By The Herald Editorial Board
Everett voters in the Aug. 5 primary will set the November ballot by choosing among the incumbent two-term mayor, a past president of the county’s NAACP chapter, an IT professional and musician and a former city council member.
Cassie Franklin, 53, first won election to the mayor’s office in 2017, succeeding long-time mayor Ray Stephanson, after serving two years on the Everett City Council. Previously Franklin served as chief executive for Cocoon House, which provides shelter and services for homeless and at-risk youths.
Janice Greene, 70, previously worked at Boeing as a machinist and economic development and international supply official. She aslo served as president for the county chapter of the NAACP and now serves as president and CEO of a consulting business. She also serves on the governor’s health benefit exchange board.
Rich Ryan, 44, is an IT professional in health care and legal services and is also a musician, producer and event organizer.
Scott Murphy, 63, who served from 2013 to 2021 on the Everett City Council and the council’s president in 2016, was president of an Everett glass glazing company until 2024 and has served on the board of directors of Mountain Pacific bank since 2006 and serves on the board of the Everett Events Center.
More about each of the four candidates and their positions is available in The Herald’s July 11 coverage.
All four candidates met jointly with the editorial board in mid-June.
Murphy is running, he said, to put the city back on a better path. Everett has a lot going for it, but has serious challenges that require new leadership and a fresh perspective. His past work on the council provides him familiarity with the issues before the city, and his experience in business and finance and as a CPA will serve him in guiding city finances.
Greene said the city needs leadership that understands the challenges that city residents and working people face, leadership that she can offer, guided by her past work with the NAACP and the Snohomish County Community Foundation and her ability to connect communities.
Ryan recounted life experiences that included running away from home when he was 12, followed by six years of living on the streets, then rescued by a group home that helped him turn his life around. He said he’s concerned for the large percentage of residents who rent in Everett and wants to provide for the city’s more vulnerable residents, including seniors and children.
Franklin said she’s running to continue work that has focused on public safety and ensuring a safe and inclusive community. The last eight years, she said, has presented challenges but the city has seen growth and new housing and businesses along the waterfront, the Riverfront area and south Everett, a recent reduction in crime and inclusive work with all neighborhoods to ensure better representation.
Franklin and her challengers, no surprise, differ not just on approaches to the city’s challenges but on the scale of the problems, specifically on crime, homelessness, addiction and city finances.
Murphy, for example, has been a persistent participant at city council budget meetings, critical of the approach that Franklin has outlined and with where she has cut staff positions including the city’s park rangers, and specific services, such as library hours. As well, he cited a lack of concern shown for the departure of businesses from the city — and the revenue that they brought to the city — that he says is the result of an increase of crime in recent years that hasn’t been adequately addressed.
Murphy claims that the departure of Walmart from south Everett, for example was related to crime. Walmart officials, however, attributed the store’s 2023 closure to its failure to meet “financial expectations.”
Like other cities throughout the country during and shortly after the pandemic, Everett did see an increase in property and violent crimes, according to FBI statistics, but those numbers now are falling. Testimony by Everett Police officials at recent city council meetings show expectations for the city’s crime rates to hit their lowest levels since 2018.
Likewise, the city, also during and after the pandemic, has faced challenges in responding to homelessness. But the most recent point-in-time count in January, conducted by Snohomish County, showed a countywide decrease, 1.8 percent from 2024’s count and an 11 percent decrease from 2023.
Franklin has successfully led the city’s establishment of sites of Pallet shelters — an Everett-based company — with a third expected soon with the successful settlement of a legal dispute over a site in south Everett.
Everett, as with all cities and counties in the state, has struggled to attract and sometimes retain law enforcement professionals, with about 20 current vacancies, but Franklin touts a force with high-caliber officers who can serve a diverse range of duties.
And the city’s CARE program (Community Alternative Response Everett) which has expanded access to behavioral health, deploys staff alongside or independent of first responders, freeing police and fire department staff to respond where they are most needed.
Throughout, Franklin has carefully navigated a course that seeks to meet the needs of those who are homeless with shelter and services, while using tools like the city’s “no sit, no lie” and “stay out of drug areas” ordinances to protect access to public spaces and public safety.
Regarding the city finances, again, Everett’s struggles with a structural budget deficit are not unique in the state. A significant factor is a state law that for more than two decades has limited cities and counties to no more than a 1 percent increase in property taxes. Franklin, with council approval, went to voters for a lift of the city’s levy lid last year that, while unsuccessful, was not unreasonable.
If the measure had passed, the average homeowner in Everett still would have paid an annual city property tax levy that was lower than for comparable homeowners in all but one other city in the county.
That has left Franklin and the council with tough choices around cuts to positions and reduction and loss of some services and programs, including city library hours. But throughout her tenure, Franklin has found innovative ways to preserve at least some services, including handing over the city’s Carl Gipson Senior Center to the Volunteers of America.
This is not to dismiss the concerns and perspectives offered by Ryan, Greene and Murphy in challenging Franklin for office. But Franklin, for her two terms, has worked collaboratively with the council, staff, employees, city committees and residents to find pragmatic solutions and work with the resources and tools available to keep a city of some 111,000 residents well-served.
Everett voters should elect Franklin to a third term.
Election info
Along with the editorial board’s endorsements, voters also are directed to their local voters’ pamphlet, the state’s online voters guide at www.vote.wa.gov and a series of recorded candidate forums available at the website of the Snohomish County League of Women Voters at lwvsnoho.org/candidate_forums.
The county voters’ pamphlet is available online at tinyurl.com/SnoCoVotePrimary25.
Ballots were mailed July 17, and can be returned by mail or placed in one of several county election office drop boxes. Ballots must be postmarked or placed in a drop box before 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5. A list of locations for official drop boxes is available at tinyurl.com/SnoCoElexBox.
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