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4 <br />rammed through with this annexation push will not allow for the depth of discussion that this subject deserves. <br />It is my understanding that anything that needs to be on the ballot needs to be fully fleshed out by May. That <br />hardly seems enough time to craft a careful piece of tax reform. I fear that voters will be presented with an <br />unsatisfactory offering that will not hold the appropriate appeal to counter the more attractive idea of <br />offloading services to a larger tax base.   <br />  <br />Everett should also be discussing requiring the businesses that they attract pay their fair share to support the <br />communities that host them. It is a fallacy that large employers like Boeing still support Everett despite tax <br />breaks if a significant portion of their employees commute into the area to fill those jobs because they find <br />more fulfilling communities to live and spend in elsewhere.   <br />  <br />People buy into communities that invest in quality of life rather than making themselves welcoming hosts for <br />private industry in the hopes of some additional jobs. Nobody wants to live in a city with a handful of neglected <br />parks, bereft of programming, poor beach access, and a criminally defunded library system struggling to <br />maintain a high level of service despite constant setbacks. An abandoned pool residents would love to get <br />back into because the fancy new one is way too crowded. A city that has eliminated its cultural arts <br />programming and its office of neighborhoods. Obliterated overnight were all long-term efforts to connect and <br />grow community at a coordinated city level. For the purposes of budget cuts the city laid off decades of <br />collective expertise in those areas and did untold damage. Now the staff that replaced these personnel <br />struggle to reinvent the wheel through absolutely no fault of their own; we cast out a great deal of <br />social capital and institutional knowledge when Wendy McClure and Carol Thomas were forced to retire. What <br />we’re doing is growing a city of commuters. People who leave for the day to find their work and their <br />recreation. I am aware of several young families who have left because they have felt this divestment keenly <br />and wanted to find more for themselves and their children.   <br />  <br />Is this what we want to pay for? It is becoming an increasingly bleak place to live and work. A community so <br />consumed with the perception of things being unsafe that they’ve forgotten that the problems we face are not <br />unique to us and would be solved by better investing in our community rather than further stripping it of all that <br />is enjoyable. Residents bemoan the parks becoming the territory of those who are homeless without <br />analyzing several aspects of that situation. If there was more activity in the parks, like regular programming <br />and facilities that were attractive for use, they would be less attractive for illegal activity. Regardless, there is <br />nothing inherently wrong with being homeless and existing in public; someone’s discomfort at seeing poverty <br />should not mean forcing the removal of someone who has the right to exist. If there is an issue with people <br />leaving messes, perhaps a large part of the issue is that we are no longer able to afford garbage collection <br />from our parks and regular maintenance staff visits. If illegal activity is taking place, I question why this isn’t <br />being monitored and discouraged by the increased police presence we are continually being asked to fund at <br />higher levels? Why are City funds being channeled through the Downtown Everett Association to hire private <br />security personnel to walk these areas to enforce the no sit no lie ordinances if we dedicate so much funding <br />to the EPD already? I am concerned to hear that the EPD has already received numerous complaints about <br />how abusive, physically and verbally, these contracted security are, a disturbing use of public funds.   <br />  <br />If public parks are not an appropriate place for people to be who have nowhere else to go, what alternatives <br />are we providing? Why hasn’t Everett, the County, and all of the collected social work stakeholders ever been <br />able to coordinate successfully to provide seamless services that ensure public servants have adequate <br />resources to direct folks in need to? Why can’t this area construct and maintain some day centers that can <br />provide for the less fortunate, rather than expect our underfunded parks and libraries to pick up that load,