City Council - Regular Meeting

0:17 – 0:46•DSDon Schwab

Good afternoon, residents of Everett, Washington. I'd like to call to order the Everett City Council meeting of August 26, 2026. For information on council meetings and how to participate, please visit our website at everett.gov slash city council. Please note that we do not allow comments of any kind of campaigning, whether for or against ballot measures or candidates running for office. We also do not accept comments focused on personal matters that are unrelated to city business. Clerk, will you please take the vote?

0:57•DSDon Schwab

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

1:19•DSDon Schwab

I'd like to ask Vice President Ryan to recite the land acknowledgement.

1:24 – 1:49•PRPaula Rhyne

Thank you, the City Council wishes to acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place the hopes 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 and the right to self determination and honor their sacred spiritual connection to the land and waters. We will be honest about our past mistakes to bring about a future that includes their voices, their people and their stories for a more just and equitable society.

1:50•DSDon Schwab

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

1:57 – 4:01•CFCassie Franklin

there we go turn on my mic um first i want to thank everybody who has and continues to provide us feedback on our proposed approach to transit consolidation i encourage everyone to visit everettwa.gov backslash transit consolidation to learn more or share your thoughts the forum for that is going to be open through september 2nd and then staff will be reporting to our city council and the community transit board with all the feedback received I also want to share a couple other updates. Work has started on the Edgewater Park renovation. This park will have a new sport court, walking paths, a p

4:03 – 4:15•DSDon Schwab

Thank you very much. All right. So we'll move on to old business. Do I hear approval for the minutes of August 19, 2026? Move to approve. Second motion and seconds been made. Clerk, please take the role.

4:22 – 4:45•DSDon Schwab

Yes. All right, so now it's time for public comment, which includes written comment acknowledgement. Under our rules, written comments shall be considered in the same manner as oral comments. The person submitting comments must provide their name and city of residence to make our council public record. Good afternoon, Angie. Welcome back. Do we have any written comments or did anyone sign up to speak?

11:31•DSDon Schwab

Okay. Thank you very much. All right. So move on to Council comments and begin with Council Member Bader.

11:37 – 12:26•SBScott Bader

Thanks, House President. A report on the Transportation Advisory Committee meeting, which I attended last week. A couple of things from the engineering and traffic engineering report increased ridership on Lime scooters here in July. Actually, a very high number. So just note those are being well used. Not always appropriately, but they are being used. So thanks to everybody who does use them appropriately and uses them well. We should be getting a parking study, I think, in the not-too-distant future, which I think not many of us have been in the works for downtown. And they also re-striped 2

12:28 – 13:26•SBScott Bader

They did not say it. So anyhow, and then we also heard, which we'll hear this afternoon from E.T. on the transit development plan and 2025 annual report. And then regarding Vision Zero, we heard a short update on daylighting intersections, which means oftentimes creating more sight, which does mean creating more sight distances at the intersection. So cars rolling up or coming up to the intersection and see more clearly pedestrians, non-motorized, other cars. And that may come to our safety committee at some point, safe communities committee as well. But just for all of us and for our constitu

13:26•DSDon Schwab

City Council Chambers, Thank you, thank you know question and maybe Jennifer can answer is there a website like project on that bridge yet set up like the edgewater one was.

13:37•DSDon Schwab

City Council Chambers, Okay, yes, thanks Thank you counselor right.

13:40 – 13:55•PRPaula Rhyne

City Council Chambers, Thank you, thank you for our commenters and their comments today appreciate it, and I agree with your sentiments about I do think that ever voters are very reasonable and they do want to know what their return on their investment is so I appreciate the flagging that for us, but other than that no comments thanks.

14:00 – 15:31•JTJudy Tuohy

Yeah, I attended the Snow 911 board meeting last Thursday. And for those of you, I don't report on it all that often because there's a lot of technical stuff, but the 911 call center is a vital component of our public safety throughout Snohomish County. One of the things I wanted to just mention is that we, as we worked on the annual review of the budget, There is an assessment that is put on the fire departments and fire departments based on calls of service and population of the city or area. So as you know, Everett's the largest. So the assessments are pretty healthy. The police department

15:32 – 17:47•DSDon Schwab

Thank you very much. Council Member Zerlingo. No report today. um i just there's a couple of things i just wanted to just make a comment on i've been getting a lot of questions about our flock camera system in the city and i just want to make a point that the city flock cameras are very um been very successful so thank you mayor for bringing in that that one particular case up and i hope you continue to to bring those up i don't think we hear the positives part when it comes these cameras also i'd like to relate this for the community if you're watching there are a lot of flock cameras out the

18:29 – 19:13•DSDon Schwab

All right, so we'll move to our consent items. We have three consent items. Do I hear a motion? seconded motion and seconds were made um clerk please take the role council member vader yes vice president ryan yes council member tui yes council members are then go yes president schwab yes okay we'll move to our proposed action items item number four council bill 2608 has been read into the record um 2608-42 second reading it's been read in the record are there any questions from council Okay, hearing none, the third and final reading will be September 2nd. Item number five, Council Bill 2608-43

19:16 – 20:45•DSDon Schwab

Okay, seeing none, the third and final reading will be September 2nd, 2026. Item number six, Council Bill 2608-44, first reading. Adopt an ordinance taking final action to authorize and provide for acquisition, including through the exercise of eminent domain of certain land and real property rights for the purpose of constructing the Everett Outdoor Events Center project. and authorizing the mayor to initiate eminent domain proceedings and to enter into agreement related to the acquisition of the land and real property rights. Third and final reading will be September 9th, 2026. Does Council

21:11•DSDon Schwab

Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Jennifer, you could have just said no.

