall that Oakview won't be renewing the contract. Is there anything that can be done for Oakview to reconsider?

We haven't said that we aren't willing to rent the mice. We're very much willing to rent the mice. I think there's also a little bit of a... Miscommunication in regards to things. It is a contract, but what it is is it's a license use agreement. It's a use agreement for them to use the ICE. It establishes rates and it establishes the parameters around that, specifically in regards to insurance, in regards to items like that. We do get the times from them when we do that, but the times are constantly shifting from every user group. We make every user group sign this use agreement. So it's not a contractual thing. It's not that type of situation. We have tried to approach them as far back as April to work with this and do this. And as I stated, they've canceled meetings. They've refused to speak with us. They've sent us letters saying that we're not allowed to speak with them, that we can only speak to their board. And we've tried to speak with them. The contracts, the specific contract that they submitted a couple months ago to the EPFD, we were advised by EPFD legal counsel that no municipality would ever sign an agreement like this because it locked in certain aspects that are just not things that we can operate under. So we're not opposed to working with the Figure Skating Club. We very much, we're committed to renting them ice. We're committed to the Christmas program. It is on our schedule for this December 20th. We are committed to doing Blades on Broadway in March. We're committed to continuing the test sessions with them. We're committed to maintaining their home ice designation. We're very much in support of the Figure Skating Club, and we believe they do have a place at the community ice rink.

Thank you. If you don't mind providing the written ice time allocation policy. Yeah, sure. I'll send that.

I'll forward that over to you.

Appreciate it. Thank you. That's all for me.

Okay. Thank you. And thank you for coming up and answering the questions. Appreciate that. Council Member Barbato.

Just briefly, I met with the community on Casino Road last Thursday. We talked about a lot of things, but A lot of the neighbors agreed that they would like to have more opportunities for their kids to spend time outside. Kids will spend more time outside, show better school performance, focus, and healthier development that kids will stay inside. Something to consider as we develop our beautiful city. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Toohey.

Yeah, I want to just thank and appreciate all the commenters today. And I also appreciate and agree with the mayor's comments on the devastating event in Seattle and how alarming it is for the gun violence among our youth and the challenges that that provides to our community. So just got to work, try to figure that one out.

Thank you. Councilman aware.

Yeah, thank you again to our speakers and the commenters that have come in. I know some of you have been here multiple times, and we do appreciate hearing your perspective on things. And thank you, Councilmember Ryan, for your questions regarding the figure skating, the conflict that seems to be ongoing. And yeah, there's always two sides of the story, and it's hard to find that middle ground sometimes of where that lands. And I particularly appreciate our interns that are here today and love the idea of that youth-driven, youth-focused social media approach because there is a lot of great stuff going on in our city. But I think that particularly for youth, it's harder to access or know where to access that. So that's fantastic. So I was able to attend part of the Council of Neighborhoods meeting this week and hear about some of the great things that are happening across the city. A few highlights are the Delta Neighborhood, as I've mentioned before, is hosting their Shakespeare in the Park event. This Saturday at Wiggum's hollow it's a completely free theater in the park they'll have hot dogs ice cream kids activities it's really a good time. The Northwest neighborhood has their mother of all garage sales also on Saturday, so full day out in the north end and. We have national night out coming up on the fourth of August and here I got to read it off my computer because there are so many different groups that are doing. These are free community events, most of them have some kind of activities, whether it's from movies pizza parties ice cream social so. All across the city. Some highlights, though, that we've got listed on the website for the city are Boulevard Bluffs is hosting, Harborview-Seahorse-Glenhaven neighborhood, Lowell Neighborhood Association, Northwest Neighborhood, Port Gardner, Riverside, and Valley View. And South Forest Park also is doing a special event at the Zion Church or the Zion community area there. So that as well as it being primary voting day. So make sure you get your vote out for that. Let's see if I had anything else. Monte Cristo Awards, our nominations are open and they close on August 4th. That's a great way to recognize the neighbors, businesses and organizations that are just demonstrating pride in our community. And thank you to our residents that have volunteered for the voter pamphlet pro and con statements. That's a commitment time that they didn't have to engage in, but we really appreciate them taking that on. And that's it for me.

