Editorial: The state of Everett amid the state of play

By The Herald Editorial Board

“State of” addresses at all levels — but especially at the local level — are exercises in optimism and forward-thinking, part cheer-leading and part sales job on a local government’s plans for the coming year and those that follow.

That’s as it should be; leaders are elected on their ability to galvanize action as much as they are on their records of achievement.

That was the case Thursday afternoon as Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin delivered her eighth State of the City address at APEX in downtown Everett. The nearly 50-minute address highlighted the community’s strengths; noted recent accomplishments and investments; shared the credit with other local governments, officials, lawmakers, businesses, agencies and others; and looked toward goals and upcoming opportunities.

Silver linings

“We are moving forward towards the best possible tomorrow,” she said early in her speech. “Whether starting a career, raising a family, pursuing an education or expanding your business, Everett is your city, one that leads with vision, filled with purpose, and sets the standard for mid-sized cities across America.”

To hit some highlights:

Public safety: Continuing a focus on public safety, Everett — because of good pay and the variety of career opportunities in the Everett Police Department — funds more officer positions per capita than other comparably sized cities in the region, including Kent, Bellevue and Seattle, recently adding 18 positions to the department for a total of 120 hires since 2018.

The city has invested in and is piloting new technology, including license plate reader cameras to identify and locate stolen vehicles and vehicles used in crimes, soon to be joined by a “first-responder drone” program to provide views of a scene as officers arrive.

And it provides fire and emergency medical response at lower taxpayer cost than many of its neighbors, answering 26,000 calls and adding 24 new firefighters last year.

New programs have been launched, including Community Alternative Response Everett, which more effectively routes 911 calls, assisting 1,800 people with behavioral health emergencies, and its Emergency Mobile Opioid Team, partnered with Conquer Clinics, to deliver addiction treatment and counseling.

Franklin noted a recent decrease in violent crime in the city, crediting the city’s Violent Crime Unit, but also pledged renewed efforts on youth violence, including a new directive for prevention and community engagement.

Housing: Noting continued growth in the city and region, Franklin emphasized efforts in providing more construction to increase the stock of housing at the full range of prices, noting the city issued 600 permits in 2024, a 140 percent increase over 2023, adding to some 1,800 units of housing in process.

Economic development: Crediting development strategies, Franklin pointed to the 1,500 business licenses issued last year, triple the number issued in 2018, and new businesses occupying once-vacant locations as well as the growth of innovators in high-tech and green-energy businesses in south Everett.

There’s optimism, too, in Boeing’s rebound, following its successful contract negotiations with machinists and recent news for a resumption of test flights for the 777x and a recent order, including 20 of the Everett-built jets for Korean Air.

Franklin also remarked on the opportunity for construction of a new outdoor multi-purpose and year-round stadium and park in downtown, between Everett Station and Angel of the Winds Arena, seen as key to keeping the Everett AquaSox in the city, adding new professional soccer teams to the city’s sports lineup and adding community park space to a neighborhood now dominated by buildings and concrete.

All of it, as intended, should renew a sense of optimism and encouragement for Everett and Snohomish County as the world moves to put the covid era well in the past.

Yet, nagging realities drag on that sense of buoyancy and threaten new hurdles for accomplishment.

Gray clouds

At the state level, the Legislature is confronting a gap between its expected revenues and previously planned spending, considering divergent paths that include cuts or new tax revenues that could split lawmakers and parties themselves on a path that can continue to make Washington state a leading economy.

While at the federal level, the Trump administration, its so-called Department of Government Efficiency and individual agencies themselves continue a course of substantive cuts to federal spending and employment that will likely hamstring not only federal programs but those at state, county and municipal levels, including direct and grant funding on which those governments rely to implement and expand on their own services and programs.

The low-lights there:

• The federal Department of Health and Human Services this week abruptly cut $12 billion in federal grants to states, that were previously used to track infectious diseases and fund mental health services, addiction treatment and other health concerns.

• Mass firings — as much as 84 percent of the staff of one agency — at the Department of Housing and Urban Development could slow if not jeopardize grant and program funding distributed to communities to aid those who are homeless or struggling to pay rent, as well as build affordable housing and aid in disaster recovery.

• Another order seeks to largely eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides direct funding and grants to community and state libraries and museums.

• Even food banks and school lunch programs now face the loss of funding — once counted on as assured support — including the news that $4.7 million for the state had been canceled and placed under review by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, halting delivery of food anticipated to arrive between April and June, as The Herald reported Thursday.

Franklin, asked about those clouds prior to her Thursday address, said she understood and supported the effort to find efficiencies as part of a government’s responsible use of taxpayer funding.

“Anyone who really cares about their finances wants governments to work as efficiently as possible,” she said. “I believe efficiency is achieved through strategic cuts. That’s what I’ve been doing at the city,” she said, referring to spending reductions she’s made in recent years to address nagging structural deficits that Everett and other of the county’s cities have faced.

However, “I am fearful of the deep, quick cuts that are being made across large systems,” she said.

Yet, Franklin maintains some optimism, having weathered previous cuts, as well as the pandemic, and having worked before with the first Trump administration.

“I understand their priorities,” she said. “I wish I could say I could keep us all safe in a bubble, but I can’t. All cities rely on federal funding, and so do I.”

Working to its advantage, she said, Everett and the region can count on a veteran congressional delegation in U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen.

“We have one of the strongest delegations in the country, some of the most senior senators and one of the most senior congressmen, who are well placed in their committee assignments,” she said, to look out for state and local interests.

In implementing what was outlined in Thursday’s address, Franklin said she would work with state and federal lawmakers and administrations as they are.

“I’m going to try to advocate on Everett’s behalf that these policies are in line with our goals as a community,” she said. “If there are pathways to funding and support for the work we’re doing, I will work those avenues.”