The Herald Editorial Board got it half right in its Everett City Council endorsements last Thursday. For Position 4, Cassie Franklin is the obvious choice and would be a breath of fresh air on the city council. Kudos to you for your spot-on selection.
As to the Position 5, though, the editorial board’s judgment is flawed. Experienced community activist Charlene Rawson received short shrift while at the same time some glaring issues with the incumbent were apparently overlooked. Rawson has an excellent vision for the future of Everett, but these qualities were ignored. She has emphasized the implementation of community policing and a renewed focus on building block watches to combat crime and foster community. Charlene also advocates for city council elections by district so that all Everett citizens would have the opportunity to vote on their preferred candidate. City government will be able to get much better public participation regarding drug traffic and crime, as well as transit and cost of living concerns if Rawson’s ideas were put into practice.
When the editorial board calls the incumbent, Scott Bader, “collaborative,” that translates into rubber-stamping the policy choices of the mayor, and often outside the public eye. If you’re a Boeing executive or a developer, you get free reign, but if you’re “just” a taxpayer or only a regular worker or a small business person, then your opinion doesn’t count for much. And if Bader is so zealous regarding issues affecting the homeless, why did he miss the city council meeting held April 15, when the panhandling ordinance was voted on, along with the mean-spirited sit-lie ordinance. And yet, for this crucial meeting with multiple votes on an issue about which Bader claims to be so concerned, he was absent.
The short mention of any of Rawson’s ideas was trivializing. Even if you felt obliged to endorse the incumbent, it would have been only fair to include her outstanding vision for Everett in your editorial.
Martin Rollins
Everett
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