21:21 – 21:43•DSDon Schwab

Okay, thank you very much for that. Okay, at this time, we will open a public hearing on the Everett Transit Development Plan and 2025 Annual Report. We'll first get a presentation, and then we'll open up for public comments if needed. So at this time, Jennifer, do we have a presentation?

30:16•DSDon Schwab

Dave Kuntz, A question that the expenditure deficit is that how's it compared to last couple years. Dave Kuntz, and

34:19•DSDon Schwab

Questions from Council? Councillor Bader.

34:22 – 35:04•SBScott Bader

Thanks, Council President. Mike, thanks. Great presentation. I get a second bite at the apple here since I got to hear this at TAC as well. So a couple of questions here as I look at page 25 of the multi-year financial plan. So I think this one got asked at TAC as well, but... is as we look at that under the expenditures on the middle of the page it doesn't assume payment any payment to swift to ct for swift there beyond actually last year and so we wouldn't if we did not merge wouldn't we have to assume there would be additional payments to ct

35:47 – 37:11•SBScott Bader

yeah but we probably probably would be wise to assume something if we didn't yeah okay and then a little further down there the uh under the transfer to operations transfer to capital reserves that gets significantly reduced after next year um any uh comments on on why that would be especially if we're looking to build a maintenance and operation base uh to yeah the reserves uh begin to wind down as we as we move further along in this six-year plan and that's just reflective of the rising cost to deliver service as well as um static revenues the revenues are not increasing so okay thanks just

38:02 – 38:51•SBScott Bader

uh the study studies centered around uh came to center around the epic site and that reduced that overall likelihood of expense to 105. that's good good okay good good news there and then i guess kind of final question connected to that a little further um uh i i think obviously to do this we would probably have to assume at the very least, the voters would approve a three-tenths increase. If they did that, and I don't know if you have this answer now again, but how much of the Moab expense would eat up, likely eat up that, or how much of that three-tenths would likely be eaten up by Moab vers

39:01 – 39:24•SBScott Bader

Okay, because I think that's going to be an important, as voters would consider, if they were to consider a three-tenths increase, I think obviously, I think a Moab isn't sexy like additional service hours are, right? So I think that would be an important piece of info we need to know about, you know, whether or not I think the voters might proceed with that. Okay, thank you.

40:04 – 40:26•DSDon Schwab

yeah and I had a question back to the some of the things you brought up to Council member um Vader um the raising the point nine percent from the point six my understanding was that did not include moab and that was just to maintain the current service is that a good is that an accurate statement when it was originally proposed here was it last year we talked about this

41:13 – 42:08•PRPaula Rhyne

Thank you. So my quick napkin math, which is probably inaccurate, sorry. I was looking through the numbers, and so for paratransit, I'm seeing that the cost for paratransit delivery is about $4,931,687 across 86,249 rides, which comes out to about $57.18 per ride. And then for regular bus service, say math comes out to about $11 per person per trip. And fare box recovery is pretty, pretty small fraction to offset both of that. So I guess it's not necessarily quite a question. I'm open for comments or whatnot. But I just wanted to highlight what a good deal the citizens and residents of Everett

42:26 – 42:40•DSDon Schwab

Thanks. All right. Thank you very much. Is that this presentation included then? Thank you. Good job. Okay. At this time, I'd like to ask Angie, is there anyone here signed up for the public hearing?

42:42 – 42:57•SBScott Bader

Okay. Can I get a quick question? Michael mentioned that we accept this. I'm not sure. Does that imply any action different than approval or does it imply any action whatsoever? I don't recall. Year by year, I don't recall a technical approach to it.

43:00•DSDon Schwab

Yeah, after we close the public hearing. Yeah, thank you. All right, so is this time there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Okay, motion is seconded. Clerk, please take the roll.

43:17 – 43:40•DSDon Schwab

Yes. Okay, action number eight, 2026 to 2031 Everett Transit Development Plan and 2025 Annual Report. Is there a motion to approve? um accept or approve sorry whatever I want to get it right a motion to accept thank you report to meet state law second the motion okay clerk please take the role

43:47 – 59:12•DSDon Schwab

Yes. Okay. It's time for executive session. The current time I have is 1.13, and we'll take about 15 minutes. So the council is expected to take questions. return. I got to do this official in 15 minutes. So that'll make it 129.29. Okay. Executive session has concluded with no further action by council. And so at this time, our August 19th meeting is adjourned.