Everett City Council gets ideas for rules of conduct

EVERETT — Three city councilmen have spent weeks putting together recommendations on how the council can operate openly and efficiently.

A group of Everett people have their own ideas.

About 20 people who live mainly in north Everett have put together an 11-page draft covering how the City Council should operate, including items such as how a council president is elected and how long the public may speak.

Former Councilman Mark Olson — who later insisted he was not the group leader — presented it at the Wednesday night meeting.

Everett is the only large city in the state that doesn’t have some sort of rules for conduct of the City Council, he said. The lack of them has caused fundamental problems. He alluded to the flap the council stirred up when it decided Jan. 6 to move three meetings a month to mornings — without public notice.

The draft wasn’t signed, but later Olson said the group was made up of diverse people, including another former city councilman, a real estate agent, teachers and several Boeing retirees.

The group met weekly for two months and put together a set of best practices by researching the workings of Tacoma, Bellevue, Bellingham and Vancouver, Wash.

Olson said he’s wanted to address these issues for three years while he was on the council. He didn’t make changes then because he couldn’t muster the support of his colleagues, he said.

“The lack of procedures leads to bad decision-making and gotcha politics,” Olson said Thursday.

City leaders — including himself, Olson said — had taken advantage of the situation at times.

At the same meeting, council held a workshop on its own draft. That conversation didn’t get far because three of the seven council members were absent: Brenda Stonecipher, Arlan Hatloe and Ron Gipson.

Councilman Shannon Affholter urged his colleagues to hold off until April 14, the first available date all council should be present.

Councilman Jeff Moore said he was concerned the council was moving too fast and the public hadn’t been involved enough.

After some discussion, including about whether the council should scrap committee meetings, the workshop adjourned. No public comment was offered during the workshop. One man sitting in the audience came to the podium and began to address the council as staff and city leaders were gathering up their things and leaving.

On Thursday, Councilman Drew Nielsen said this is new territory for the council. Doing the people’s business in public is sometimes messy. That’s something new for a council that historically takes pride in its efficiency and professionalism.

“It’s not our culture to do this stuff,” he said. “We’re learning as we go.”

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

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