Council selects leadership, rescinds motions made by previous council

The Lynnwood City Council during its Jan. 8 business meeting elected its leadership for the year and selected councilmembers to serve on countywide boards and city liaison positions.

Councilmembers Patrick Decker and George Hurst both put their names in to be considered for the council president role. Hurst was the only candidate to express interest during the previous discussion, but Decker said that his work experience in the financial sector would give him insight into the city’s budget. Further, he said that he was “not beholden” to any groups as he self-funded his city council election campaign. Councilmember Josh Binda was absent from the Monday meeting, so six voting members were present rather than the normal seven. Hurst was elected in a 4-2 vote, with Council Vice President Julieta Altamirano-Crosby and Decker voting for Decker. 

While Binda submitted his name for council vice president during last week’s council meeting, Mayor Christine Frizzell reported that Binda had withdrawn his candidacy in an email communication with City Council Executive Assistant Lisa Harrison. No other members of the council stated their interest in the position and Altamirano-Crosby was unanimously voted into the role. 

The following positions were determined in a councilwide vote:

The following liaison assignments were determined by Hurst as part of his duties as council president:

During the new business portion of the meeting, Parshall moved to rescind four motions made by previous councilmember Jim Smith during his final meeting Dec. 11. Smith had submitted the items with the goal of having city staff present on them or councilmembers vote on them during future meetings, even though he would no longer be on the council.

Parshall explained that his resistance to the motions was not due to their subject matter, but the manner in which they were brought to the council.

“The council’s debate on [the motions] was stifled incorrectly,” Parshall said. “The council was told that a motion to postpone is not debatable and that’s not true. The council should have had the opportunity to debate on these things. Secondly, as a new councilperson, I’ve been warned to be careful of the precedent that we set as a council, and I don’t think as a council we want to set the precedent that a former council sets the agenda for current council.” 

He added that anyone wishing to bring up those topics in a future council meeting was free to do so.

After some discussion on whether the council was able to rescind motions at all, Decker said that regardless of the permissibility, the council could vote as a supermajority to suspend council rules for this one specific item. The vote to suspend council rules passed unanimously. A second vote was held to vote on Parshall’s motion to rescind. This passed 5-1, with Decker voting against. As a result, the four motions made by Smith at the Dec. 11 meeting will not be acted on.

In other business, Mayor Frizzell responded to Hurst’s criticism of a rule her administration put in place to stem hate speech during council meetings.  During the public comment portion of some meetings in November and December 2023, the council was impacted by “Zoom bombings” in which several individuals joined the meeting remotely for the purpose of sharing hate speech, including slurs, antisemitism and conspiracy theories. 

To prevent similar circumstances, city staff placed rules on Zoom participation, requiring those who wished to speak during public comment to register 24 hours in advance of the meeting. Since these rules were put in place, no hate speech commenters have joined, but the implementation of the changes drew criticism from Hurst. During a Jan. 2 council work session, Hurst stated that the administration did not have the authority to unilaterally change council rules and a change of council rules required a council vote.

Frizzell on Monday addressed Hurst’s criticism by stating that she, other members of the administration, mayors from nearby cities and council leadership had collaborated to develop this rule. Further, she said that no councilmembers reached out to her regarding the multiple instances of hate speech. Frizzell also stated that she and her staff had contacted the councilmembers who would be continuing their term in 2024 to solicit feedback on communication between the administration and council. Of the five councilmembers, Frizzell stated that only Sutton replied. 

Later in Monday’s meeting, Hurst moved to amend public comment policy in the same way. The council unanimously passed the amendment requiring public commenters commenting remotely using services such as Zoom to register 24 hours in advance to make a statement.

The meeting was adjourned after a private executive session that pertained to personnel and employment.