Controversy about the hiring process for the City of Lynnwood’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Director spurred action at the Lynnwood City Council’s Aug. 12 business meeting. The department’s former director and members of the city’s parks commission used the meeting’s public comment period to ask councilmembers for a formal restart to the hiring process – an action the council unanimously voted to approve later in the meeting.
Lynn Sordel retired from his position in March 2024. He recommended then-Deputy Director Sarah Olson for the position. After Sordel’s departure, Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell appointed Recreation Superintendent Joel Faber as interim director.
Sordel publicly disagreed with the decision to appoint Faber to the position, questioning if he was the most qualified person for the job and that stated that Faber had been “overwhelmed” by work of the position during his four month tenure. Sordel went on to allege that Frizzell had unfairly removed Olson from consideration for the position despite recommendations from city department heads and staff, which then left her with only two qualified candidates. That amount is insufficient to proceed with the hiring process, which requires the mayor to present three qualified candidates to the council for interviews.

Council leadership – President George Hurst and Council Vice President Julieta Altamirano-Crosby – brought Sordel’s complaints to council meetings. That eventually led the council to revise city policy to include a six-month time limit on interim appointments.
Olson, a 25-year City of Lynnwood employee, resigned from her position “with mixed feelings” in August. She declined to comment publicly on the situation.

Preempting public comment, Mayor Christine Frizzell made a statement on the issue.
“I want to respond to misinformation and comments that have appeared in local media lately regarding this position, ” she said. Frizzell said that events began in November 2023, when Sordel told the mayor he was retiring. She went on to say that she and Olson had spoken about the position several times, before and after Sordel’s retirement.
“I will not violate public employment laws to publicly debate employee-personnel matters,” Frizzell said. “We began a recruitment process in January 2024. By mid-March, I did not feel we had three qualified candidates to present to the council at the end of the interview process, as requested in our code 2.06. The decision to appoint Joel Faber to interim director is fully within my responsibility, and I did so on March 18. Council then worked on revising the code, making a number of changes to it… In July, I spoke with Council President Hurst and Council Vice President Altamirano-Crosby about council interviewing Joel with the intent to appoint him no longer as interim director but as the permanent director.”
Frizzell recounted Faber’s 26-year history with the city, that he served as Lynnwood’s recreation superintendent since 2011 and said that Faber’s performance as interim exceeded her expectations. She said that Sordel’s attacks on Faber and others said more about Sordel’s character than the ones he’d been “slandering.”
“I am asking Mr. Sordel to discontinue his harassment of, and destructive charges against, City of Lynnwood employees,” Frizzell said that she and the council would be discussing this more in detail at the meeting’s private executive session, and she apologized to the employees caught up in the public dispute.

During the Aug. 12 meeting, Sordel and two members of the Lynnwood Parks Commission – Chair Thomas Krause and member Holly Hernandez – requested a restart of the director hiring position. Hernandez said that as a commission member, her role was to serve as a representative of the public and that the community deserved input. Krause and Hernandez said that the commission unanimously voted to recommend restarting the process.
Also during public comments, retired City Administrator Art Ceniza said that his successor had not gone through a hiring process and instead had been chosen by Frizzell. He added that although the current city administrator seems to be doing a fine job, that best practice would be to consider candidates through a competitive process. Public commenter Ted Heikel characterized the treatment of long-time city employees during this time as “disrespectful,”

Sordel, during his comments, said that then-Mayor Don Gough had created a citizen advisory panel during Sordel’s own hiring in 2006. Sordel also asked for a restart of the parks director hiring process. He said that Olson’s departure was a big loss for the city, and he believed a “second go-around” would yield very different results.

During council comments, Altamirano-Crosby, who serves as the parks commission’s council liaison, said that she supported the restart because she wanted to avoid setting a precedent that “allows future mayors to bypass protocol or exclude city councilmembers from the decision-making process”.
Hurst read a message from Parks Commissioner Member Katie Egresi, who wrote that she was shocked and disheartened to lose Olson from the team and requested that the board and public be given the opportunity to provide input.

Hurst continued by recounting his versions of events and said that the use of interim positions could circumvent hiring protocol, adding that’s why the council put limits on it. Later, Hurst made a motion — approved unanimously — to direct the mayor to restart the PRCA director recruitment process.
Frizzell asked City Attorney Lisa Marshall to provide input on the council’s decision, including how the newly-implemented six-month interim limit would be factored into the motion and if the process would extend beyond Faber’s interim appointment.
Councilmembers Josh Binda and Derica Escamilla made separate statements, saying that they had no issue with Faber, and their concerns were rooted in the process. Councilmember David Parshall motioned to extend Faber’s interim appointment “until the end of the year or when a permanent director is hired.” Councilmember Patrick Decker said he was concerned about the wording of the motion and asked to amend the motion by extending Faber’s term by 90 days. Decker also asked that the council receive regular updates about the recruiting process.

Decker’s amendment and the motion to extend Faber’s term passed unanimously in a 6-0 vote. (Councilmember Nick Coelho was absent from the meeting.)

In other business, the council received a briefing from Human Services Coordinator Kyle Ward and Healthy Communities Manager Marielle Harrington. The council used funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to establish the city’s human services program and Ward’s position. The department’s mission is to address hardships experienced by a large portion of the population such as access to health care, housing instability, behavioral health issues and other basic needs.

Ward provided detailed accounts of the department’s efforts to aid residents and support nonprofits.
Ward was accompanied by Alicia Koné, owner of Koné Consulting, who provided an analysis of Lynnwood’s needs and suggestions for addressing them. She said that her recommendations were based on data from several needs studies recently conducted in the city and county as well as welfare and benefit data provided by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services in Lynnwood ZIP codes.


Koné advocated for improving awareness about available aid, strengthening tenant protection laws and increasing housing program options for the unhoused/housing insecure. Speaking to the value of strengthening collaboration and the overall direction of Lynnwood’s Human Services, Koné recommended that the city regularly test innovative solutions, seek ways to replace and sustain the social worker position working alongside the police’s department’s community outreach division and continue to fund the coordinator position. Koné included a 37-page document of the analysis, which detailed Lynnwood’s incomes, demographics and human services needs.

During new business, Escamilla asked that the city establish a youth board. She said that several nearby cities and counties already have such boards and she had begun work on the idea. Earlier in the meeting, Escamilla had pointed to information presented by the human services department that about 20% of Lynnwood residents are under age 18. Binda and Decker supported her request, with Decker including the stipulation that Escamilla create a document that outlines the intended goals, funding needs and timelines of establishing the board.
Additionally, the council unanimously approved the police union’s proposed 2025-2027 collective bargaining agreements. While the council was presented with “high estimates” for wages, details about the financial impact of those agreements are scheduled for a discussion in September as part of the city biennial budget process.
The city council finished the meeting by reminding those attending that the council will be on break for the next three weeks.
–By Jasmine Contreras-Lewis
Wow, what a poor decision not to hire Sarah Olson and a huge loss for the community. Olson has:
25 years experience in the department;
professionalism and strong leadership skills; an excellent reputation among her local government peers and the community; and a great attitude.
Lynnwood lost a valued employee and gets nothing in return.
Sarah was an awesome and very professional staff member to work with.
I’m not sure what is happening behind the scenes that the mayor would pass over a well qualified staff member.
Maybe you should ask her. She was the most qualified individual for certain. This was validated by the Mayor’s executive team and 10 other city employees who spent an entire day interviewing 4 qualified candidates. They informed the Mayor she was their choice. Now she has resigned.
I have lost all confidence in our current mayor of Lynnwood.