Councilors Absences Puts Most Important Business Off:Three Absences and a Late Arrival Force Major Agenda Items to Be Delayed

The Everett City Council, with three members absent Monday night and a fourth not arriving until nearly an hour late, chose to put off debate and decision on several major agenda items, including several requests for funding and the much debated adoption of the proposed new administrative code that would create a new Office of Gaming Accountability (OGA).

According to City Hall employees, Council President Fred Capone and Councilor John Leo McKinnon were each away with a school field trip to Washington DC.

Those absences seem reasonable given that both are devoted family men and the School Field trip could not have been re-scheduled.

However, city hall sources also noted that At-Large Councilor Richard Dell Isola “had to work” and no reason was given for Councilor Cynthia Sarni’s late arrival.

Due to the low turnout among Councilors, the body had no choice but to delay voting on four appropriation requests, despite a recommendation of favorable action from the Council’s committee on Ways and Means.

Council by-laws and the City Charter require at least eight votes on new appropriation of funds. In addition, the orders to amend the administrative code to add the new OGA department and fund its creation through transfers, were also delayed until the Council’s next meeting, which will take place on Tuesday, May 26, as the regularly scheduled meeting would have called for the meeting to be on Memorial Day.

The four (4) appropriation items include:

$17,397,500 to pay for various items on the approved FY 216 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP); $2,088,000 for costs of sewer system infiltration and inflow projects; $1,500,000 for costs of an elementary school feasibility study; and $325,000 for costs of purchasing various Enterprise department equipment.

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