Mayor candidates focus on budget, public safety, housing

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, October 14, 2025

EVERETT — As Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell seeks a second term, she faces three-time mayoral candidate and current City Council member George Hurst.

The election comes as the city faces a $10.7 million shortfall by the end of 2026. Frizzell and Hurst differ on how to best address the shortfall, which largely stems from lower-than-expected revenues from sales taxes, construction permits and red-light cameras.

The city is also navigating changes brought by last year’s arrival of Link light rail, including increases in certain types of crime and developments in the city’s downtown.

The mayor’s salary is about $112,000 per year, according to the municipal code. As of Monday, Hurst had raised $14,005 for his campaign, according to campaign finance records. Frizzell had raised $8,205.

The county will mail out ballots for the Nov. 4 election on Thursday.

Christine Frizzell

Frizzell has served as Lynnwood’s mayor since 2022. She previously served one term on the City Council beginning in 2017.

She currently holds positions on the boards of Sound Transit, Community Transit and Economic Alliance Snohomish County. Before becoming mayor, Frizzell was a self-employed accountant for more than 30 years.

In her first term as mayor, Frizzell oversaw the implementation of light rail and a new jail and crisis care center. In July, she announced the city’s budget shortfall and directed departments to find 10% in additional cuts, resulting in layoffs of nine city employees.

Frizzell said much of the inaccurate revenue forecasting that contributed to the shortfall was a result of uncertainty in the national economy.

“I had no idea that there would be tariffs right around the corner,” she said. “I had no idea that interest rates or borrowing would creep up. It wasn’t on my radar.”

If elected to another term, Frizzell said she’d look at next biennium’s budget more conservatively.

“Right now, we don’t feel we’re on solid footing,” she said. “So we will be extremely conservative going into our next budget for sure.”

Besides the budget, one of Frizzell’s top priorities is public safety. According to the 2024 Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs report, violent crimes occurred at a higher rate in Lynnwood than in other cities in the county. The report showed 117 per 1,000 residents in Lynnwood, compared to 80 in Everett and 53 in Marysville.

From 2024 to 2025, overall crime in Lynnwood decreased by 10%, Lynnwood Police Chief Cole Langdon said in a Sept. 29 presentation to the council. Still, aggravated assaults increased by 103%, largely due to the transit center, he said. The city is currently working to finalize a $360,000 contract with Sound Transit to hire police officers that would conduct bike patrols around the transit center, Frizzell said.

Frizzell supports adding school resource officers back into the Edmonds School District. In 2020, the Edmonds school board voted to remove school resource officers, citing discrimination concerns following the murder of George Floyd.

“As we look at our transportation system, we’re in the corner of I-5 and 405, and there’s a lot of activity with people coming and going,” Frizzell said. “With that, drugs come and go and bad behavior comes and goes. I’d like us to start working with our youth.”

Reflecting on her first term as mayor, Frizzell said she’s proud of spearheading leadership training for all department directors, fostering employment opportunities and continuing to hold community events.

“The thing that keeps me going, and the reason why I want to continue to be mayor, has so much to do with community,” she said. “I try to go events, we have lots of events, and that’s where people connect.”

Another priority for Frizzell is addressing the city’s homeless population. According to the county’s most recent point-in-time count, Lynnwood had the second-highest homeless population in the county behind Everett. Frizzell has spent decades volunteering and working with people experiencing homelessness, she said. She wants to support people experiencing homelessness by enforcing “boundaries with compassion.”

“We give them hope and we respect them and we want to come alongside people, but just like everybody else, if they cross a boundary of the law, they should still get treated as they should for breaking the law, but I’m not about rounding up our homeless people or anything like that,” she said.

As Lynnwood’s population continues to grow, Frizzell wants to keep housing density in the city’s downtown core and protect single-family homes.

“We’re making that happen, in spite of some things that are going on in the state Legislature that are impacting that idea,” she said.

Frizzell also wants to continue supporting the city’s senior population, she said. She hopes to partner with Volunteers of America to use the new Lynnwood Neighborhood Center as a resource for seniors.

“Maybe people want to stay where they’re comfortable, but maybe they want to go to something bright and shiny,” Frizzell said. “Let’s collaborate so we’re not competing, we’re collaborating.”

Frizzell has endorsements from Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, Snohomish County Sheriff Susanna Johnson, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin and Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring, among others.

George Hurst

Hurst has served on the City Council since 2015. This is Hurst’s third bid for mayor. In 2017, he ran against former mayor Nicola Smith and lost with 43% of the vote. In 2021, he came up short in the primary with 24% of the vote, behind Frizzell and former City Council member Jim Smith.

Hurst previously served as chair of the Regional Fire Authority Planning Committee that created South County Fire in 2017. He’s also served on boards for Community Transit, Snohomish County 911 and the Puget Sound Regional Council, among others. He worked in the commercial lighting industry for more than 30 years.

Hurst said the city’s budget crisis prompted him to run for mayor this year. He said Frizzell has not proposed enough solutions to address the shortfall or provided the council with enough information.

“This crisis has gotten worse and worse as we keep going through the year,” he said.

If elected, Hurst said he would form a community group to brainstorm solutions to the budget crisis, similar to the Blue Ribbon Panel that Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen created when his term began. He would also restructure the budget and return to budgeting for priorities. Hurst doesn’t currently support raising property taxes because there haven’t been enough studies and audits, he said.

“We need to get back to asking departments, what are your priorities, what programs are working?” Hurst said. “If they’re not working, we’re going to end them. It’s going to be some more tough decisions.”

Another motivator for Hurst’s campaign is finding ways to curb youth and gang violence after recent instances of youth gun violence. In July 2024, 13-year-old Jayda Woods-Johnson was fatally shot at Alderwood Mall. In December 2024, a 14-year-old died in a fatal shooting at a Lynnwood apartment complex. Since police officer staffing is a long-term problem, the city needs to find another long-term solution to improving public safety, Hurst said.

“We need to try to get to the root of the problem,” he said. “So for me, it’s because kids do not have security, whether it’s a housing situation or household income.”

As of 2021, 2 in 5 households in Lynnwood struggled with housing affordability, according to the city’s most recent housing action plan. Hurst said he supports encouraging more middle housing, including cottage homes and duplexes, and accessory dwelling units to increase home ownership opportunities in Lynnwood. Middle housing could also increase revenue for the city, Hurst said.

“If you build one home, you’re getting the property tax from one home, but if on that same parcel, you can have four small homes, you’re getting property tax from those four, but you also get four families that will be buying things in Lynnwood, and we are so dependent on sales tax,” he said. “So why discourage construction like that?”

Earlier this year, Hurst also advocated in Olympia for a rent stabilization bill. To raise household incomes, Hurst said he would want to create labor and community workforce agreements to create higher-paying jobs in the city. He would also support city ordinances to raise the minimum wage and address wage theft.

Over the past four years, Lynnwood has had a difficult time retaining department leaders, Hurst said, and he would prioritize encouraging employees to stay in Lynnwood. Hurst would also encourage employees to work in person more often and go through customer service training to better serve residents. He also said he’d look into using artificial intelligence for phone calls.

“I want to change the atmosphere in the city,” Hurst said. “One of the major complaints I get from residents is ‘When I go into the City Hall to talk to somebody, nobody’s there. … If I call, no one answers the phone. … We need to change. That has to change.”

Hurst is endorsed by Snohomish County Democrats, 32nd District Democrats and the Affordable Housing Council. He also has endorsements from former Lynnwood City Council member Shirley Sutton and Snohomish County Council members Jared Mead and Strom Peterson, among others.

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