EVERETT – Members of the city’s Charter Review Commission said they want to hear more after only two Everett residents spoke at the commission’s public hearing Monday night.
From now on, the first portion of each commission meeting will be open for residents to speak their minds.
The informal decision came after two south Everett residents urged the commission to consider changing the charter so that at least some of the city’s seven council members are from specified districts.
West Mall Drive resident Gordy Lindstrom held up a map of Everett, with an X for the residence of each council member. Five of the seven are clustered in the Northwest neighborhood.
“Living in south Everett, I don’t feel represented,” he said. “We don’t even have enough representatives, if it were a south Everett versus a north Everett issue, to get a second on a motion.”
Twelve of the 15 charter review members were present. Fourteen were appointed by Mayor Ray Stephanson; the 15th was appointed by the other 14 members at the first meeting.
The commission is charged with updating the document that is the cornerstone for the city. Members began meeting in January and are expected to make their recommendations to the City Council in June.
The council will then have the option to approve or deny the recommendations, or add its own. Any changes to the charter will go under public scrutiny in general elections this fall.
The city’s charter was drafted in 1968. A commission reviewed it in 1978 and again in 1996, when the commission added that the charter be reviewed every 10 years.
Jackie Minchew, who challenged City Councilman Arlan Hatloe for his seat last fall, also spoke in favor of a districting requirement for council members.
Ray Stephanson, council President Brenda Stonecipher and council members Mark Olson, Drew Nielsen and Paul Roberts also spoke to the commission.
Roberts argued that a requirement that some or all of the council members come from separate districts wouldn’t be appropriate for Everett.
Olson suggested the city switch from an annual to a two-year budget cycle and asked that the council no longer be required to meet 52 times each year. Several meetings each year last only a few minutes, he said. Forty-six meetings might be more appropriate.
“If there’s nothing on the agenda, there shouldn’t be a meeting,” he said. “You should give the council some institutional flexibility.”
Nielsen asked that city employees be allowed to serve on advisory committees. He cited one example of a part-time employee for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department who was prohibited from serving on the Historic Commission.
“It seems to me an artificial restriction,” he said.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
Charter review meeting
The next Everett Charter Review Commission meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. April 10 on the eighth floor of the Wall Street Building, 2930 Wetmore Ave.
The city’s charter is available online through the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington Web site: www.mrsc.org/mc/everett/EveretCH.html.
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