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Residents urge protecting initiative process and consider 'rights of nature' after judge struck down watershed measure
Summary
At a Charter Review Committee public hearing in Everett, residents urged keeping the city’s 5% initiative threshold, argued for equal repeal rules, and asked the committee to consider placing watershed protections or 'rights of nature' language in the charter after a recent court ruling struck down a city initiative.
At a public hearing of the Everett Charter Review Committee, several residents urged the panel to preserve and strengthen the city’s initiative process rather than shift key rules into ordinance language that could be changed later.
"It is a constitutional right to proceed first of an initiative," said Abby Ludwig, one of the speakers who described herself as a co‑founder of Standing for Washington and who urged the committee to resist moving initiative rules out of the charter. Ludwig also pressed the committee to consider embedding watershed protections or "rights of nature" language in the charter after a judge ruled against a local watershed initiative.
Jennifer Gregerson, the city…
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