The Lynnwood City Council has replaced Ted Hikel as council president.
At Monday night’s meeting, members elected Mark Smith as their new leader for the rest of the year. Kerri Lonergan was picked as the new vice president. She replaces Stephanie Wright, who was appointed last month to the Snohomish County Council.
Hikel has been criticized by fellow councilmembers for supporting Mayor Don Gough throughout the investigation into Gough’s alleged mistreatment of city employees. When the Council censured Gough and called on him to resign, Hikel abstained from voting.
“When I asked to be council president at the beginning of this year it was my hope that I would help bring the council together to work with the the administration and make this a successful year, because we were going to deal with and we are dealing with a very difficult subject of the budget,” Hikel said Monday night.
“On Sunday in church the priest mentioned that the readings for the day were about reconciliation and I thought that was very appropriate for me. I began to think of my inability to provide reconciliation and in effect my failure, but I also know that the worst thing to do is not to try and during this time I have tried. I believe this council needs more reconciliation,” he said.
The council president sets the agenda and leads the meetings when the mayor is absent. He is paid $200 per month more than the rest of the council, who each earn $1,650 per month.
This is the best thing for Lynnwood. If the Mayor would only care enough about this City to resign we could start moving forward. They are receiving too much for the work done. The salary plus all of the benifits is outragous.
You will never move forward, Lynnwood is the end of the earth. Horrible traffic, cops everywhere pulling you over for going 34 in a 30. Yet, with cops everywhere you dont feel safe. Lynnwood is what it is, a dump…the worst place ive ever lived.
yea, its terrible, cops doing the job they are paid to do….
horrible traffic???? 196th at rush hour is a little rough but no, its not near horrible. if you dont feel safe in lynnwood, that is your own misguided fear, this city is very safe.
I'm not sure which part of Lynnwood you are referring to but with the exception of a handful of trouble spots the traffic is not that bad. It certainly is not horrible and in the 12 years that I have lived here there have been major improvements in especially the rush hour time flow of traffic.
I'm not sure which cops your referring to but all the LPD officers I've dealt with have been pretty cool, yes even the one that gave me a ticket. Besides, my hard earned tax dollars pay for those cops so they better be doing something.
As far as your fear goes I can understand where your coming from especially with the city parading around all their top officials trying to scare us with the loss of police, the loss of fire fighters, predictions of rampet prostitution and drug dealing. Some of your fellow citizens are so afraid that they are actually calling for a city wide income tax!
It is just a scare tactic, you don't have to actually get scared… It is really no different from a child throwing a temper tantrum, if you give in they will keep going. If you give into the fear they will keep trying to scare you; why? Nobody opens up their wallet faster then someone that is scared.
Don't buy into the fear!
PS Less than 5 minutes of research into the crime stats of the city will clearly demonstrate that Lynnwood is a very safe place.
Lynnwood is the armpit of the I-5 corridor and most in the Puget Sound know it. Wake up and smell the cultural void, Lynnwood fans.
On top of being #1 in nothing, now the city reeks of corruption and BIG BROTHER CAMERAS ON EVERY CORNER. Your City Council Cartel rules your apathetic @sses without a trace of civic dissent.
When Alderwood Mall is your city's finer point, there's a problem.
Come on now Dee, don't be a hater.
Lynnwood is #1 when it comes to per capita municipal budget deficits, and if Fred Plappert has his way we will be first in the state to have a city wide income tax.
Additionally, there are not cameras on EVERY corner, that phase of the program had to be scrapped due to mounting budget deficits.
Touche regarding Alderwood Mall.
Actually Alderwood Mall will only be the finer point until the new rec center is finished, then it will be cities finer point… unfortunately it will probably have to be closed down due to budget problems.
Does anyone realize that almost no city employee actually lives in Lynnwood. Not the Police Chief, his assistants, the fire marshall, the muni judge, the city attorney, heads of the park and recreation, and numerous other departments. 3 of the 4 purchasing agents live outside of the city. and on and on. The Herald told me that this is usual in most cities, but I have been checking several cities in the last two weeks… NO, most employees live within their own cities. I came from Gig Harbor, and my friends refer to Lynnwood in terms of Alderwood Mall, and Top Ten Traffic traps. Even Seattle Magazine referred to Lynnwood in similar terms. I incurred ID theft, and Lynnwood P.D. would do nothing (even though I figured out who they were ), my garage was burglarized and I found out who did it (L.P.D. did nothing). I called about illegal fireworks, again nothing. However, they were efficient enough to give my family 3 tickets over the past 10 years (2 red light cameras – right turns and my dog got loose). None of the city council or mayor and their families were ever frequenters of the old pool… yet they committed 36,000 people to an indirect cost of $25.5M ($70,000/person). Bonds still have to be paid. And the best part is… we never get to vote on this stuff. The city sets up these little “corps” like PFD, Transportation District Board, etc. to circumvent voting, and “legally” install new taxes and fees.