Remarks by Don Schwab
110 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 5
“Well, good evening, residents of Everett, Washington. I'd like to call to order the Everett City Council meeting for October 21st, 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 role?”
“Excused. President Schwab. Here. This time, I'd like to ask Council Member Brabano to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. I'd like to ask Councilmember Weir to recite the land acknowledgement.”
“Thank you, and big night tonight. Mayor, welcome.”
“Thank you very much. I appreciate your preparation and your statements. Okay. That was a big mayor's comment. So we'll move to our next section. We go to old business. Do I hear a motion for the approval of the minutes for October 14th, 2026? Council Member Ryan, some moves. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, please take the roll.”
“Yes. 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 be made part of our official council record. Okay. So tonight, I do want to address, just have some clarification for the public. At times, we have what we call open public hearing, which is another opportunity to speak on a specific issue. We also give opportunities every council meeting to have a form of public hearing. We call it public…”
“6. okay thank you very much okay thank you everybody for their comments um our next section of our meeting it goes into council comments and we will begin with council vice president council member paula wright great thank you everybody thank you so much for your comments tonight um i just left but i i did want to share first that i uh appreciate everybody's comments uh this evening and i support enhanced protections for patients”
“Thank you. For my comments, I attended the Everett Library Board meeting. And of course, budget's always difficult. They're performing miracles with the dollars that are allocated. There was an amazing presentation by the Everett Care Team, and they talked about the buffer zones, and they're also working on a behavioral policy for customers of the library. They're working very hard to create an atmosphere to fit all types of users, customers of our system. So I think they made some very positive statements, especially for our care team. Very excited about that. Also, I attended the...…”
“OK, thank you. How about our city attorney, Ramsey Ramerman?”
“OK, thank you very much. OK, so we'll move to our consent items. We have five consent items. Do I hear a motion in a second?”
“Council Member, we're second. All right, thank you. Motion and second's been made. Clerk, please take the roll.”
“Yes. Okay. Next on our proposed action item, and I'll read into the record, and then we'll have a staff presentation, and then we'll take comments from the public and then council comments. item number six council bill to 610 dash five to first reading adopt ordinance approving and authorizing the execution of interlocal agreement for annexation between the city of everett and Community transit there'll be a public hearing October 28 of this of this month, the third and final reading will be November 4 2026 so I believe we have a staff presentation so welcome.”
“For many years, Everett... I have a question. So I would like to kind of hang out here on the budget for a little bit, if that's okay. So... Dave Kuntz, One of the things that had come up in every transits like outlook there wasn't a deep dive in the in the budget. Dave Kuntz, But they had some reserves, could you address could someone here address some of their rare reserves my understanding that they're not designated for the operating costs, but for other grants and other things.”
“Dave Kuntz, yeah so here's the question how, why do we need to change when we have all these reserves, so if you can answer that question why don't we need to go to a different system when we're flush with money that's saying that's true, but I would like that question addressed.”
“And so my understanding is those reserve accounts aren't used for general operating expenses.”
“So what about this $100 million new repair facility and infrastructure needs?”
“So we're still talking more revenue needed other than the operating expenses.”
“To keep up with the capital improvement.”
“And that does not address the $100 million infrastructure needs, correct? If I remember right, the .3 did not address the need to build a new bus facility.”
“Councilman Ryan, Vice President Ryan had a question for Senator Bono.”
“Thank you. Councilman Rubano, do you have a question?”
“All right, thank you. And then I had one more question about the blue line. Did this chart here include the cost of the blue line?”
“Okay, thank you. Thank you very much to kind of pause there. No problem. Okay.”
“And how about if I just go down the line here, we'll go to Burbano and we'll just go around the circle.”
“Good. Thank you. Ben, would you like to ask a couple questions?”
“I'll go and then we'll, how about if I go and then we'll do public comment and we'll do another round robin. Okay, how's that? So kind of some big picture questions for you. Beginning with the employee protections. My understanding is that if you integrate the bargaining units, they have certain rights to determine what that some of that integration is, I guess, from a management point of view. Would you be in favor of a full integration of seniority?”