EVERETT — Mayor Cassie Franklin put an emphasis on public safety during her annual State of the City address Thursday, announcing a new policing measure and a youth violence prevention directive.
At her keynote speech, Franklin also touched on the city budget, housing development, new parks and new businesses.
Everett must keep public safety as its “top priority,” Franklin said during her speech. She announced a new mayoral directive — her 13th issued while in office — aimed at reducing youth violence.
That announcement comes two months after a 13-year-old boy was injured in a stabbing while walking to school.
Mayoral directives instruct city staff to take specific actions at the mayor’s request. Franklin previously issued a mayoral directive aimed at reducing youth violence in 2018.
In her new directive, the mayor puts forth a broad list of actions for the city to take. The directive tells staff to increase the presence of school resource officers across campuses in the city and provide those officers with additional training. It tells staff to establish a new youth safety roundtable and an internal work group to track progress on youth-related initiatives.
The directive also instructs staff to advocate for new policies at the state level to make firearm access stricter and increase penalties for illegal firearm possession. It also instructs staff to advocate for juvenile justice reform and improved access to mental health services.
One other instruction in the directive tells staff to look toward new technology to increase policing. On Thursday, Franklin announced the city is set to pilot a new Drone-as-First-Responder program. That program would allow police to deploy automated drones to respond to incidents. Everett will be the second city to pilot the program in Washington, Franklin said.
“Technology like this is a force multiplier, allowing us to do more with limited resources and deliver real results for our community,” she said in her address.
The drone program was created by Flock Safety, the same company that Everett contracted to install its Flock camera system in 2024. That system analyzes footage to track license plates for police and has drawn opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union because of privacy concerns.
The Flock camera system assisted more than 70 arrests since the city installed it, Franklin said Thursday.
Crime in the city is down, Franklin said. Between 2023 and 2024, there was also approximately a 10% decrease in calls for service, city data shows.
Since 2018, Everett has added 18 new police officer positions and sworn in more than 120 officers, Franklin said. The city funds more officer positions per capita than Kent, Bellevue and Seattle, she said.
Everett’s police department, however, still had 20 vacant officer positions as of March 8.
Everett allocated more than $51 million to the police department in the city’s 2025 budget, up from $50.8 million in 2024, making it the largest expense in the city’s general fund. The city had previously increased the department’s budget by 18.6% between 2023 and 2024.
On the budget, Franklin said the council putting forth a property tax levy lid lift on the August 2024 ballot was “the right thing to do.”
Residents defeated the measure, with 59% voting against the levy lid lift. After it failed, the city made cuts to a number of city services, including parks, libraries and other governmental services to balance a looming $12.6 million deficit. The library reduced its open hours and the park rangers program was cut entirely. Thirty-one employees across the city lost their jobs.
“Despite voters not approving the measure, these conversations have shaped our understanding of what our community values and how we can fund our future,” she said.
While developing the 2026 budget, the city will be “right-sizing our services to meet the resources available and protecting the most essential services for our community,” Franklin said.
The mayor also highlighted new programs and improvements to city parks which took place over the past year.
One new program at the Everett Animal Shelter introduced in 2024, known as Wandering Rover, allows residents to take shelter dogs out into the community for a day, in an effort to give the dogs enrichment and extra visibility. That program helped about 100 dogs get adopted since it began, Franklin said.
Last year, the city completed renovations to Wiggums Hollow Park and the Phil Johnson Ballfields. Next year, it is set to add pickleball courts to Forest Park, a skate park to Lions Park and a dog park at Clark Park, Franklin said.
The mayor also highlighted a potential new downtown multipurpose stadium to host the Everett AquaSox and, possibly, bring men’s and women’s United Soccer League teams to the city. It is expected to cost between $84.4 million and $114.6 million, with another $18 million set aside for property acquisition.
If the project goes forward, the city is likely to primarily fund the stadium with private investment and revenue bonds, but could also spend about $4.5 million on the project using capital improvement funds. At least 17 businesses on the site of the proposed stadium — between Hewitt Avenue and Pacific Avenue, with Broadway to the west — may be forced to relocate if the project moves forward.
“Bold investments in the city’s downtown are incredibly powerful, and we’ve seen their transformative powers first-hand,” Franklin said.
The mayor will deliver her State of the City address again at a free community event on Monday. Reservations are required and can be made at everettwa.gov/sotc.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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