Everett Districts Now has brought the issue of voting rights and establishing a fair and equitable voting system to the people. Our proposal is to create five districts and keep two seats at-large to ensure direct representation for all residents in the city.
In order to get this charter amendment on the ballot, we need 4,000 signatures by mid-July. After reaching out to thousands of people, holding community meetings and educational forums, we have 1,000 signatures.
If you are one of the several thousand people who signed last year, we need you to sign the updated 2018 petition. There are several supportive businesses hosting the petitions or find us at all Everett Farmers markets or we’ll mail you a petition to send back!
This is an important time to improve civic participation and involvement, particularly in neighborhoods in the southern part of the city. According the Mayor’s Directive 2018-03 Community Engagement and Inclusion, of the 160 board and commission volunteers, Northwest Neighborhood residents made up nearly 30 percent of current participants, while several neighborhoods had one or no representatives.
Last year’s council president, Judy Tuohy, worked to improve neighborhood representation and engagement by assigning council liaisons to neighborhoods. But under the new council president, Paul Roberts, these efforts are lagging. Based on the March minutes from the Office of Neighborhoods, of the 15 reporting neighborhoods, seven had no council liaison attend their meeting (View Ridge, Valley View, Lowell, Port Gardner, Harborview-Seahurst-Glenhaven, Delta and Bayside). Community engagement must be a top priority. Districts offer a mechanism for real change, instead of temporary liaisons, districts bring real representation with structural change that will not dissolve when leadership changes.
The city’s district meetings and survey have ended, but there is still time to provide input on our voting system, sign the People’s Choice 5-2 district petition for fair and equitable representation! Read the charter amendment language on our website at www.DistrictsNow.org.
Megan Dunn
Chair, Everett Districts Now
Everett
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