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Resident urges Everett to coordinate with Snohomish County on climate resilience planning
Summary
A longtime resident asked the Everett City Council to integrate the city’s climate action plan with Snohomish County’s climate resilience planning and emergency management to address floods, heat and fires; council members signaled interest in follow-up at committee.
Paul Roberts, a resident and neighborhood volunteer, urged the Everett City Council on Aug. 6 to coordinate the city’s climate action and emergency-management planning with Snohomish County’s climate resilience work.
Roberts told the council he attended a recent Snohomish County climate-resilience open house and said the county has been bringing together emergency services and other departments to plan for increasingly extreme events, including floods, wildfires and heat. "These events are exceeding the statistical frameworks that have historically been used to measure them," Roberts said in his public comment, arguing that the city should integrate recent data into its climate action and emergency plans.
Roberts said that adaptation requires pairing emergency management and climate work and that local governments should assume reduced federal backup for some disaster functions. "The cavalry is not coming," he said, summarizing his view of current federal posture toward some disaster assistance programs.
Council members responded favorably to Roberts’ suggestion. Council member Ryan proposed bringing an update to a parks and built environment committee meeting to review progress on the city’s climate action plan and how it intersects with emergency preparedness. Mayor Franklin and other council members said they would take Roberts’ comments into consideration.
Roberts framed the issue as a public-safety and resource-coordination matter, pointing to recent regional events including 2021 heat and flood incidents. He said those events show the limits of historical statistical planning and called for the city to look for opportunities to ‘‘piggyback’’ on county resources to strengthen local preparedness. Roberts said he had no specific information about ongoing city–county communications but encouraged formal coordination.
The council did not take formal action on the comment but several members asked for the topic to be considered in future committee work and for staff to report back on county coordination.
