Lynnwood council votes keep state waste management contract

The schedule for appointing a new Lynnwood City Councilmember has changed. All eight candidates vying for the vacant council seat will now be interviewed at the Tuesday, Feb. 18 city council meeting. During a special business meeting Thursday, Feb. 20, councilmembers are scheduled to cast their votes on each candidate, eventually selecting a new councilmember after discussing candidate qualifications in an executive session. 

The original interview schedule shifted because Councilmember Patrick Decker is set to be out of the country, Assistant City Administrator Julie Moore told Lynnwood Today in an email Wednesday. 

The council is also scheduled to “evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office,” at the Feb. 20 executive session, according to a city press release. 

City Clerk Luke Lonie announced the top eight candidates for the Position 5 seat during the council’s Feb. 10 meeting. The person selected will fill the vacancy left by last month’s resignation of Councilmember Julieta Altamirano-Crosby. 

In other council business Monday, Lynnwood’s trash pickup will stay the same for now, after the council voted to pause its transition away from its waste hauling contract with the state.

The council also passed a resolution to accept only one candidate to potentially serve as the city’s public works director. City code requires three candidates to be nominated. 

Additionally, the council discussed duties and responsibilities for elected city officials in light of recent discussions involving former and current councilmembers’ eligibility to serve on the council. The council discussed potentially changing the city code in the future to leave less speculation on what’s required to serve as an elected official in Lynnwood. 

Trash hauling contracts

In 2022, the city council voted to start the process of ending its waste management contract with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission following a rough winter season where trash pickup was unable for extended periods of time. 

The council paused that process Monday in light of results from a 2023 public survey showing that the majority of Lynnwood residents were satisfied with their trash service. For now, trash service will remain as is and the city is set to stay under its contract with the WUTC. 

More information on this topic can be found in previous reporting. 

Duties and qualifications for elected officials 

In late January, Lynnwood Times posted an article online investigating Councilmember Josh Binda’s residence, and alleged he could be living in Everett. Binda was also evicted from his apartment in Lynwood in 2023. At the time of that reporting, the Snohomish County Auditor’s office had not verified a new Lynnwood address Binda used on his current voter registration. 

On Monday, Binda said he currently lives in Lynnwood, and that he stayed at his dad’s apartment in Everett for a short period of time to house sit. 

However, the council was split on whether it was satisfied with Binda’s residency, with some saying they wanted to see concrete proof that he currently lives in Lynnwood. 

Councilmember Decker instructed Marshall to draft a potential resolution for the council to discuss in the future that requires councilmembers to regularly provide proof of residency.

A heated exchange then broke out between Decker and Binda, with Binda accusing Decker of “making up rules on the spot” to get him off of the council. 

More information can be found in a Lynnwood Today investigation delving into Binda’s residency, with further reporting on what councilmembers discussed on Monday. 

The council has also considered the question of whether it’s possible for a Lynnwood city councilmember to more than one elected office. In November 2024, former Councilmember Altamirano-Crosby was elected to the Snohomish County Public Utilities District Commission. Soon after, the council voted to consult an independent attorney to file a case with the Washington State Attorney General’s office to determine whether holding both a city council position and a PUD commissioner position were compatible under state law. 

State law doesn’t directly prohibit elected officials from holding two positions, as long as those positions are compatible. City Attorney Lisa Marshal said in November she believed the positions were compatible, but some city council members didn’t agree. 

On Monday, Councilmember George Hurst noted that he spoke to former councilmembers who wrote the city’s policy on qualifications to hold office. He said their intentions were for elected city officials to only hold one position. 

Council Vice President Josh Binda said he thinks the city code should be changed to reflect state law, adding that he didn’t think Altamirano-Crosby’s dual offices were compatible. If city law was in line with state law, city code would be more likely to hold up if there were any future court cases on the matter, Binda said. 

Council President Nick Coelho said it was “redundant” to repeat state law in the city code. If the council were to change city code, it would be more efficient to change it to prohibit Lynnwood elected officials from holding any other elected office, whether they’re compatible or not – aside from military service, Coelho said. 

Councilmember Patrick Decker said he thinks each elected official should be able to decide for themselves whether they are capable of holding more than one elected office. If voters elected one person to multiple positions, the city should honor that choice, he said. 

In November, Decker moved to repeal Section 2.04.060 of the city’s code, which had been adopted by the council in 1988. It prohibits city elected officials from holding “any other office, federal, state, county or municipal, except in the National Guard or any branch of the United States military or as a notary public.”

For now, the code is set to remain as is, but the council could choose to change it in the future if it sees fit. 

Accepting less than three public works director candidates 

The council voted 5-1 to allow the mayor to present only one candidate for the city’s public works director, with Councilmember Hurst voting against. 

Out of 11 applicants for the position, only five met the qualifications, Mayor Christine Frizzell told the council Monday. 

City code requires three candidates to be interviewed for the position. The mayor initially provided three candidates, but two dropped out at the last minute. One candidate dropped out of the process just hours before the council was scheduled to discuss the matter in an executive session last week, Frizzell said. During the executive session, the mayor informed the council that they were down to only two candidates. 

The second candidate told the mayor they were no longer interested in the position only 24 hours before Frizzell was scheduled to pick the candidate up at the airport. The mayor alerted council leadership, leaving only one candidate who was interested in the job. 

City staff told the mayor that this candidate was far more qualified than the two who dropped out, Frizzell told the council. Lynnwood is not the only city having trouble finding qualified candidates to fill staff positions, Frizzell said. Neighboring cities are having the same issue. 

Councilmember Hurst said the city policy requiring the mayor to provide three candidates was created to ensure “no politics and favoritism” were involved in the city’s hiring process. 

“Clearly this mayor has a problem complying with appointed process,” Hurst said. He said he would not be supporting the resolution, saying that the city should continue the process of finding three candidates to make sure the most qualified candidate is hired. 

Councilmember David Parshal said the city has a “solid process” for finding candidates, but staff are “in between a rock and a hard place,” in light of the broader struggle municipalities face in finding qualified candidates. 

He said the council should vote to allow the mayor to present only one candidate for now, as it’s in the city’s best interest to hire a new pPublic works director as soon as possible. However, he said the council should take time in the future to find out why qualified candidates aren’t applying. 

In other business, Council President Nick Coelho summarized what the council discussed during its council summit on Saturday. Check back soon for Lynnwood Today’s report on the summit. A recording of Monday’s meeting can be found on the city’s website.

Top eight candidates for city council

A total of 19 people applied for the vacant city council seat. The council narrowed the search by ranking the candidates using a point system based on how qualified each councilmember thought the individual candidates were. The following candidates received the highest amount of points, in no particular order: 

• Forrest Baum 
• Nazanin Lashgari
• Robert Leutwyler 
• Marie MacCoy  
• Jessica Roberts 
• Audrey Tanberg
• Rebecca Thornton 
• Chelsea Wright

— By Ashley Nash. ashley@myedmondsnews.com