In early January the Everett City Council had a surprise vote to move council meetings to the daytime without any public debate or even discussion by the rest of the council.
Now some council members have proposed a “compromise” solution of three evening and one daytime meeting per month. Then on Friday, a Herald editorial suggested that the citizen’s initiative to require Everett City Council meetings be held in the evening should be set aside “for now.” This misses a huge point: Doing so could cost the citizens $150,000 or more and acting now will not cost us a penny.
Here’s why. The City Council has just instructed the city to move forward on an emergency medical services levy lift, to be considered in an election on April 27. If the petitions are submitted soon, the night meeting question must be submitted to the voters in the same election at no cost to taxpayers. However, if the petitions are submitted later with sufficient signatures, the Charter calls for an immediate election, which will cost the city $150,000 or more.
The initiative will only go forward if the council decides not to go to night meetings exclusively. The council should set up a procedure to hear what the citizens have to say on this, because the one-morning-meeting-a-month idea is a bad one.
As head of the Citizens for Better Government signature petition drive, I ask everyone in Everett that has longed for a better and more responsive and transparent city government to contact us at pauld@construx.com or 425-319-9111 to sign our petition. We only need 900 more signatures to put this issue on the next ballot.
Paul Donovan
Everett
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