EVERETT — The Everett City Council is set to vote on an amendment to its 2025 budget next week, allocating money for new employees and work on the city’s multipurpose stadium project.
Most of the amendment is tied to reappropriations of unspent funds approved in the 2024 budget. Cities use reappropriations to carry forward projects which overlap fiscal years.
But some changes to the budget included funding for new employees in some city departments, allocated spending for newly received grants and identified spending reductions to offset some costs.
In total, the amendment would approve an increase of just under $200,000 in general government spending. It would also budget for an increase in non-general government spending by about $2.3 million.
The amendment would approve about $1.25 million in spending related to work on the city’s multipurpose stadium project. Some of that spending has already been approved by the City Council — the amendment would just provide budget authority for those agreements.
Those two previously approved spending measures include a 457,987 contract with project consultants Shielz Obletz Johnson the council approved in December and $200,000 for preliminary construction work the council approved in February.
The budget amendment would also approve spending an estimated $600,000 in legal expenses related to the stadium project over the next year.
The $600,000 will go toward developing a financing plan for the stadium, communicating with property and business owners at the downtown stadium site with regard to acquisition, and negotiating contracts and lease agreements, city project manager Scott Pattison said April 2.
The city already factored these expenses into cost estimates for the stadium, said Jennifer Gregerson, the city’s government affairs director, on April 2. The entire project is expected to cost between $84.4 million and $114.6 million, with another $18 million needed for property acquisition, according to a city estimate. Everett would not have to spend general fund dollars to build the facility, a city fiscal advisory committee wrote in a December report.
The council has not yet decided whether to build the stadium.
“The big decision that you will have, the go or no go, is toward the end of the year. I know everyone wants to see that big, full, nice, clean, complete budget of exactly this much is going to cost and how much we spend on every single aspect of it,” Mayor Cassie Franklin said April 2. “This work will help determine that.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, when the council was scheduled to vote on the budget amendment, council member Judy Tuohy moved to table the vote because she felt the city was not being transparent enough about allocating additional funding for the multipurpose stadium project.
“I have no problems supporting the budget amendment, but I do have a problem with including the $600,000 for the outdoor multipurpose stadium because it hasn’t been on a public agenda for our constituents to know that it’s being considered,” Tuohy said.
On Wednesday, the council voted 3-2 to table the budget amendment vote until April 16.
Everett took on a multipurpose stadium project as a way to find a new home for the minor league Everett AquaSox. The team’s current stadium, Funko Field, is out of compliance with new Major League Baseball requirements. If the team doesn’t move stadiums or significantly renovate its existing one, it would likely leave Everett.
The city spent almost two years studying potential locations for a new stadium before selecting a downtown site in December. If built, it could host not just a minor league baseball team but also, potentially, men’s and women’s United Soccer League teams.
The next action regarding the stadium would be a funding ordinance in May or June to approve a contract with a progressive-design build team, Pattison said. That vote could come with a price tag between $2.5 million and $3.5 million, he said in February.
Also, in May or June, the council could authorize the city to start negotiations for property acquisition at the stadium site. The city could displace as many as 17 businesses currently on the site of the proposed stadium if the project was to move forward.
But the city also doesn’t know how many of those businesses may need to be relocated, as design work isn’t at a point where staff would know where the exact footprint of the stadium could land. More complete cost estimates for the facility and information regarding how much property the city may need to acquire is expected to come once design work moves ahead.
Council approval of lease agreements with the United Soccer League and Everett AquaSox for use of the new stadium could take place by November or December. Around the same time, the council may also consider whether to approve construction of the stadium.
Here are some of the other amendments the council is set to vote on:
• One full-time court commissioner in municipal court would be added due to implementation of photo enforcement cameras. Costs will be split between the general fund and photo enforcement revenues. This position is being added because the workload for municipal court judges has risen, city finance director Heidi Brillantes said on March 26. The new commissioner will help process photo enforcement tickets and handle non-jury trial matters, she said.
• One building inspector in permitting division would be added to address a backlog in permits. Costs for that position would be supported by permit fees.
• Interim support in the clerk’s office and legal department would be added because of an extended leave of absence and retirement.
• The city would reinstate two parking enforcement officers who did not take voluntary separations, as the city initially assumed in the 2025 budget. The costs would be offset by reductions in other departments, including maintenance and operation reductions in the fire department and a vacant position in public works. The reduction in fire department spending would not affect fire or medical support in the community, Brillantes said. Those reductions in spending were identified last year but not included in the 2025 budget due to timing, she added.
• As part of a relocation of the public works department, the city needs to move a traffic management center video wall, which oversees 40 cameras, sees live feeds from WSDOT and controls about 178 traffic signals in the city. The budget amendment would allocate funding for moving the facility.
• Spending would be allocated for a water quality analyst and industrial waste inspector at the city’s water and sewer utility department. Those two positions would be added to support staff due to additional regulatory requirements.
• The equipment replacement budget would be increased, mostly due to price increases in previously budgeted replacements. The amendment also clears the way for a nearly $600,000 purchase of fire department equipment, originally planned for 2026 but now expected to take place in 2025.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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