Okay, thank you. And matching shirt, Councilman Zerlingo.

I also would like to thank our commenters and all their variety, and especially the interns. They get their age and their understanding of social media and how it actually works. And also the focus on things from their perspective. It's just something that the rest of us are not able to duplicate. I really appreciate that. And also I'd like to recognize Mackenzie Sullivan, co-chair of the Silver Lake Neighborhood, who organized last week's Silver Lake Neighborhood Association. Helps us stay connected. And it's a good bridge also because half of this neighborhood is county in addition to the city. So it's a good bridge between city and county issues and some of the areas that we're subject to. Okay, thank you very much.

And just for my part, I do also want to thank those that spoke today. And I appreciate meeting some of our city interns. What a great program. Thank you, Mayor, for having that. And yes, we do need to have youth involved in social media because they can run it for the older people. So The older people look at it, but you guys need to take care of things. So thank you for that. It was great. I, too, just want to emphasize that we do should have a mail-in ballot at your home if it's not in mint. So it's really important that your voice be heard. The city itself, we put a fire EMS levy on there. So it's a big decision. So please put your vote in. One more thing, just for this group council, we are still working on an interpretive software for those for English as second or third language for speakers. So we're making some headway on that. So thank you very much. So we'll go on to administration report.

I don't think I have anything else. I'll have some comments when we get to the charter item. So yeah.

Okay. How about from our city attorney?

No comments and no executive session today.

Okay, great. So we're moving to our consent items. We have several here today. We have 16. Is there a motion in a second? What about the moves?

Council Member Ryan seconds.

Okay, motion and seconds been made. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Bader. Yes. Vice President Ryan? Yes. Council Member Bravano?

Yes.

Council Member Toohey? Yes. Council Member Weir? Yes. Council Member Zarlengo?

Yes.

President Schwab.

Yes. Okay, we'll move to our briefing and proposed action item. And it's on item number 17, Council Bill 2607-39. First reading adopted ordinance establishing rules and procedures for the use of real property for public benefit purposes in accordance with RCW 39.33.015. adding new section to chapter 3.84 of the EMC. The third and final reading will be August 12, 2026. And for the briefing purposes, this is also relating to item number 26 on the agenda.

So community development manager, I think that's right, Kimber. Kimber Lander is here. And this is a really, another really exciting item in our efforts to increase housing supply and solve our housing crisis this summer. So another step forward and not that we're solving it this summer, but we're working this summer to move to solve it. So Kimber, go ahead. Yes.

So thank you, Council, for having me today. Again, my name is Kimber Landry. I'm the Community Development Manager. Typically, you'll probably see me for federal funding discussions or other grants related to community development and housing. But today, I am here to provide you with information on the ordinance that is in front of you. That's for briefing and first reading. And it focuses on establishing rules and procedures for the use of real property for public benefit in accordance with RCW 39.33.015. So that statute, RCW 39.33.015, gives the city the authority to transfer, sell, or lease real property held by enterprise funds. So, for example, such as our utility fund for public benefit. And in these codes and regulations, that specifically means affordable housing use. So meaning... And clearer speak that this allows the city to recognize surplus utility properties and either sell or lease those said properties at below fair market value or even at no cost if the property will be used for affordable or low-income housing. Under that RCW, and I'll save and pause and not say it again, City Council must first adopt procedures which are listed in this ordinance before implementing the authority for us to do that. So to accommodate this, the proposed ordinances before you will add new procedural sections specifically to Chapter 3.84 of the Everett Municipal Code, which governs sales and leases of the city's real property. Those changes, if you'd like to see them, are specifically listed in Exhibit A to the ordinance. But a summary of those changes is that the first requirement is that city council passes a resolution, which you will see later in your agenda. That's the item that he was referring to, item 26, to transfer an identified property from the city's utility fund, so fund 401, into the city's affordable housing fund, which is fund 197. Following City Council's action for the property resolution, City staff will then seek development partners for the development of affordable housing on the site. And then when an appropriate partner is found, the proposed lease or purchase agreement will then be brought to Council for approval. That ends my quick colorful rainbow of overview for this, and I'm happy to answer any specific questions that you all might have.

