Lynnwood council debates vetting, re-interviews as vacancy deadline nears

Mayor Christine Frizzell called a special business meeting Thursday, March 13, to address the council vacancy created earlier this year and to set next steps after an applicant withdrew from consideration.

The council is operating against a statutory calendar: “we had 90 days from the date that the the council position was vacated, and that 90 days is April 5,” Mayor Frizzell said. The meeting focused on whether to (a) proceed with the four remaining vetted candidates, (b) re-interview those four with new questions, or (c) bring in four additional candidates from the ranked pool.

Council President Patrick Coelho presented three options to members, calling them “Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C,” and asked colleagues whether to expand the candidate pool or proceed with additional vetting of the top four. Coelho said he heard “a broad consensus that we do not wanna bring in new candidates into this process,” and proposed revisiting a second round of interviews for the current top four.

Council Member John Decker argued against changing the selection rules midstream: “This is the same rules that we've used previously. There's no reason to be changing the rules at this point,” he said, and urged the council to…