Note: The agenda and transcript list the meeting date as February 25, 2026; the supplied timestamp is February 26, 2026. This summary uses the supplied date.
The Everett City Council met to approve consent items, hear briefings on a new controlled substance endangerment ordinance and the Everett Transit Long Range Plan, and receive mayoral directives on automated license plate readers and immigration enforcement. The council also adopted several action items, including stormwater controls updates and a resolution for a public hearing on an alley vacation.
Good afternoon, residents of Everett, Washington. I'd like to call to order the Everett City Council meeting for February 25th, 2026. For information on council meetings and how to participate, please visit Everett Wad.gov slash city council. Clerk, will you please take the roll? Mayor Franklin here. Councilmember Zarlingo. Here. Councilmember Barbano. Right here. Councilmember Tui. Excused. Councilmember Weir here. Councilmember Bader. Excuse. He may be joining us soon. Vice President Ryan. Here. President Schwab. Here. At this time, I'd like to ask Councilmember Zarlingo to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. And this time I'd like to ask Vice President Ryan to read the land acknowledgement. City Council wishes to acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Stahoes people and their successors, the Talelep tribes. It says time immemorial. They have hunted, fished, gathered on, and taken care of these lands and waters. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water. We'll strive to be honest about our past mistakes to bring about a future that includes their voices, their stories, and their people to form a more just and equitable society. Thank you very much. Well, good afternoon, Mayor. Good afternoon, President Schwab, Council, and community. To start with, I want to talk a little bit about automated license plate reader cameras, which are an incredibly valuable law enforcement tool that have helped Everett police make over 250 arrests, finding missing persons, and locate stolen vehicles. Yesterday, Everett lost a court case that said we must publicly disclose these records when requested. And we're still evaluating the implications of this ruling. However, with this ruling, we may be required to produce literally millions of records, which could take hundreds upon hundreds of hours of staff time. Even more importantly, we're concerned about protecting the identity of victims of domestic violence, stalking, and other crimes. As a result, I've asked our staff to temporarily turn off license plate reader cameras until we learn the result of legislative action in Olympia and have a clearer understanding of the legal framework framework governing their use. Again, I want to share this as really disappointing due to how important this tool has been from solving homicides to locating missing people. I remain very hopeful for a fix this session in Olympia. So speaking of Olympia, I know Jennifer has been keeping you updated on weekly legislative issues. I wanted to share a couple updates. Senate Bill 6002 continues to move ahead, and this bill would clean up and provide guardrails for the use of automated license plate readers, like I was just referring to. Just yesterday, it was voted out of House Policy Committee. That should give plenty of time for a floor vote in the House and eventual approval. This bill would treat automated license plate readers the same as our traffic safety speed and school zone cameras. It would exempt them from public records act. It would also allow us three weeks to access data for valid public safety purposes and help protect victims and solve crimes. At this point, it limits the use to felonies, but we are hopeful that the bill will be amended to include additional crimes like gross misdemeanors, including domestic violence, sexual assault crimes, crimes against children, and other categories. And this bill removes roadblocks that have come up in some other communities. Everett has stayed engaged on it and ensuring that will be amended to allow us to use our management plans as best practices for providers. We we know the result of these and other important uh policies that are coming forward.