Council Member Ryan.

Thank you. Thanks, Kimber. I was curious if any of the procedures involve like a postcard notification to adjacent properties or anything along those lines.

That's a good question. I do not remember that off the top of my head, but I can kind of write that down and bring that back for further discussion at the next reading. Sure. That'd be great. Thanks.

um and then or i mean i'm thinking of like proposed land use actions you know and like how neighbors are notified and they have a comment period so i'm not sure if this is a similar similarly uh similar type of activity that would trigger that kind of uh public response so yeah i'd be curious to know uh and then also uh i assume the answer is yes but does the city have a list of properties that um that this would apply to

There is, I believe, a group that meets to kind of make those decisions and discussions. I will invite Jennifer to see if she wants to add anything on that one.

I'm sure there's an actual list, like the city's aware of properties that could qualify, I guess, for this opportunity. I don't believe that we have a list. I know we don't have a list of like what would be in the queue, where we might apply it, but like What property does the city own that is knowable? Yeah.

I was thinking more about could apply instead of next on the list. Right. Okay. Great. Thanks. Love to see the list, by the way. Thanks.

Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll move to proposed action item 18, Council Bill 2607-40. First reading, adopt an ordinance creating a special improvement project entitled Langus Peer Removal, Fund 354, Program 113 to accumulate all costs for the engineering design of the amount of $128,000. Third and final reading will be August 12, 2026. Does Council have any questions or comments? Council Member Tuohy.

Yeah, I just am curious. It says removal. Are they putting another peer back in?

Go ahead, Kimberly. Okay, sorry. Hi, Kimberly Moore, Parks and Facilities Director. Councilmember Toohey, we will not be replacing this pier. The cost to replace it is significant. And the use of this particular pier at Langus is not heavily used. And so parks is going to use the insurance money to remove the unsafe pier and then use those funds for other park projects that we need to prioritize.

So that's not the area that the rowing club uses? It is not.

No, it's further down.

Yeah, the north, on the north end. Correct. Okay, great. Thank you.

Council Member Ryan.

Thanks, Kimberly. My question was about insurance. I was curious if there's insurance coverage to pay for this, and it sounds like there is.

Yeah, we had a derelict vessel that became insecure further up the river and ran into this pier in March of 2025. The city did receive insurance funds. Those funds have been put into the Parks Capital Improvement Fund, number three. And we are going to use those funds. It kind of helped us pay for the reconstruction of the Wiggums Park playground after the destruction. It's also going to help us keep on track with our playground replacement schedules. So we really need the funds. And this, like I said, this pier is very lightly used compared to other assets in the city.

Great. So was it a payout from the derelict vessel owners insurance? Yes. I don't believe so. Thanks.

Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. The third and final reading will be August 12th. Okay. We'll move to our action items. Item number 12 counts. Oh, I'm sorry. 19. Thank you very much. Okay, Council Bill 2607-41, first reading, adopt an ordinance creating a special improvement project entitled A Turnbull Gazebo at Harborview Park. Fund 354, Program 114, to accumulate design costs for the project. Third and final reading will be August 12, 2026. Any questions? I have a quick question. And that is, I know I was part of the kind of the community outreach. One of the things that was up in the air was the location. Has that been decided yet? Specifically at the park itself?

We have not made a firm decision on the location, although we are taking the feedback we received from that community meeting to heart. Right now, we're going to work on design and make sure we can afford the project. And then we are going to go out to the direct neighbors in the Harborview Park area. With that location, the park does sit down level so we don't believe that developing the gazebo is going to block any views or, or be a nuisance in any way like that. But we do want to do one more outreach before we finalize the location within the park.

Okay, thank you. And you've let me know to find me when that happens to be great. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay, moving on to, now we'll move on to item number 20. It's third and final reading, Council Bill 2606-35, adopt an ordinance updating the rules and procedures for the multifamily tax exemption program in accordance with RCW 84.14, amending chapter 3.78 of the EMC. Is there a motion?

Councilor Bader, so moves.

Second the motion. Okay, motion second. All right, are there any comments or questions or amendments? Councilor Ryan.

