The Everett City Charter requires the City Council to question the mayor at a public meeting if he is being sued.
There is no way around this measure which can be found in the City Charter.
Will this City Council do such a thing to fulfill the requirement? We do not believe so.
As long as the present mayor is in office, the City Council will not order such a hearing, and even if it does, will do nothing at the hearing because the mayor controls the City Council.
When, we wonder, and the residents of Everett would do well to wonder, will the City Council stand up on its own and do what is right?
Unless there is a change of leadership, everything is going to remain the same here if the City Council does not develop its own voice and exercise its own power for the good of the residents of this city.
How has the City Council’s lack of leadership come to this?
Fourteen years of the present mayor has worn down the Council’s will to do anything but that which is perfunctory.
Perhaps this election will change the tenor of things, perhaps not.
No matter what happens, the City Council needs to step up to the plate and exercise its independence from this mayor or any mayor.
Without the City Council acting independently, the present mayor, or any future mayor can do as they want.
No mayor should have so much power.