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EVERETT — An Everett ballot initiative to give the Snohomish River defensible legal rights in court, in what’s called a “rights of nature” law will be on Everett residents’ ballots in November, together with two competing initiatives to raise Everett’s minimum wage.
All three surpassed a 5% signature count threshold after the river campaign Standing for Washington is understood to have submitted 1,375 signatures to the clerk’s office by the end of Monday, Aug. 5, from information from the campaign’s manager.
On Aug. 6, an hour before final deadline, the City Council voted to put forward all three. The river initiative was added on.
A city attorney said the county auditor’s office outlined how to proceed.
“The conversation we had last week with City of Everett was around the deadline to submit a resolution calling for a measure to be placed on the November 5, 2024 General Election ballot. State law sets that deadline as primary election day. This year that was yesterday, August 6. When asked last week, we shared with the City that this is a firm deadline,” auditor’s office spokeswoman Sierra Cornelius said.
The three initiatives are titled 24-01, 24-02 and 24-03.
Past coverage, Aug. 7, 2024 Tribune:
Both Everett minimum wage citizen initiatives qualify for November ballot
EVERETT — Two competing initiatives to raise Everett’s minimum wage have crossed the thresholds to be on November’s ballot, the city clerk’s office said last week.
As of last week, a third Everett ballot initiative to give the Snohomish River defensible legal rights in court, in what’s called a “rights of nature” law, had not reached the threshold, the clerk’s office said.
The campaign plans to have submitted 1,375 signatures as of the end of Monday, Aug. 5, the initiative campaign’s manager Abi Ludwig said.
This year’s threshold is a little under 1,000 verified signatures at about 975. The signature threshold is based on 5% of how many Everett residents voted in last November’s election.
By state law, resolutions to the people were due Aug. 6 this year to make November’s ballot, county elections office spokeswoman Sierra Cornelius said. State law says the deadline to present a resolution to the county auditor is the day of the primary.
The city’s own charter outlines a Sept. 21 deadline. The organization for the river initiative, Standing for Washington, said it’s still shooting for the deadline in the city charter and not to count them out.
State law says its law supersedes local laws.
The two minimum wage initiatives both share the goal in increasing the minimum wage within the city.
One version, a campaign under the name Everett Deserves a Raise, seeks to set the wage at to $20.24 an hour for big businesses, and increases the minimum wage for workers at small businesses slowly.
A competing initiative from the hospitality industry called Raise the Wage Responsibly also is asking to set the wage at to $20.24 an hour at some businesses but defrays the impact on small businesses by setting the minimum wage at $18.24 an hour for workers employed by small businesses.
This initiative includes service tips as a method for an employer to meet the stated minimum wage.
Both set July 1, 2025 as their in-effect date for base wages.
The City Council’s role in handling the ballot initiatives is to forward them to the county auditor to put onto the ballot by way of
taking a formal authorization vote. The council cannot alter an initiative. It’s limited in being able to do much in this area.
