Everett Council opens public hearing on FY2025 budget and CIP amid sharp public criticism

The Everett City Council opened a public hearing on the city’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget and capital improvement plan and heard more than an hour of public comment protesting spending priorities and contracts. Councilors voted to take items 1 and 2 together, opened the hearing, accepted public testimony and later closed the hearing and placed the items on file.

Three residents who had signed up to speak pressed the council on several recurring themes: the size of the proposed budget increase, use of free cash, a contracted wellness-center operator, city vehicle policies and chargebacks to the school department. Peggy Serino said the budget showed a roughly 12% increase from 2024 and asked why unspent money returned to free cash rather than being spent in departments; she also alleged large ARPA expenditures and questioned a $395,000 annual payment to a wellness-center manager while that person reportedly runs a private business using city space and equipment. Serino said, “Why are the people of Everett paying to buy new vehicles, then city employees get to take them home?” and urged the council to cut spending.

John Popolo, another commenter, focused on fleet and CIP management, urging the city to fix callout procedures and reduce take-home vehicle usage to limit commuter mileage on city vehicles. He also criticized continuing to list projects in the CIP that remain in design, saying a recently proposed Square and Central Avenue Park had funding without completed plans.

The final speaker recorded on the sign-in sheet was listed as Paul Austeridi; the chair addressed him as “Mr. Reidy” during the meeting, producing an on-the-record name discrepancy. That speaker said the budget amounted to "another tax hike," questioned using $5,000,000 of free cash and raised specific contract and cost figures: he said PlayFit receives $395,000 a year to manage the wellness center while reporting roughly $250,000 in revenue, cited about $27,000 a month in utilities for the old high school and $330,000 in insurance, and noted an approximately $4,000,000 chargeback the mayor had billed to the school department. He also said the opioid-settlement account showed $192,000 allocated and about $15,000 spent so far.

Procedurally, the council voted by voice to take items 1 and 2 collectively, opened the public hearing, heard the three registered speakers and then voted to close the hearing. The chair then secured a motion and vote to place the hearing items on file and the council adjourned. No substantive vote on the budget or CIP adoption occurred at the meeting.

The clerk read the governing authority for the hearings into the record: Item 1 was held under section 6-4 of the city charter for budget appropriations; Item 2 was held under section 6-5(b) of the charter for the capital improvement plan. The council did not act to adopt the budget or approve the CIP during this session; next procedural steps were not specified on the record.