Position 1 candidates prioritize public safety, differ on tax increases

EVERETT — Two challengers are looking to unseat a Lynnwood City Council member who was appointed to the position last year.

Incumbent Derica Escamilla, a business development manager, is looking to retain Position 1 on the council. She faces grocery store department leader Dio Boucsieguez and security company owner Brandon Kimmel.

In May 2024, former council member Shirley Sutton resigned from Position 1, citing a “total lack of leadership” in the city’s administration. In July 2024, the council appointed Escamilla to fill the vacant position.

As of Monday, Boucsieguez and Escamilla were nearly neck-and-neck in campaign contributions, with $1,875 and $1,830 raised, respectively. Kimmel has not raised or spent any money for his campaign, according to state filings. Lynnwood City Council members currently make about $1,650 per month.

The seat is one of four up for election this year and one of two that will be on the primary ballot.

The primary election is Aug. 5. The top two candidates will move on to the November general election.

Derica Escamilla

Escamilla, 44, said she’s running because she’s created positive change during her time on the council so far. The past year has been her first in politics.

“I’ve been able to see the change and progress we’ve been able to make by having someone that can speak to everybody up there and isn’t entrenched in being there for too long,” she said.

She highlighted her work with council Vice President Josh Binda in moving forward the city’s first-ever youth council, which the City Council was set to vote on Monday night.

One of Escamilla’s priorities is public safety. She said she would continue to support law enforcement officers as Lynnwood’s public safety landscape changes with the light rail.

“We’re in a really fast-growing, dynamic city,” she said. “The closest that anyone can even provide data for to even try to do an apples-to-apples comparison to what our law enforcement is dealing with is really like Northgate and Southcenter, and even then they’re not identical. … We’re in this perfect storm of figuring it out as we go.”

Another part of public safety, she said, is improving infrastructure, particularly adding sidewalks in several of Lynnwood’s neighborhoods that don’t have any. Escamilla has also been advocating for increasing the city’s “Let’s Talk About Safety” discussion series and making them more accessible to the public, she said.

In December 2024, the City Council passed a 52% property tax increase as part of its 2025-26 budget by a vote of 4-3, increasing property taxes by $12 per month for the average property owner. Escamilla voted for the increase, which she said was necessary to retain essential city employees. The funding for the positions had previously come from one-time COVID relief funds. If the council didn’t pass the increase, the city would have needed to cut about 27 positions — including 10 police officers — and 13 additional positions.

“I never felt like I had a choice in the matter,” she said. “We didn’t really feel that we had a choice other than to fund the positions that were already on staff without losing vital city resources to our community.”

Another goal for Escamilla is making Lynnwood a “city with compassion,” she said. As the council’s human services commission liaison, she’s been looking into bringing Pallet shelters, an Everett-based temporary shelter company, to Lynnwood. She also voted to bring Housing Hope transitional housing facilities to Lynnwood. She supports a balance between creating a safe community and a compassionate one, she said.

“I love that people come here and have a little bit of fear of God in breaking the law,” she said. “But I also want to love that people go through hard times and have moments in lives, and that there is a justice system and that we’re not being unfair and biased.”

One of her priorities is transparency and making sure the Lynnwood residents understand the decisions the council makes, she said.

“There was a lack of that, I feel like, before me,” she said. “There wasn’t anyone really trying to bring the community up to speed.”

She cited the lack of public comment when the City Council looked to fill a vacancy earlier this year. After two appointees withdrew, she abstained from appointing council member Robert Leutwyler, who was the final candidate remaining.

“It really was just principle,” she said. “It had nothing to do with the individual. But we never once in the process of this … opened it up for public comment to ask them what they wanted us to do.”

Escamilla is endorsed by Fair Vote Washington, Washington State Progressive Caucus, First Mile, State Rep. Ruth Kagi, Mountlake Terrace City Council member Steve Woodard and Edmonds school board member Thom Gerrard.

Dio Boucsieguez

Boucsieguez, 31, works as the leader of the cheese department at QFC in Mukilteo. He’s lived in Lynnwood for 10 years.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes in the city, mostly for the better, but there are areas where I believe that we can improve, and I believe that I bring a levelheadedness, a calmness and drama-free presence to the council that I believe is really quite necessary and needed at this time,” he said.

