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Everett council advances budget actions; staff outline 2025 amendments and 2026 appropriation
Summary
Council advanced the third reading of the 2026 budget ordinance and reviewed a lengthy set of 2025 budget amendments, including pre-funding CIP, vehicle and fuel infrastructure needs, pension contribution increases and a $2.6 million purchase for a new police property-room building; transcript contains a numeric discrepancy in the 2026 appropriation that requires clarification.
Everett City Council on Nov. 19 conducted third-reading actions and extended discussion around the citys 2026 budget and several 2025 budget amendments.
President Schwab read council bill 2 5 1 0-60 described as the ordinance appropriating the citys 2026 budget. The ordinance text recorded in the meeting included an amount stated as $943,826,973 followed immediately by an apparent correction in the record to "828,973," a discrepancy staff said they would clarify. Council scheduled the final (third) reading for Dec. 10, 2025 when the ordinance will be adopted or adjusted as required.
Interim Finance Director Mike Bailey presented a detailed overview of proposed amendments to the 2025 revised budget. Staff said 2024 financial results were better than anticipated and that the proposed amendments largely "catch up" accounting and spending-authority items, including:
- Reallocations of FTE time between enterprise and general funds (example: golf and parks staff time allocation). - Implementation costs for ACH payments and minimum-wage verification/business-license systems. - Recognition of previously approved grants and expenditures (guardian retreat program, local-heroes grant, municipal-arts grants, Jetty Island ferry service). - Increased appropriations for street-overlay work, fuel-infrastructure upgrades, and higher-than-anticipated vehicle and equipment costs. - Increases to self-insurance and pension-related budget lines due to rising claim costs. - A $2.6 million appropriation to complete the council-approved purchase of a new building for the police property room, intended to replace a facility staff described as in poor condition.
Council members stressed the difficulty of continuing cuts, noted the budget is "a moral document," and asked staff to return with clarifications on some line items (for example, the distribution and spending status of $40,000 allocated to a lighting project that included $21,000 in council COVID-relief allocations). Staff committed to follow up with precise reconciliations.
Next steps: staff will provide clarifications on the 2026 appropriation amount and requested reconciliations; the council scheduled the final vote for Dec. 10, 2025.