Just a comment, I guess. No need to get up, Frank. In the same way that we had a check-in the first time that we implemented the MFTE, I remember Council Member Stonecipher had asked for staff to come back and let us know how it's going and if there are any tweaks needed to be made. I'd be grateful for... A year or two from now to do another check in to see if we need to right size again or just to get a progress update on how our incentivization, if that's a word, is working.

Hi, good afternoon. Frank Hong, Housing Policy Development Lead. Yeah, we are. We will come back in two years to do another revision because there's another house bill that requires us to do some other updates that we cannot fit in this go around. So we will be back in sometime in 28.

Fantastic. Thank you.

Thank you any other questions or comments. Okay, seeing none. We have a motion and a second for item number 20. So clerk, please take the role.

Councilmember Bader? Yes. Vice President Ryan? Yes. Councilmember Verbano? Yes. Councilmember Tui? Yes. Councilmember Weir? Yes. Councilmember Zarlengo? President Schwab?

Yes. Okay, we'll go to item 21 council bill to 607 dash three six third and final reading adopt an ordinance amending ordinance or one seven seven and time dash 26 entitled Everett outdoor events center fund three for two. Program 052 to accumulate costs for the design and partial property acquisition of the Everett outdoor events center project, do I have motion. What about the moves? Okay. Second. In a second. Okay. So any questions or comments from council? Council Member Tuohy.

I just have a question for, oh, he is here. There you are. You mentioned last time that you're coming back with information on how the payback is going to be handled into the general fund.

Councilmember Tui, that is correct. In discussions with finance, they plan to bring that forward in the coming weeks. There's a time frame in which we need to use that allocation and how that plays into the project. So we have to be cognizant of when we pass that ordinance. not to lose that window of being able to pay ourselves back. So we want to wait as long as we possibly can on that resolution so that we can go back and forward with allocations of funds.

So we'll pay back from funds that we're getting for the event center? Is that... That's what I'm kind of confused about.

Yeah, so we'll pay ourselves back when we get the funding to move forward with the project. Okay. But the ordinance will come before you prior to that in the next couple weeks.

Okay. And when do you think, do you know when the funding will be, the financing will all be set? Any projection?

That'll be early fall.

All right.

Thank you. Mayor Mrakas, Any other questions. Mayor Mrakas, Great Thank you very much. Mayor Mrakas, Okay, so we have a motion and second for item number 21 any any further questions or comments. Mayor Mrakas, Please take the role.

Mayor Mrakas, Yes, President Ryan yes Council member bravado yes Council member to eat no Council member we're yes Council members are then go. Mayor Mrakas, Yes, President Schwab yes.

Okay, so moving on to item number 22, council bill 2607-38, third and final reading, adopt an ordinance amending ordinance number 4024-24 entitled South Police Precinct HVAC Control Replacement Project. Do I have a motion?

Councilor Ryan, some moves. Second.

Motion is second made. Is there any questions or comments from council? Seeing none, clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Bader.

Yes.

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

Yes.

President Schwab.

Yes. Okay. We now have item number 23, authorize the mayor to sign the third amendment to lease the, or lease at 3310 Payne Avenue. Do I have a motion?

Motion. Council Member Ryan seconds.

Seconds and made. Is there any other questions or comments? For the record, Jennifer, what the what is 3310 Payne Avenue?

For those watching it, it is property that the city plans to use for police. Storage storage, right? Yep.

Perfect. Yes. Clerk, please take the role.

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

Yes.

President Schwab?

Yes. Item number 24, approve recommended appointments for voter pamphlet pro and con committees for Proposition 1 through 5 and ask that staff transmit these names to the Snohomish County Auditor for the November general election. Is there a motion?

So move to motion. Councilmember Weir, seconds.

Okay, motion and seconds made. Are there questions or comments from council? Okay. Clerk, please take the roll.

Councilmember Bader?

Yes.

Vice President Ryan? Yes. Councilmember Brabano? Yes. Councilmember Tuohy? Yes. Councilmember Weir? Yes. Councilmember Zarlinko? Yes. President Schwab?

Yes. Okay, moving to item 25, adopt a resolution approving purchase of property.

Sorry.

