EVERETT – Final arguments on both sides of the nearly year-long debate about the proposed annexation of Everett Transit by Community Transit were on display at today’s Everett City Council meeting.
Council chambers were packed with proponents and opponents testifying publicly for the fate of Everett Transit being absorbed by the larger Community Transit or remaining independently run by the city.
Opponents have asked ‘why pursue this annexation move now instead of the future’? The answer during the council meeting, from Bob Leonard, Everett’s Executive Director of Parks and Facilities, boiled it down to the city’s integration with Sound Transit light rail.
“Sound Transit is making a generational investment in our community. The question is whether Everett will have the transit system necessary to fully leverage that investment as it is getting planned and constructed,” Leonard said, referring to the light rail expected completion to Paine Field in 2037 and downtown Everett in 2041.
“Riders need reliable connections,” Leonard continued, “from their neighborhoods to jobs, schools, health care facilities, Everett Station, and future Link stations. The success of light rail in Everett will depend on the strength of the local and regional transit network supporting it. This is one of the reasons timing matters. If we wait until Light Rail is on our doorstep, we will have missed years of preparation, service growth, and Sound Transit will miss critical grant funding deadlines.”
Outsourcing ET to CT starts this process sooner, Leonard advises, therefore, “If our goal is to maximize the value of the region’s investment in light rail, we need to be building the connecting transit network today. As Sound Transit moves into planning station locations, they will need to be successful in winning highly competitive federal grants beginning in 2028 through 2030 where ridership is a key metric.”
Federal grants to pay for the $12 billion, 16-mile light rail expansion from Everett to Lynnwood will be predicated on ridership, officials say.
“If we don’t increase transit revenue and we cut service, Everett Link (light rail) is not poised for success. The challenge before us is not simply preserving today’s transit system. The challenge is building a transit network capable of supporting tomorrow’s community.
This, Leonard describes, involves three steps. “First, we must protect critical services for riders who depend upon them, especially Paratransit riders. Second, we must prepare Everett for Sound Transit and the future arrival of Link Light Rail. And third, our own ET long-range plan tells us that maintaining and expanding service under the current model will require significant new revenue by 2030 and identify structural funding gaps beyond that horizon.”
The current model, he says, is unsustainable. “The question before us is whether we wait until those funding decisions and service constraints are directly in front of us or whether we act now to position Everett for long-term sustainability, accelerated service growth, stronger regional connections and success when light rail arrives. That, in my view, is why the decision is both important and time sensitive.”
Leonard reported that even if the annexation is rejected and ET stays under the operational control of the city it will require a city sales tax increase to keep up with the bus agency’s costs.
“When operating and capital expenditures are compared to projected revenues, Everett Transit faces structural gaps as costs outpace the growth of sales tax and other revenue sources in the early to mid 2030s.”
Leonard says “maintaining existing and expanding future service levels will depend on a sales tax increase. This funding assumption is central to our ability to expand service. Specifically, the (ET) long-range plan assumes a sales tax increase in 2031. The plan warns that without that new sales tax, service would be evaluated and potential service cuts to fixed route service would be planned for 2032.” The annexation, if approved, would institute that higher city sales tax collection—ultimately delivered to CT 4-5 years sooner, but would also result in faster expansion of service which has been promised under the proposed annexation. CT has promised 50% more bus service in Everett within 5 years of the annexation for the increased sales tax residents will be levied if the arrangement is approved by both jurisdictions.
In 2025, the potential for an ET annexation by CT changed dramatically. The Washington Legislature and Gov. Bob Ferguson, approved a new law that eliminated a previous requirement that any annexation of ET be put to a public vote. That development rekindled talks between Everett Mayor, Cassie Franklin, and Community Transit CEO, Ric Ilgenfritz in late 2025 about consolidation. In 2023 Franklin and Ilgenfritz contemplated an annexation plan but it was shelved.
On April 22, 2026 the pair announced a joint agreement to pursue ET annexation and the effort was framed as essential to scale up local bus service ahead of Sound Transit’s Link light rail extensions
The annexation requires a majority vote by the seven-member Everett City Council and the nine-member Community Transit Board of Director. The Everett City Council is tentatively set to vote on the annexation Interlocal Agreement (ILA) on Wed. Nov. 4. If it’s approved by the City Council it will be advanced to the CT Board of Directors and a tentative vote scheduled on Thurs. Nov. 5.
Opponents are still skeptical. Two of them addressed the city council at today’s meeting.
Shanine Chapman is an ET bus driver who stated, “I’m an Everett resident. I am here today frustrated, angry, and quite frankly, disappointed. We’ve always been taught that our voices matter that our votes matter that elected officials listen. But right now, it doesn’t feel that way. In 2025, legislation removed the requirement for Everett residents to vote on this consolidation.
“Just because the law allows you to make this decision without our vote doesn’t mean you should. Look at the EMS Levy. Nearly 75% of voters said ‘yes’, even as families struggled financially. Residents recognized the importance of emergency medical services and voted to support them. That tells me residents are willing to invest in their community, but there has to be a limit (to) what we can reasonably ask them to pay. We’ve already faced a utility tax increase and voter approved EMS Levy. Now, consolidation could double our transit tax from 0.6% to 1.2%. At what point do we acknowledge that residents are struggling financially? How much more can working families and seniors afford, especially when Everett Transit’s long-range plan, proposes expanded service at a lower tax rate at 0.9%.
“Why aren’t we fully examining that alternative before moving towards a more expensive option? And what about our seniors Community Transit has agreed to grandfather in the 23 existing senior Paratransit riders, but what happens to the seniors who don’t qualify under ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Everett Transit outreach found that 76 percent supported expanded senior eligibility. Are we telling future seniors, ‘so sad, too bad’, pay more for less?
“But what troubles me the most is lack of a transparency. Mayor Franklin has stated Everett Transit cannot deliver the levels of service anticipated with light rail. You were elected to represent Everett residents, not the entire region, not Community Transit. Everett.
“Let both agencies present their cases, let residents examine the facts. I’m asking you to vote no on consolidation or pursue a lawful way to put this decision before Everett voters because public transportation should mean more than 3 minutes at a microphone. Our voices matter and so should our votes.”
Steve Oss, born and raised in Everett, a retired ET bus driver and current President of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 883, which represents ET drivers, provided these comments for the public record, “There’s talk about Everett needing to join a larger organization to be better. We don’t need to. One of the things I remember, back around 2000, when the Navy was coming in, I was out driving a bus, and I saw the (U.S.S.) Lincoln (aircraft carrier) coming into town. And as I finished my trip, I went back to the (ET) base, I go ‘did we hear about the Lincoln coming in?’ ‘No, don’t know anything about it.’ Because we’re small, we were able to respond to that. We got buses down to the naval station by the time the Lincoln stopped and was beginning to deboard. We moved thousands of sailors right there and then into town.
“We were able to do that. We can adjust to things like that. And we got those sailors into town. We got them out to the mall. We got them downtown. And then we got him back to the ships afterwards. We do those things. We aren’t small and incompetent. We are small and responsive.”