Lynnwood City Council eyes path forward at contentious meeting

LYNNWOOD — Dozens of people lined up outside Lynnwood City Hall on Thursday, some to protest the council’s appointment of Jessica Roberts to its vacant seat.

The council called a special meeting to discuss its next steps after the Lynnwood Times published an article revealing Roberts previously posted explicit material on online platforms, including OnlyFans and Reddit.

Earlier Thursday, Roberts withdrew from consideration, saying the discussion of her personal life is “a potential distraction from the council’s forward progress.”

The saga that began Monday with the council voting to appoint Roberts has attracted attention from national media and right-wing social media accounts.

Attendees filled nearly every seat at Thursday’s meeting, and many stood in the back. A few carried large posters with Roberts’ explicit Reddit posts printed on them.

When the meeting adjourned about an hour later, many attendees stayed in the room and watched as some began yelling at council members, demanding an apology for appointing Roberts.

“There’s an elephant in the room, and you’re not addressing it,” one attendee said. “We want to know who bullied who on this.”

After a few minutes, police officers escorted them out of the council chamber. Arguments between attendees continued outside the building well after the meeting.

Chris Roberts, spokesperson for the 32nd District Democrats, issued a statement Thursday in support of Jessica Roberts — a bisexual transgender woman — and the greater LGBTQ+ community.

“We are disappointed that right-wing bloggers went out of their way to erase trans voices and discredit a woman who had the audacity to serve her community,” Chris Roberts said.

During the council meeting, the discussion revolved around how to move forward in the selection process after experiencing unprecedented difficulties.

On Feb. 20, the city appointed Rebecca Thornton to fill the vacant seat left by former Vice President Julieta Altamirano-Crosby. One hour before Thornton was set to be sworn in, she withdrew her appointment. Candidate Audrey Tanberg withdrew before interviews began, and Marie MacCoy withdrew shortly after Thornton.

Now, four of the eight original candidates remain: Forrest Baum, Nazanin Lashgari, Robert Leutwyler and Chelsea Wright. The city has until April 5 to find a new council member. If it fails to meet the deadline, the Snohomish County Council will take over the process, according to state law.

Council President Nick Coehlo laid out some potential options for picking the next candidate.

The council could vote on the four remaining candidates at its next business meeting. This would avoid changing the rules unnecessarily, some council members said. Council member David Parshall said it wouldn’t be fair to amend the process after Jessica Roberts withdrew when they didn’t do the same after Thornton withdrew.

“We have vetted these remaining candidates in our conversations with them,” council member Patrick Decker said. “I’m confident that one of those that we have before us would serve very well on this council.”

Decker suggested appointing Leutwyler to the vacancy. The council split its votes between Leutwyler and Jessica Roberts on Monday before coming out of executive session voting unanimously for Roberts.

“It just seems logical that the reigning person who was the choice of three of this council would be the one that we would offer the position to because that individual had the most votes,” he said.

The council could also decide to re-interview the remaining candidates with new questions to “dig a little deeper,” Coehlo said, or interview the next four candidates on the council’s list. In January, the council ranked the 19 applicants on a scale of 1 to 19. They invited the candidates who received the most points to interview. Council Vice President Josh Binda agreed with this suggestion.

“None of us know who the next four candidates are, so this isn’t anything that would be biased, and I think it would give opportunity to more members of the community to have the chance to come up here and advocate for themselves and also see why they would also want to be a part of this process,” he said. “To me, I think that’s fair.”

Council member Derica Escamilla said she’s been speaking with the community about the best way forward, and about half of the people she’s talked to favor bringing more candidates into consideration.

“Maybe if we had done that from the beginning, we may or may not be here,” she said.

The council also deliberated whether to implement background checks for the remaining candidates.

It’s not customary for people holding public office to be given an official background check, said council member George Hurst.

“It seems like logical thing to do when you’re talking about employees, but we’re talking about an elected position,” he said. “Background checks are not done on any candidate.”

If the council decides to run background checks on the remaining candidates, Hurst said current members should also receive one out of fairness. Regardless, he said he supports vetting candidates’ social media profiles.

On Tuesday, Nick Coehlo told The Daily Herald the council is advised to only use the materials candidates provide when making their decision. At Thursday’s meeting, City Attorney Lisa Marshall said there is no law prohibiting council members from looking at candidates’ online presence, as long as they do so legally.

No one on the council was certain how long background checks would take, and whether it would be feasible to complete them by the council’s deadline.

The council chose to table a final decision until its next business meeting March 17.

Before the next meeting, Mayor Christine Frizzell said she will look into how long background checks would take and reach out to the remaining candidates to ensure they are still interested in the position.

Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; jenna.peterson@heraldnet.com; X: @jennarpetersonn.