Sorry, can we interrupt here real quick? I just wanted to note that we've got volunteers for the pros, but if members of the public are still interested in signing up for the con committee, we'll transmit this on the 4th. So either contact the city before the 4th or contact the county at the auditor's office if you have interest in it. We still need more people to volunteer for that.

Okay, thank you for that. Council Member Ryan.

Would council need to re-approve if folks did sign up for the con?

No, so we set this deadline and we'll take this list. If we don't fill all the seats, the responsibility goes to the auditor to advertise and then take any future volunteers.

So if folks wanted to sign up for con, we would pass their names to the auditor's office to then connect. Correct. Okay.

The deadline to submit them is before your next meeting, so you can't take another action in time for the auditor's deadline. Okay. Understood. Great. Thanks.

Since we're on that little detail, then there'll be, there's the positions for pro is all filled.

Well, proposition, the civil service and the initiative threshold propositions have a slot left. So. Okay.

So someone could potentially sign up to the auditors for a pro too. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. All right, so we're on to item 25, adopt a resolution approving purchase of property for the Everett Outdoor Events Center. Jennifer, did you have a comment?

No.

Okay. Is there a motion from council?

Councilor Bader-Samoos.

Councilor Ryan seconds.

Okay, motion seconds are made. Any questions or comments from council?

It is listed under briefing. Did we want to be?

That's why I asked. Yeah. Okay, we're good.

No, it was attached to the last item that you there's the funding ordinance. And then this is sorry, which item are we on 2525? Good, because there's another one that we don't have a briefing for. But anyway, it's a big agenda. This is just sort of implementing the funding ordinance that you just approved. So we don't have further comments. But we could take questions if there are any.

Okay. Seeing no questions or comments. Clerk, please take the roll.

Council Member Bader? Yes. President Ryan? Yes. Council Member Pappano? Yes. Council Member Tuohy? Yes. Council Member Weir? Yes. Council Member Zarlengo?

Yes.

President Schwab.

Yes. Okay. Item number 26, which we received partial briefing from the earlier item. Adopt a resolution authorizing transfer of certain real property at 6731 Beverly Boulevard from Fund 401 to Fund 197 for public benefit purposes in accordance with RCW 39.33.015 and Chapter 3.84 of the EMC.

Go ahead.

Good afternoon. Frank Collin, Housing Policy Development Lead. As mentioned earlier, this resolution is in relations to the internal transfer procedures that were mentioned previously. I'll add in response to Council Member Ryan. Yes, the city does have a frequent meeting in terms of reviewing properties and across the city that we own. Housing has been talking with planning as well as the mayor's office in terms of identifying certain sites, but we have nothing confirmed. It's mainly just informal and we just examine sites for opportunities. In terms of this resolution here today, the internal transfers procedure sets the baseline foundation that allows us to utilize or transfer utility properties for public purposes such as affordable housing and then moving forward, we will issue resolutions for each specific project. Right now, we do not have a confirmed projects, but we are in active negotiations with various housing developers locally, regionally, as well as talking with funders, exploring the best opportunities for this site at 6731 Beverly, which is in Council Member Ryan's district. You know, qualifications that we would look for, affordable housing, family size housing, things that address the needs of our community. So yeah, mainly have a lot of just high level information right now. We don't have the details, but when we do have the details, we will be coming back to council for that.

Any questions or comments? Council Member Ryan.

Great, thank you. I'm happy to support this. I am also a big supporter of food truck lots, which I know this space had previously been home to. It seems like it was a great idea, maybe not the right location, to really have a food truck lot flourish. So I'd love to see efforts from the city for projects. placing a food truck lot somewhere that you know might be more central or better utilized or whatnot because I think it's a great way for budding restaurant entrepreneurs to test out their menu and whatnot so yeah thanks for bringing this forward.

Any other questions from council? Okay. And then are we looking for adoption action today? Correct? No.

You have to pass that property surplus ordinance that you heard about from Kimbra. So you'll take action in three weeks on that. And then we'll ask for action on this one after that.

After that. Okay. So just a briefing. Okay. Just want to make sure.

Okay.

Great. All right. Thanks, everyone. That's a big agenda. We have no further action. So meeting is adjourned.