During their July 6th work session, the Lynnwood City Council received an update from ACCESS Project president Wally Webster and Marie MacCoy on how it is addressing the growing youth violence problem in the city. The council members also received an update on the dispute between Everett and Alderwood Water over a rate increase and the funding for the replacement of a failing reservoir; as well as a discussion on the recent Association of Washington Cities conference in Spokane.
Webster and MacCoy came to the city council to discuss their support for a pilot program to help bring back Student Resource Officers (SROs) to Edmonds School District schools, as well as give the council an update on the programs actives since it was founded in 2022. The Project helps connect students with mental health services, community health and other services as needed based off of the intake form that they fill out. This helps ensure that the students are getting the support needed before their situation develops into a crisis and a 911 call.
A re-imagined SRO program would be designed to ensure that the there is earlier intervention when students start to exhibit signs of distress or abnormal behavior. This would allow the officers to help increase the successful prevention of potential crimes, or students being recruited into gangs, with more direct intervention earlier on in the process.
The decision to support a pilot program for a re-imagined SRO program in the Edmonds School District came about because Webster is part of the chief of police advisory committee and has had several discussion with his fellow committee members about what the city can do to help get a hold of the drastic increase in youth shootings within Lynnwood. One of the bits of information that he brought up during his presentation was that there has been a drastic increase in students charged since the SRO program was canceled back in 2020.
They data that was provided was from Meadowdale High School, Meadowdale Middle School, and College Place Middle School – all three of which are in Lynnwood. While the ACCESS Project had asked for data from the schools in Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace, they had not received any of it before the council meeting.
Editors note: While Edmonds School District made it clear that the middle schools did not have an SRO assigned to them, it is understood that the officer assigned to Meadowdale High School made sure to spend time at Meadowdale Middle School as well.
Council member Isabel Mata asked if there was any data about the root causes of the spike in school-related police calls and if it was because of the removal of the officers, or if it was related to broader behavioral trends in the community as a result of the Covid pandemic. Webster was clear that they do not have the data to make a determination either way, but that the status quo cannot continue and we need to do something; then assess if it’s working or not, then adjusting the program (or replacing it) as needed.
Lynnwood Police chief Cole Langdon has told Webster that he is willing to dedicate an officer to the pilot program as he believes it a worthwhile investment in preemptive intervention, despite the current staffing shortage facing Lynnwood PD.
When asked about the ideal length of the program by Council president Nick Coelho, Webster stated that he would like it to last through one school year to give them the best chance to see if there’s any reduction. He expressed that it would be helpful to be able to compare the data from the school that is assigned the officer to the schools that are not to help them determine if it needs to move forward. Unfortunately, they’ve had a hard time getting on the agenda for the School District’s Board of Directors which means they will make their story heard during public comment at the next meeting.
Other than the SRO program, the ACCESS Project has a website that young people can submit their questions too or sign up for their services. After the intake form has been submitted, the Project meets with the kid in order to best determine what is needed to help their needs and then they refer them to the community health, services, or mental health program that will be able to work with them. This referral means that they will take the child to the program, give the basic information and then let them move forward. From there, the Project follows up to make sure that the appointments are being attended and will follow-up (to the best of their abilities) with the kid if their missing appointments.
For kids who are between 13 and 17 years old, they do not need parental consent to participate; for those who are 12 and under, they do need parental consent.
The ACCESS Project has also worked with police departments to develop QR codes for individual police officers to add to their business cards. What this has allowed kids to do is scan the code to reach out to officers when they’re in need of assistance, but before it reaches the point of a 911 call. When these codes have been used, the police frequently refer the kids to the Project so they can be connected with the resources that are best able to help them in the long-term.
Police officers frequently tell kids that it’s better for them to get a call through their cell phone from them early on, because if they’re dispatched to them after a 911 call there are more stringent rules that they have to follow.
Arguably the program that shows the most promise is the peer mediation program that’s been set-up through the schools. With help from the Volunteers of America, the Project was able to train 171 students on peer mediation techniques that should be able to prevent disputes/arguments from turning into violence. Students volunteered for this training, one school had 45 students volunteer.
Everett vs. Alderwood Water on an exponential rate increase
Public Works director Jared Bond gave the council a troubling update on the rate increase that Everett Water has forced onto Alderwood Water, which means that it impacts Lynnwood Water. The two agencies are in non-binding arbitration over exponential increase as well as the funding for the replacement of a century old reservoir that has a cracked lid and will likely fail in the next big earthquake to hit the region.
The $82 million project to replace the failing Reservoir No. 3, the City of Everett is planning on covering 20% of the cost through 25 year bonds while charging its wholesale customers (for example, Alderwood) the remaining 80%. Alderwood Water cannot split its share of the cost over 25 years through bonds which means that it will be required to pay its entire share of the cost up front. This means that they’ll have to drastically increase rates on their customers and the City of Lynnwood to cover the cost if the Everett gets its way.
