EVERETT — A public vote on creating council districts in Everett is not likely to happen this year.
The City Council decided Monday not to move forward with language from a petition by the grass roots group Everett Districts Now.
The vote was 5-2, with council members Brenda Stonecipher and Judy Tuohy in the minority. Several council members said they supported districts in theory, including Cassie Franklin, but not under the plan put forth by the petition. They said they needed more time to think. Several said that some form of districts likely is inevitable in the next decade or two.
“We’re not at a ‘there’ point yet,” council member Paul Roberts said.
“There is no better referendum than putting this before the voters,” Stonecipher said.
Mayor Ray Stephanson did not attend the meeting.
The vote followed about 90 minutes of public comment, primarily from supporters of districting. They carried red and green squares of paper to flash their approval or disagreement with fellow speakers. A handful of opponents also spoke, most with critiques of the current proposal and how it would go about districting.
The proposal seeks to draw five of the council’s seven seats from districts, instead of all at-large positions. Everett Districts Now leaders told those gathered they had collected about 3,000 signatures on petitions supporting the idea.
City officials say that is not close enough to the 8,100 signatures they contend is necessary to place the districting proposal on the November general election ballot. However, the council retained the option of seeking its own districting measure with similar language. That didn’t happen. Instead, the majority on the council made clear they’d rather schedule further discussion and study.
Since Friday, the county has conducted a spot check of the petition signatures to make sure they belong to voters registered in city limits. That’s a routine step. The spot check showed 87 of 100 signatures were valid, which is not a surprising percentage for a petition covering a broad area, according to elections officials.
If the petition were to surface again next year, the signature requirement would be much lower, as a result of national election cycles.
Reporter Noah Haglund contributed to this story.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @rikkiking.
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