Switch to day meetings splits Everett City Council

Published 10:57 pm Thursday, January 7, 2010

EVERETT — With zero notice to the public, four Everett city councilmen decided Wednesday to immediately limit night meetings to only one per month.

The resolution was a surprise to the three council members who favored night meetings.

That was by design.

Councilman Arlan Hatloe said Thursday the move was coordinated in advance.

“We did,” he said. “It was coordinated just like it was last year by them.”

The newest member of the council, Jeff Moore, was barely sworn in at Wednesday night’s meeting when a resolution was brought forward to repeal the night meeting ordinance. Hatloe said night meetings were sprung on the council last January “out of spite” by councilmembers who didn’t like it when he was elected as council president.

Councilwoman Brenda Stonecipher said she may have to step down or risk losing her day job if most of the meetings are in the morning.

Stonecipher, who voted against the measure, recently took a full-time job as a controller in Seattle.

“This isn’t the job market to be asking for special favors,” she said. “I’m in the process of figuring out whether I can make this work.”

Last year, a majority of the council said they wanted to move meetings to the evening so more people would have a chance to sit in or speak up about city business.

Hatloe said night meetings aren’t necessary for public participation when people can watch council meetings on television or on the Internet. Before last year, the council had met for decades in the morning and there appeared to be no better participation by the public in the evening, he said.

Plus, that’s what the city charter calls for, he said.

“The majority of people I don’t think care, to be quite frank,” Hatloe said.

Meetings will be scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Wednesdays, except for the third Wednesday of the month, which would be at 6:30 p.m. The resolution included a stipulation that the council would do its best to reserve issues members felt were important to the public for the monthly night meeting.

The council also has the discretion to schedule special meetings for hot-button topics.

Everett is now the only city in Snohomish County to offer council meetings in the morning. The part-time councilmembers are paid $26,280 a year whether they meet mornings or evenings. Everyone except Hatloe has full-time jobs elsewhere.

At the meeting, Stonecipher said the last-minute timing of the resolution and lack of public input was an insult to citizens. She made a motion to table the resolution until the public had had a chance to weigh in but that was voted down.

Hatloe, Moore and councilmen Ron Gipson and Shannon Affholter voted for reducing night meetings. Stonecipher and councilmen Drew Nielsen and Paul Roberts voted against.

“In my opinion, night meetings are a very important function of open government,” Nielsen said.

Even if no one comes to night meetings sometimes, the council still needs to be available to citizens, he said. He also said day meetings function as “an incumbent-protection machine” that discourages working people from serving on the council.

It’s illegal under state meeting law for councilmembers to collectively come to a decision outside of a meeting, said Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

And Nixon said he does believe that night meetings provide more of a chance for the public to get involved in government.

“It does almost seem like a deliberate attempt to reduce public participation,” he said.

Gipson said some of the councilmembers discussed the night meeting issue outside of council, but didn’t come to a decision.

“We just talked about the desires of the council,” he said.

The public can continue to comment on this issue by sending e-mails or calling councilmembers, he said.

“People can chime in on citizen comments,” Gipson said. “Even though we chose to move on, doesn’t prevent them from making phone calls or sending e-mails.”

Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.