Rebooted committee will advocate for Naval Station Everett

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 20, 2026

EVERETT — The head of the Economic Alliance Snohomish County is resurrecting a committee to advocate for Naval Station Everett.

The decision to restart the Military Affairs Committee comes after a Nov. 25 decision by the Navy Secretary, John Plean, to kill a program that would have seen 12 guided-missile frigates based at the Everett naval base.

“Recent federal decisions — such as the cancellation of the Navy’s Constellation-class frigate program — highlight how decisions made outside our region can have real local consequences for installations, workers, and businesses,” said Ray Stephanson, president and CEO of the alliance.

The committee will hold its first meeting 10 a.m. Feb. 23 at the Alliance offices, 3020 Rucker Ave., in the Snohomish County Health District Building.

Rachel Morera, director of community engagement for the alliance, said the committee last met in 2023. She did not know why it stopped meeting.

Morera said the committee is expected to have 30 to 50 members but exact membership details are still being worked out.

Stephanson said he has invited a wide variety of community members to join the committee, including elected officials, union officials and members of community groups.

Snohomish County Council member Nate Nehring, R-Arlington, who has accepted Stephanson’s invitation to join the committee, said a proactive approach to advocating for the base can only help preserve existing jobs at the naval station and support efforts to bring in additional personnel.

“The base is an important part of our economy,” he said.

A Naval Station Everett spokesperson said that 6,000 military personnel and 500 civilian employees work at the base.

Stephanson said the initial military affairs committee was first formed around 2003 when he became Everett’s mayor, and the committee met with naval officials at the Pentagon several times a year.

Stephanson said he hopes those meetings can be revived, since they were effective in the past, helping keep Naval Station Everett, for example, off a list of bases to be decommissioned by a base closure commission in 2005.

The spokesperson for Naval Station Everett did not offer any comment on the revived committee, noting that base officials do not advocate for more ships with naval officials at the Pentagon.

The Navy announced in 2021 that Naval Station Everett had been selected for the new frigates. In Oct. 2024, Naval Station Everett’s commanding officer, Capt. Stacy Wuthier, discussed at a community update the options for new base buildings for frigate personnel training and support services.

The frigate plan was shattered when Plean announced on X that the Constellation-class frigate program was ending due to delays in construction and cost overruns, ending Naval Station Everett’s role as homeport for the 12 ships.

In a May 2024 report, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, said that the first ship was three years behind schedule and would not be ready until 2029.

In 2020, the Congressional Budget Office found that the ships could cost $1.2 billion each, 40% more than the Navy had initially estimated.

While the first two of the 12 ships are still being built, a Navy spokesperson told the Daily Herald that no decision has been made on where they will be based.

A new frigate development program is also in the works, but the Navy has made no announcement as to where those ships will be based once built.

Naval Station Everett is the newest naval base in the U.S., having only opened in 1994.

Stephanson said voters in Everett approved opening the base in 1984 in a citizens’ initiative by a 2-1 margin.

“The community welcomes the base with open arms,” Stephanson said, noting that base acceptance is not universal.

“Military bases are not welcome in every community in the country or the world,” he said.

Stephanson said the military affairs committee will be a “coordinated regional voice that understands both the national security implications and the local economic impacts.”

Morera said the group would also monitor Navy contracts to let local companies, such as shipyards, know when bidding opportunities for new contracts may arise.

Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.