Longtime member faces two first-timers for Everett City Council

EVERETT — Facing a potential sea change to the Everett City Council since 2021, two-term Council member Judy Tuohy is seeking re-election for one of the two at-large positions elected by voters citywide.

Like the other five district positions on the council, the at-large seats come with four-year terms and a $30,132 annual salary. The council enacts policies and laws, and has approval power over the budget.

Voters will narrow the field to two candidates for the November general election. Primary ballots are due Aug. 1.

Tuohy, on the council since 2014, is facing challenges from Judith Martinez and Bryce Nickel, both new to seeking public office, for position 7.

Tuohy

Tuohy, 69, has been on the City Council since 2014, and is the executive director of the Schack Art Center in downtown Everett. She did not respond to a Daily Herald request for an interview this week.

In 2017, she narrowly lost the election to be Everett’s mayor against Cassie Franklin. She hasn’t sought the executive’s office since, and went unopposed in her re-election to the council in 2019.

After five council positions were voted on by districts for the first time in 2021, four of her longtime peers didn’t return to the legislative body. It left her and Brenda Stonecipher, a five-term council member who announced she wouldn’t seek re-election this year, as the last two standing.

Tuohy said addressing street issues in Everett requires regional partnerships with “compassion, dignity and individualized support,” in a League of Women Voters of Snohomish County forum in June. Some of her proposals included investments in homelessness prevention programs, such as rental assistance and neighborhood public safety emphasis.

Her other focus is to improve affordability through more housing units and planning for growth, she said. In her statement for the voter guide, Tuohy wrote she was committed to representing neighborhoods.

Martinez

Martinez, 39, is a safety specialist with the Snohomish County Public Utilities District and a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 77 union. She lives in the View Ridge-Madison neighborhood.

She said she’s running in response to recent changes the city made, specifically the expansion of “no sit, no lie” zones and the mayor’s veto of the project labor agreement ordinance, and to represent people, including immigrants, who feel disconnected from government.

A narrow council vote approved the expansion of zones that prohibit homeless people from being in some public places. It gives the mayor discretion about where to designate such areas with some parameters based on 911 call and police data.

But Martinez said she worried for people who provide mutual aid and give clothes, food, water as well as basic hygiene and medical supplies to people living on the streets. The law also prohibits such action without a permit, which didn’t exist when it was expanded and is reportedly being developed by city staff.

“It’s really disheartening that something (that) could save a life could be something that could get you in trouble,” Martinez said. “Pushing them from one location to another is not the answer.”

The city’s public safety strategies, especially in addressing homelessness, should be based on data with a “humane and compassionate” approach, she said.

As a union member who advocated in the Legislature this year for a worker safety bill, Martinez said she was discouraged by the mayor’s veto of the council-approved project labor agreement ordinance. If elected, she would focus on bringing a similar ordinance before the council and sees the document as ensuring skilled laborers in construction trades can afford to live in Everett.

She doesn’t have prior elected or policy making experience. But she argued decades in customer service mean she is an experienced problem solver, which she said translates to serving on the City Council.

Nickel

Nickel, 39, is a diversity consultant, a board director for the Homes and Hope Community Land Trust, and a Snohomish County Coordinated Entry Advisory Committee member.

The Delta neighborhood resident, who has autism, described himself as a disability rights advocate.

“We definitely need to elect more disabled people, especially autistic people, to create diversity in politicians,” he said.

If elected, he said his primary focus is addressing homelessness through housing-first policies and incentives. Nickel, who said he was homeless for about 20 years, including living in his car while attending college, proposed ending ordinances that “criminalize homelessness.” That includes the “no sit, no lie” law unless the city provided land with utilities or designated areas for temporary encampments, he said.

“It’s actually cheaper to house people first because of all the services they use, such as emergency rooms, police,” Nickel said.

He wants to support land use and zoning changes that support projects like the Everett Housing Authority’s proposed Park District. The proposed redevelopment of the Baker Heights public housing property would include a mixed-income, mixed-use space with 1,500 residential units and 45,000 square feet of commercial space.

Ben Watanabe: 425-339-3037; bwatanabe@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @benwatanabe.