Budgets, Housing, and Weed
Mayor Cassie's budget Q&A provides a possible preview of her 2021 campaign, Housing Hope still in the crosshairs of anti-housing activists, and Everett may be getting three more pot shops.
Welcome back to Local Crank, a rambling newsletter on politics in Everett, Washington. Agendas this week—
Districting Commission: September 21st at 5:00PM
Historical Commission: September 22nd at 6:30PM
City Council: September 23rd at 12:30PM
Civil Service Commission: Setpember 24th at 10:00AM
Updates from County Officials
At the beginning of next week’s City Council meeting public comment, Executive Dave Somers will give a presentation detailing the county’s “housing and shelter strategy”. Back in July, Somers told The Herald in response to a planned sweep at the County Campus, “we’re working with the city to try and find a longer-term solution. We don’t have anything yet”. Wednesday’s statement may detail what their plan is and how it may specifically impact Everett.
Also speaking will be Councilmember Megan Dunn. According to the agenda, she is there to provide to the city some updates on county affairs. I expect that we may see comment on a recent resolution that was unanimously passed by the majority-Democratic, all-white County Council. The resolution says that the county “supports our sheriff deputies and law enforcement officials” and that they will “make public safety a top priority” in the budget. Considering that one of the clauses specifically calls out the demands made to the County Council to defund the brutal Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) by 50%, this is very clearly a reactionary move.
Tellingly, it uses the shootings of two Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department cops as the inspiration for the resolution. Examining the conservative spectacle following the shootings, it becomes all the more clear this resolution is simply political theater meant to rally the base. There was no reason to vote for this, especially as a Democrat in the majority.
Dunn said that the resolution doesn’t promise no budget cuts, despite language that says the county will make the SCSO’s stated mission a “top priority”. Combined with the opposition there is to making any cuts whatsoever—including from a Democrat—this will further kneecap defund efforts. She also tried to clarify that the resolution was in support of the deputies, and not the fascistic sheriff facing recall.
Everett may get 3 new Recreational Cannabis Stores
Resuming discussions that mostly occurred prior to the pandemic, the City Council will consider amending a section of the municipal code to raise the number of permitted recreational cannabis shops from five to eight. Everett limited its recreational cannabis stores to five after the Liquor and Cannabis Control Board doubled Everett’s allowance from five stores to ten in 2016.
Approved by the Planning Commission and the Public Safety Committee, I believe there’s a fair chance that the City Council will pass this amendment. There are two versions of the ordinance for the council to choose between:
Increase the permitted number of stores from five to eight with a requirement that they are a medical marijuana provider—the current ordinance.
Option one, but also reduce the minimum separation distance between stores from 2,500 feet to 500 feet.
Most cities do not have distance regulations for recreational cannabis stores, but others that do typically set distances between 500 and 1,000 feet. Typically, there are simply rules that either designate an area of the city where stores could be located or where they are not allowed.
Wednesday’s meeting is only the first reading of the bill in its current form, and previous discussions haven’t solicited much of any public feedback. It’s possible, though, that it may actually attract a fair amount of attention. That’s what happened during an April 2018 meeting of the Planning Commission who were considering the same ordinance. Most commenters at the time raised objections saying that more recreational cannabis stores would lead to increased crime and drug use (untrue), with even one person pushing the dunked theory that cannabis is a gateway drug.
While the meeting itself in February 2020 was uneventful, the lead-up featured coverage by local TV news, which often mobilizes wealthier, more conservative forces. Sure enough, a wealthy resident bankrolled a mysterious anonymous mailer in January and February 2020 opposing the ordinance
Personally, I welcome more stores to the city. According to meeting minutes, there have been permits in waiting for years to open new locations in Everett, which will bring more jobs to the area. Additionally, recreational cannabis stores are great sources of revenue that will be sorely needed in the years ahead.
Mayor Franklin’s Budget, a Campaign Preview
In a September 8th video, Mayor Cassie Franklin and Financial Advisory Committee chair Dan Leach answered some of the public’s questions about the upcoming 2021 budget. This is the latest Q&A video the mayor has posted following up earlier videos uploaded in June and July. They have been useful to better understand not only who will be the likely victims of budget cuts, but also how Mayor Franklin may try to justify these decisions for her reelection campaign next year. Her response to one question provides a clue to exactly how she’ll do that:
There are things near and dear to our residents and we hate to see reductions in our pool, our recreation programs, our library, or our other programs. We don't think about some of the behind the scenes staff that work at the city. Like this position: this one civilian [position cut] in police. And they're really important positions that serve the community. So we're really thoughtful about how we [make layoff decisions]. Unlike the federal government, I have to balance the budget. I don't have a choice, and so it's like we, every year, kind of whittle away at what we do: at the staff, the programs we have and you kind of get to the bare bones, and then the choices we make are really really hard. And every person who is no longer working at the city means some level of services are not going to be able to be provided to our residents.
From this and her other answers, we can gather that there will be some common themes throughout her reasoning justifying austerity:
Everett is a “full-service city” offering programs like transit, pool facilities, senior centers, and libraries that are completely under city ownership and operation. Other cities of our size either do not offer these services or contract them out to private entities to operate. Therefore, Everett should consider doing the same.
