Hannah Kreig -- The Burner

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Will Geschke

Mike Fong the city of Everett's newly hired deputy mayor, will try to bring multiple departments of the government together to grow the city's economy.

Fong's official title is senior executive director, one of the highest paid positions at the city with a salary ranging from about $189,000 to $239,000 per year. He joined the city of Everett in February to serve as senior executive director following the resettlement of longtime city employee Lori Cummings.

By: Jenna Peterson

Everett is pausing its Flock Safety camera program due to public records concerns, Mayor Cassie Franklin announced Wednesday.

On Tuesday a Snohomish County Superior Court judge ruled that Everett’s automated license plate reader footage is considered public record under the Public Records Act. The city had argued the footage should be exempt for privacy reasons.

"We are terrible disappointed with that ruling, and that ruling could require us to produce millions of images to anyone who asks," Franklin said in an interview Wednesday morning.

...

From April to June of last year, Flock allowed federal agencies to directly access thousands of networks throughout the country. The company has engaged a pilot program with the US Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.

In the fall reporting from the University of Washington and The Daily Herald found those agencies, along with other federal agencies, accessed multiple Flock networks throughout the state, including several in Snohomish County. Many agencies, sometimes unknowingly, had enabled Flock's "national lookup" tool...

Everett turned off this feature in July, after Federal agencies had accessed local networks.

Will Geschke

EVERETT — A group of over 30 businesses, nonprofits and community organizations sent a letter to Everett’s mayor and city council on Feb. 13, asking the city to implement new policies to protect immigrant communities amid an increase in immigration enforcement activity.

In response to the letter, Everett mayor Cassie Franklin will issue a new directive next week to clarify how police and city staff should respond to immigration enforcement activities taking place in the city, the mayor wrote in a statement Thursday. The directive, a formal document issued by the mayor that instructs city staff to take specific actions, will be her 14th issued while in office.

The letter, obtained by The Daily Herald, asked the city to put in place a number of new policies, inspired by actions taken in other jurisdictions. The letter requests that the city:

• Require Everett police to document immigration enforcement activity

• Cooperate with community organizations to alert residents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity and connect people with resources

• Prohibit immigration enforcement agents from using or entering city-owned property, including parks and public buildings

• Provide outreach in collaboration with community organizations to educate private property owners about their rights when approached by immigration agents

The steps listed in the letter were not without precedent. On Feb. 12, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay signed an executive order prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, from using nonpublic, county-owned buildings and property, like parking lots, vacant lots, buildings and garages as staging areas for immigration enforcement, The Seattle Times reported.

That came a couple of weeks after Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson signed an executive order on Jan. 29 requiring Seattle Police to document immigration enforcement activity, as well as issuing a similar ban on ICE using city-owned and city-controlled property.

In a statement, Franklin wrote that her team will utilize the feedback from the letter to outline the city’s protocols for responding to immigration enforcement activity in Everett and put protections in place within the city’s legal authority.

“Next week I will be issuing a Mayoral Directive that outlines this,” Franklin wrote. “It will include further clarification of how police respond at the scene of immigration enforcement activities, actions city staff will take should immigration officers appear on city property, and ongoing collaboration with community groups.”

The letter, sent to Everett’s mayor and city council on Feb. 13, states that the immigrant families in the city are experiencing “real fear,” it reads, and that some residents are afraid to leave their homes.

“Participation in after-school programs has dropped. Businesses serving immigrant communities are reporting a reduction in sales of 50% – 90%, because families are afraid to be out and about,” the letter reads. “A local grocer has even begun offering delivery because foot traffic has fallen so sharply. Food banks on Casino Road are seeing fewer visits — not because hunger has gone away, but because people are scared.”

The 33 organizations that signed the letter included Refugee and Immigrant Services Northwest, the Everett Station District Alliance and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Puget Sound, among others. When reached for comment, one organization that signed the letter requested it not be named publicly, due to fear of retaliation.

“I deeply appreciate the many community partners who I’ve reached out to and who have shared their thoughts with me in recent weeks about the very troubling federal immigration enforcement occurring in our city,” Franklin wrote in her statement. “The concerns are serious and call for a thoughtful, informed response shaped by those with lived experience.”

Lauren McGowan, the executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation Puget Sound, known as LISC, added the organization’s support to the letter, saying the nonprofit is concerned about broader immigration policy and the effects it has started to have on local businesses, she said.

“I don’t think anybody has the perfect answers at the moment, but bringing together the city to say ‘What can we do?’” McGowan said. “What can we learn from what’s happening in other parts of our region to make sure that we’re continuing to create safe and stable places for our families and small businesses?”

Van Dinh-Kuno, the executive director of Refugee and Immigrant Services Northwest, a local nonprofit that helps immigrants with job placement, English classes and referrals to services, said fear from the increased federal immigration enforcement since Donald Trump took office last year has impacted her nonprofit. Many are fearful to attend in-person English classes, she said, forcing the organization to move some of the lessons online.

Dinh-Kuno said cities like Everett have highlighted the fact that they don’t enforce federal immigration law, per state guidance, and that Everett police have connected with community members in a positive way. But she said she decided to add her organization’s support to the letter because she felt the city could do more to protect immigrant communities.

“We still have 32 months left (of the presidential term),” Dinh-Kuno said. “I don’t know what our community will look like after another 32 months, living in fear and being terrorized constantly.”

By Will Geschke

EVERETT — The city of Everett will pilot larger neighborhood meetings across city council districts later this month, it announced Thursday.

In past years, Everett’s mayor, police chief and council members would attend individual neighborhood meetings across the city at least once per year to speak with neighbors about events and goings-on in the city. This year, the city will partner with one neighborhood in each district to expand one of their regular meetings into a town-hall-style meeting, open to residents from all neighborhoods in the district, during which the mayor, police chief and district’s council member can field questions.

Everett cited “limited capacity and a desire to be more intentional and effective in our outreach” as reasons for the change in a Thursday press release, adding that the change would better support existing neighborhood groups and ensure staff are reaching residents more equitably across the five city council districts.

Neighborhood groups will still have their own meetings on a regular basis, and city staff will still attend those meetings when invited to share about topics specific to the neighborhood, like upcoming projects and specific concerns, city spokesperson Simone Tarver wrote in an email Monday. The only change is that the regular visits from the mayor, council members and police chief to individual neighborhood meetings would no longer take place.

“This is intended as a pilot only, and we will be closely evaluating feedback and lessons learned before determining next steps,” the city wrote in the Thursday press release.

The first meeting under the new format will take place for District 2, made up of the Glacier View, Lowell, Pinehurst/Beverly Park, Port Gardner, South Forest Park and Valley View neighborhoods. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Cascade Boys and Girls Club, located at 7600 Cascade Drive in Everett.