Another point that’s in dispute between Everett and Alderwood is the 124% increase in rates from 2024 to 2025 (and another 8.2% from 2025 to 2026). The 2024 rate is $1.0033 per CCF, Everett wants to increase it to $2.2548 for 2025-2026 and then to $2.4403.
Currently, Alderwood Water is paying at the 2024 rate which means its held the rate its charging Lynnwood for water at the same annual rate. Despite that, Bond has adjusted the rates that Lynnwood customers are paying (with council approval) because he suspected that Everett was going to raise its rates drastically and wanted to make sure that the city has enough money saved up to cover the cost of the true-up – when Alderwood has to pay off the difference between the old rate and the new rate for 2025 & 2026 – without hitting the general fund. As a result of these rate adjustments, Lynnwood has $1.5 million saved to cover the true-up cost without further rate increases or harm to the general fund; currently, the true-up is at $1.7 million but that will go higher as the two agencies work through arbitration, but the cities savings will increase as its accruing interest and adding money to that account as bills are paid.
The final major issues between the two water agencies is the 12% utility tax that the Everett City Council unilaterally imposed on Everett Water. This tax was passed unanimously and its legality is dubious as their wholesale water customers are unable to vote for (or recall) Everett City Council members, nor can the wholesale customers file a referendum to repeal the tax.
While the mayor George Hurst (Lynnwood), mayor Mike Rosen (Edmonds), and mayor Steve Woodard (Mountlake Terrace) met with Everett mayor Cassie Franklin, and the lawyers from Alderwood Water testified to the Everett City Council before the vote, the tax was still passed unanimously before it was signed into law.
Everett Water supplies the drinking water for roughly 75% of Snohomish County’s population thanks to the Henry M. Jackson hydro project on the Sultan River. The dam holds back about 50 billion gallons of water and feeds into the signficantly smaller Chaplain Reservoir, which is where the Everett Water treatment facility is located. It’s from this treatment facility that Alderwood Water purchases water from Everett; and then Lynnwood Water purchases from Alderwood.
As a result of this infrastructure, there is no real options for any of Everett Water’s wholesale customers to find another source for their water supply, or create their own.
Updates from the Association of Washington Cities annual conference
Assistant city administrator Monisha Harrell and Coelho went to Spokane for the annual Association of Washington Cities conference. This conference allows city council members and staff to be able to share solutions to problems that they’re confronting as well as new ideas with cities that are don’t get a chance to interact heavily throughout the year.
One of the budget situations that Lynnwood has struggled with is indigent defense (the guarantee that individuals facing prosecution will have an attorney to represent them even if they can’t afford one). During this conference, Harrell learned that the state legislature has set aside a fund to help cities pay for these attorneys. According to her, anyone that takes the time to apply for funding to assist with their indigent defense usually gets some sort of funding – even if it’s not the full amount applied for. She fully expects the city to take advantage of this fund next year.
AI was also a hot topic of discussion this year because several cities have found that it can help their staff reduce time spent on administrative tasks and help them be more efficient. An example that Coelho brought up was helping permit applicants pre-fill out some of the paperwork to help save them time and frustration; while it also pre-fills out information on the paperwork the staff has to fill out before the application can be processed. Another example was the fact that Spokane was able to use AI to collate data on speeding and driving habits from insurance companies to help identify which streets needed more investment in traffic calming as well as quick build pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements.
By far the example that has the potential for the greatest cost savings though came from Redmond, Wash. The city staff in Redmond sent a robot out to assess the condition and quality of the sidewalks instead of hiring a contractor to spend weeks doing the same thing. AI was then able to assemble this data in a easy to understand map that helped the staff target the areas most urgently in need of repair; which also has helped improve communication with the cities residents as they’re able to see where the city is investing its money in repairs and why.
Other news from the council meeting
There has been some resident push back on the Everett’s use of the state’s youth activities fund to help finance the purchasing of land for its outdoor event center – the proposed new ballpark for the Aquasox. Coelho had put together a draft resolution for the council to look at to help the city do what it can to prevent these funds from being used to finance the ballpark. But, as it turns out, the funds the Everett is using are actually from the public facilities infrastructure fund which was created with the express purpose of helping cities and school districts maintain and build publicly owned athletic facilities…like a ballpark.
Since the City of Everett is using the appropriate funds for this project, it was decided not to spend any more of the council’s time on the draft resolution.
More from the Evergreen Post Intelligencer
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- Snohomish County Council passed the 0.1% public safety sales tax
- LPD chief briefed the council on how the department will use the public safety grant, sales tax
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