Everett City councilors ask Di Maria administration for $150,000 to fund audit, legal costs

Everett City Councilors offered a resolution asking the Di Maria administration to immediately approve an additional appropriation of $150,000 to the City Council professional and technical services account to fund a required audit and related legal and ancillary expenses.

The resolution, whose sponsors the transcript lists as Councilors Stephanie Martins, Gurley, Elsie Gibbon, Holly Garcia, Katie Rodgers, Michael Marchese, Peter Petrentonio, Robert Van Campen and Stephanie Smith, was read into the record as Item 1 at the start of the meeting. The transcript does not record a vote on that resolution.

Earlier in the meeting a motion to close public participation was made and seconded and carried by voice vote; the presiding officer said, "The ayes have it." No individual votes on that motion are recorded in the transcript.

The resolution text as read requests immediate administrative approval of an additional $150,000 appropriation to the City Council's professional and technical services account and specifies the funds are to cover a required audit and any legal and ancillary expenses necessitated by that audit. The transcript identifies the group of council sponsors but does not record further discussion of the audit's scope, timeline, or specific legal services that would be covered.

Because the transcript records only the reading of the resolution and not a council vote or an administrative approval by the Di Maria administration, any transfer or spending of the requested funds remains contingent on further action not captured in the provided transcript.