Local community leader and 25-year City of Lynnwood employee Sarah Olson announced her resignation late last week. Her departure as the deputy director of Lynnwood’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department follows the retirement of the department’s director, Lynn Sordel, earlier this year.
After Sordel’s departure, Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell appointed Recreation Superintendent Joel Faber as interim director.
Olson herself has remained silent on the staffing changes, but previous department director Sordel and Lynnwood City Council leadership have not. Accusations of bias and a lack of transparency have plagued the recruitment process.
During an April 6 council meeting, Council Vice President Julieta Altamirano-Crosby read an email she’d received from Sordel in which he expressed his disappointment and frustration about Frizzell’s decision not to appoint Olson to the vacancy. In response, Frizzell cited state law that reinforced her authority to appoint department heads and said that her decision to appoint Faber to an interim position had historical precedent. In addition, Frizzell said that Faber’s interim role was to “shepherd the department through a busy season”.
In the same letter, Sordel accused Frizzell of withholding from the council his succession plan – which called for Olson to be appointed to head the department – though there is no state or local legislation requiring the use or implementation of such succession documents.
In another email, Sordel claimed that the mayor lied to councilmembers by underrepresenting the number of qualified candidates for the job prior to their March 18 executive session, which had been scheduled to privately allow councilmembers to interview candidates for the director position.
While the council does not appoint department heads, it is responsible for confirming the mayor’s appointments to leadership roles. Sordel said that of the four applicants in that March 18 interview, three were qualified to proceed and Olson was removed from that qualified pool. For undisclosed reasons, no interviews were held and the meeting concluded about two minutes after it began.
City of Lynnwood spokesperson Nathan MacDonald was unable to confirm how many candidates applied for the position, nor how many made it to the next round. Lynnwood Today was advised that it would need to submit a records request for information relating to candidates, and was told that the future recruitment process was currently undecided.
MacDonald did issue the following statement on behalf of the city pertaining to Olson’s resignation:
“For nearly 26 years, Sarah Olson has passionately served Lynnwood, devoting her efforts to enhancing the accessibility of our beautiful parks and trails. Her lasting impact will resonate throughout our community for years to come. We express our gratitude for her service and extend our best wishes for her future endeavors.”
Olson began her employment with the City of Lynnwood in 1998 as an assistant aquatics supervisor. She stayed in the role for six years before her promotion to community programs supervisor – a position she occupied for another eight years. For the last 10-plus years, Olson has served as the department’s deputy director. Her work included substantial community engagement, which gave her the opportunity to connect one-on-one with Lynnwood’s families, residents and parks enthusiasts.
In her resignation letter, written with “mixed emotions,” Olson stated that her final day with the city is Aug. 9, though due to a previously scheduled vacation, her final working day is Friday, Aug. 2. She thanked her colleagues for their dedication, talent and camaraderie and shared some of their shared achievements.
“Serving the Lynnwood community for nearly 26 years, including the past 10 years as deputy director, has been an immense honor,” Olson wrote. “Together, we have achieved significant milestones in enhancing accessibility and equity through multimodal planning, transit access, capital projects, neighborhood plans, fire service, and so much more. I am confident that our collective efforts have made a lasting impact, and I hope the city will continue to advance great work.” Olson wrote.
More on Olson’s contributions to the city will be included in an article to be released later this month.
–By Jasmine Contreras-Lewis
Just another example of ineffectiveness at City Hall. No matter who becomes the next park Director, I hope that they can clean up Daleway Park. It is disgraceful that little has been done to preserve this park’s forest. The front planting beds are overgrown with ivy and vine maple and throughout the park, you can see Holly, Ivy, and Laurel, taking over natural vegetation.
Trees have been cut down and the debris has not been cleaned up.
Perhaps the new park Director will do a better job of involving the community to manage our parks.
Considering the administrations that she has had to work through, Sarah contributions to the City of Lynnwood is nothing short of a miracle.
Not only do I appreciate her project contributions over the years, but I appreciated her professionalism when I had disagreements with the city’s actions and lack of actions.
Her heart is gold and wherever she goes next is lucky to have her. Best of luck Sarah, you deserve better!
While we wish Sarah Olsen the best of luck, Lynnwood Pride is looking forward to more open communication and support with the current administration in scheduling a future Pride event in a park – something we were not able to do for Lynnwood’s first Pride event this year.
I had the pleasure of working with Sarah on the ParksLove project from 2022 to 2024. I responded to an open call for volunteers to meet regularly to help represent citizens in the Parks “codesign” process. Every interaction with Sarah Olson was exemplary. I am sad and astonished at how she was passed over for promotion. Sarah will be an asset to any future organization she chooses to join.