Structurally, the city has no choice but to make deep and painful cuts. Therefore, the administration had no choice to make the cuts that they did.
The administration did everything they possibly could to find money for basic services before choosing to cut them.
The first two points are true: Everett does offer a host of services that other cities of our size don’t and we don’t have a choice but to make cuts. However, I don’t believe everything was done to find the money needed to preserve critical services—or at least the jobs they supported. If so, I’m sure it certainly wouldn’t have led to the swift layoffs of over 160 city workers, a move that AFSCME—their union—condemned as showing a “total lack of empathy”.
Mayor Franklin said that part of her financial planning includes responses from a directive her office gave earlier this year to every department head to “find whatever resources they could outside the city”. Considering that answer was immediately followed by talking about the COPS grant awarded to the city, I get the sense that this is a weak way to try and claim that her office’s highest priority has always been the preservation of basic services.
Well, the mayor has a weird way of showing that when reaffirming that operations of facilities like the senior center, public pool, and animal farm will be given away to non-profits or other entities. Franklin says that most other neighboring cities operate these services in this fashion, and they work well, so Everett will still be in good hands after cutting those jobs.
While her administration has proposed deep cuts elsewhere, the Everett Police Department will only be cutting one civilian position from its budget. This cut, totalling $162,166, represents 0.11% of EPD’s budget of over $38 million. Given that EPD will now be handed an additional $6 million from Trump’s Justice Department, eliminating just one position and shuffling some others is effectively nothing. And while some may think, “they can hire social workers with that money,” no, they can’t. Mayor Franklin confirmed that the grant money can only be spent on cops.
Her campaign website is lacking of any details about what her second term in office would look like. Needless to say, it would be bleak: continuation of cuts made to social services and the proliferation of public-private partnerships to run programs formerly owned by the city; strengthening the cops amid declining crime rates whilst instituting harsh austerity for other departments. An argument could be made that these cost reduction measures could be pursued in an effort to keep critical city services afloat, or that this unprecedented moment represents an opportunity to prioritize the city budget towards justice. But, that argument isn’t being made and instead Mayor Cassie will likely run on platitudes and empty rhetoric emphasizing finding so-called innovative ways to lead the city out of this crisis.
Franklin’s website however does show a list of endorsements that includes, among others, my arch-nemesis Representative Rick Larsen. If you look deeper though, you’ll find an Issues page that isn’t yet linked on the homepage. Don’t expect anything informative though, it’s the same exact Issues page from 2017:
The only way to alleviate the structural deficit is to raise revenues. Everett’s leadership need to be loudly demanding a radical overhaul to the way cities in Washington can raise revenues. That same leadership also needs to be exploring avenues to ask our city’s largest employers—like Boeing—to pay more of their fair share in taxes.
Or the mayor could, you know, propose cutting EPD’s budget (~$38,000,000) in half to resolve the entire budget deficit (~$18,000,000).
We’ll get a full picture of the damage proposed when the finalized budget is presented to the public on October 14th. According to PDC filings, no challengers have stepped up to face Cassie Franklin next year, and I suspect she won’t face a serious one.
Planning Commission Split on Sequoia Norton Site
Last week I recapped the saga of Housing Hope’s Sequoia Norton Site, a proposed multifamily supportive housing development located in the western portion of the Port Gardner neighborhood. Opponents to the project, loosely organized as the Residents for Norton Playfield (RNP), once again flooded a meeting with tales of doom and classist rage. On Tuesday, the Planning Commission was split 3–3 on whether to recommend to the City Council the rezoning of the site’s location at the 3600 block of Grand Avenue. It will now be up to the City Council to decide whether to approve the rezoning in order to permit the construction of the development.
Recently, the Historical Commission voted 6–2 to recommend that the latest Sequoia Norton Site plans be rejected by the city. During an August 25th meeting, the commission was met with the same hate and vitriol that homeowners have expressed towards the planned development for houseless Everett Public Schools students. One person said that the project even “disgusted” them.
“To be frank, some public comments came from such a place of privilege that they offended any sense of humane, social justice oriented land use,” wrote Historical Commission Vice-Chair Amelia Hieb in a letter to the Planning Commission, “dog-whistles towards criminality, judgment of family composition, and my personal favorite, the claim that ‘we need open spaces more than housing the homeless’”.
It also appears that some template was passed around somewhere, because at least three letters all used extremely similar language and formatting. Residents for Norton Playfield were quiet on their Facebook page about this meeting, so I assume that this was being shared in some other Facebook group.
Sadly, reporting on the commission’s vote lacked these details, instead only highlighting concerns with “an increase in traffic, qualms about the project being too dense and not dense enough, the loss of green space in the neighborhood and impacts to surrounding property values”. These emails take it father than that: they claim that this decision will set a precedence that will lead to the—literal—destruction of single-family neighborhoods. The opposition is treating this like a pivotal decision and a defeat at this stage would mark a significant set-back for them.
According to The Herald, the City Council may render their decision on the rezoning during a meeting on October 14th. Housing Hope, in their Planning Commission meeting debrief, says to expect action to by the City Council on September 30th or October 7th.
As we head into a pivotal election year following an unprecedented crisis, scrutiny of our city’s leadership is more important than ever. If you’re interested in following Everett’s city leadership and politics more closely, please consider subscribing: