EVERETT — Amid criticism over the Everett City Council’s public engagement process, a redistricting map was unanimously approved by the council Wednesday.
The council had little choice. The city charter requires the council to accept the map — which sets district boundaries for City Council seats — as proposed by the districting commission without amendment or modification by Nov. 1.
“The whole purpose of the districting commission is to get a bunch of smart people together to think this through and make a good decision outside of politics,” Everett city attorney David Hall told the council. “This isn’t supposed to be back before council in a political forum.”
The commission proposed several small adjustments to the map first enacted in 2020. But members of Everett Districts Now, the group that led efforts to change city council elections into geographic districts from all seven positions, criticized the commission for not accepting spoken public comment until it had proposed a map in meetings through August.
Written comment was accepted at the commission’s prior monthly meetings starting in February.
According to the city charter, the council districts will be reevaluated after the next U.S. Census in 2030.
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