EVERETT — Voters in the city of Everett will see three charter amendments on the general election ballot this year.
The amendments were put forward this summer by the city’s charter review committee and approved by the City Council. Each needs a simple majority vote to pass.
Proposition 1, if it passes, would remove the council’s requirement that it meet every week during the year and meet only at City Hall.
Instead the council would be required to meet only 48 times per year and would have the ability to cancel meetings due to weather, holidays or a lack of agenda items.
Proposition 2 would allow the city clerk to make changes to the charter to update archaic wording, such as “heretofore,” and replace it with modern language.
Reid Shockey and Megan Dunn, who served on the charter review committee, argued in the voter’s pamphlet that the change would make the charter easier to update and more readable.
Longtime civic activist Victor Harris argued against the measure in the voter’s pamphlet.
“And whereas the Charter of the City of Everett is two score and a decade old, it has stood the test of time…,” he wrote. “It has served heretofore and shall continue to serve for another score.”
Proposition 3 would add a new section to the charter to require that appointments to city boards and commissions strive to reflect ethnic, age, gender and geographic diversity.
Arguing in favor, Shockey and Dunn said the amendment would “assist our leaders’ thinking to ensure Everett is a 21st century community.”
Arguing against the measure, Harris wrote that the change is unreasonably complicated and is a back-door attempt to partition the city on geographic lines.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