Some of the positive changes, he said, include new development throughout the city, including construction on 196th Street, the new light rail station, the Scriber Lake Park trail, Community Justice Center and the upcoming neighborhood center.

Boucsieguez said he is “vehemently against” the property tax increase, which he said disproportionately impacts working-class residents and seniors who are on fixed incomes.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “Taxes are a necessary part of the world we live in, and they help fund essential services, but that’s not right.”

He said he would want an audit of the city’s finances before raising taxes.

“Until such time as that audit is completed, I will not be a rubber stamp for any tax increases, whether it’s a sales tax increase, whether it’s a property tax increase,” he said. “I want to be able to ensure our residents that the city of Lynnwood is spending their money in the best, most efficient way possible. I can’t see how anyone would be against that.”

As a union member, Boucsieguez wants to allow for Lynnwood’s rapid growth while maintaining its working class culture, he said. This would include maintaining single-family zoning while creating an economic opportunity zone along Highway 99. He’d also look into adapting the city’s sewage and wastewater systems to accommodate for the city’s growth.

As a singer-songwriter, Boucsieguez wants to bring an arts and entertainment scene to Lynnwood, including piano bars and comedy clubs, attracting more people to the city and increasing sales tax revenue.

For public safety, Boucsieguez said he wants to maintain the city’s relationship with its police department and ensure the department is well-funded. He’d also look to address youth violence by investing in after-school programs and vocational programs and cultivating relationships between young people and police officers, he said.

Another priority for Boucsieguez is adjusting the council’s code of ethics to give it “a little bit more bite,” he said.

“There have been distractions on the city council in the past couple of years where a certain council member has really gotten away with breaking the ethics code to really no sense of punishment or remorse,” Boucsieguez said.

That “certain council member” is council Vice President Josh Binda, Boucsieguez confirmed. Earlier this year, Boucsieguez challenged council Binda’s residency, alleging he didn’t live at his listed Lynnwood address. In April, the Snohomish County auditor dismissed the challenge. In 2023, Boucsieguez ran a failed recall campaign against Binda, alleging a number of ethics violations.

In 2018, Boucsieguez ran as a Republican for a state House seat in the 32nd Legislative District against Cindy Ryu.

Boucsieguez is endorsed by United Food and Commercial Workers 3000, the International Union of Elevator Constructors, Lynnwood City Council member Patrick Decker, Snohomish County Council members Nate Nehring and Sam Low, and Mukilteo Mayor Joe Marine, among others.

Brandon Kimmel

Brandon Kimmel owns Asset Guard Solutions, a Lynnwood-based private security company. The main focus of Kimmel’s campaign is public safety. Before owning his company, he worked in retail asset protection and as a correctional officer with the Washington State Department of Corrections, Federal Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Marshals Service.

In July 2024, Kimmel was in his apartment and saw police cars with sirens on going toward the Alderwood Mall food court. The police were responding to a shooting that killed 13-year-old Jayda Woods-Johnson.

“That was the catalyst for me because I realized that could have been my kids, and so I decided to run for victims of violent crimes,” he said.

Kimmel started his career in Lynnwood at the Macy’s in the Alderwood Mall. He said he would bring a unique perspective on public safety to the council. He supports “reevaluating” red-light traffic cameras, having a police substation near the mall and bringing back school resource officers to Edmonds School District.

“I know there’s some reasons people don’t want that, but I believe that these officers, if they’re trained correctly and we put the right person in the right place, I think they can be some really good mentors to some people,” he said.

Kimmel said he’d make it a priority to address drug addiction, homelessness and mental health challenges, which he said are having a negative impact on public safety. He said he sees these issues first-hand every day in his work, and he’s received multiple death threats.

“You could either start arresting people and charging them and incarcerating them, or do what (police) are doing now, which is catch and release, if at all,” he said.

Kimmel said his business has been successful in part because his security services are in high demand in Lynnwood right now.

“Technically, I should want crime to go up higher because that makes my business more successful,” he said. “Except this is my home.”

He supports investing in local facilities that focus on rehabilitation and mental health, he said, such as the city’s crisis care center, an alternative to an emergency room or jail for someone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. The center is currently vacant as the city struggles to find an operator due to statewide funding challenges.

Kimmel does not have any endorsements listed on his campaign website.

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