2018/10/17 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

• October 17, 2018 explore alternative funding and delivery models for major City services, including Everett Transit, Parks, Everett Fire and the library. Everett is unlike most Washington cities in the range of services and programs we still provide — we'll hear that again in the benchmarking presentation tonight. Most communities stopped providing these services many years ago or integrated them into regional systems. Everett maintained services, but without providing additional resources to support our growing population and changing community needs. We are projected to add another 70,000 residents in the next 16 years. In order to effectively meet the needs of our community, we need to look at how best to provide the public safety, transportation and quality-of-life services that make Everett an incredible place to live and work. In 2019 we will begin a comprehensive and transparent review of our transit, • parks, fire and library departments to identify the options available to us and how they will affect the general fund in the short- and long-term. This will allow us to expand and improve our services in a way that is more resilient and regionally connected and supports the growth and economic development that continues to come our way. Any changes to these systems will have impacts for our community members, and our analysis will provide for public participation and feedback. I will bring forward a facilitated process to assess each of these departments over the next year and a half, and provide recommendations to the City Council. Budget and City teams aligned with community priorities process offered agreat opportunity to rethink how we do This budget pp y business as an organization and to make adjustments to better achieve our goals. The 2019 budget is aligned with the priorities that we have consistently heard from our community: public safety, economic development and community engagement. • 323