Edmonds City Council to hold public hearing Oct. 8 on Initiative 2117

Public Safety Complex
Edmonds Municipal Court operates out of the Public Safety Complex in downtown Edmonds.

As part of its Tuesday, Oct. 8 business meeting, the Edmonds City Council is conducting a public hearing to hear from residents regarding Initiative 2117. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers, Public Safety Complex, 250 5th Ave. N.

Initiative 2117 will appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. According to the ballot title published in the Washington State Elections and Snohomish County Voters’ Pamphlet, this measure would prohibit state agencies from imposing any type of carbon tax credit rating and repeal legislation establishing a cap and invest program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a press release, the public hearing is designed to provide an equal opportunity for the public to express their views. The release also notes that the council “may consider expressing support or opposition to a ballot proposition by a motion or resolution.”  You can learn more at the Oct. 8 council agenda meeting web page here.

Public hearing testimony may be made in person at the meeting or virtually via Zoom. You may provide a written public comment using the web form at www.edmondswa.gov/publiccomment.

 

  1. Concerns for our environment should be top priority…we need rules and limits in place to protect against those who put their wallets first.

    1. I suggest everyone watch this video first due to the way the original program has been operated since it was implemented, which has not lived up to expectations.
      https://youtu.be/lLC-24YFuAU
      We suggest a repeal of the current program and look at a re-do that will full fill its mission as to lowering carbon, clean water, etc. Lets have the entire voting population involved vs. just some paid consultants in a back room with no accountability.

  2. They “so called” cap and invest program is a tax on everyone and especially those who can least afford it. I makes gas / diesel prices the highest in the country save for California. I causes the price of everything to be unaffordable while doing nothing to address “climate change” whatever that is. If you want to clean up the air, then demand China, India, Russia clean up their acts, then start building Nuclear power plants stat. Windmills and sunshine are no solution and are nothing more than a latter day Solyndra racket.

  3. What’s next?  Is the Council going to hold a public hearing on who they should support for Governor or President of the United States and pass a motion or resolution expressing it?  How did this ever make its way as an agenda topic?  Stop this nonsense now!!!

    1. Interesting question. How are agenda items determined for City Council public hearings? Could they be on any nonsensical subject such as is a hot dog a sandwich or not?

    2. Jim,

      I agree Council should “stop this nonsense” and focus on the Comp Plan, the budget, and Edmonds’ environmental issues.

      Strom Peterson was CP in 2012 and put the Marriage Equality Initiative on our agenda for Council and Mayor to express our support, and advise our constituents to also support. Peterson told me he was using his position as the “bully pulpit.” I abstained from the vote, because in my opinion it was not within Council’s role to advise our constituents how to vote on a state initiative, regardless of our personal opinions.

      CP Vivian Olson has taken this a step further by having a Public Hearing on an initiative. Next step- Council will tell their constituents how to vote on Initiative 2117. Otherwise, why bother to have a public hearing?

    3. Jim, Exactly! What are these people thinking? This week the big pressing issue they solved was being sure the Mayor and his Directors have even more money to spend without any oversight and now they are having a public hearing on a state ballot initiative. When are we ever going to elect people to our city government who are just about running our most immediate governmental needs with some degree of financial acumen and putting first things first?

  4. Hi Brian.
    Per ECC 1.02.031, the council president shall have the following responsibilities:

    B.2. Formulate and prepare the agenda for city council meetings

    Despite what our City Code requires, I think Council’s new Rules of Procedure say:

    Section 3. Agenda Preparation. 3.1 Under the direction of the Council President and Mayor, the City Clerk will prepare an agenda for each meeting of the full Council and Council committees, specifying the time and place of the meeting and setting forth a brief general description of each item to be considered by the Council. Agendas are subject to review and/or modification by the Council President.

    I’ve requested the following on March 12, 2024:

    Please make sure Council’s Rules of Procedure are consistent with City Code.

    1. Thank you, Ken, on for the procedural technical information. Regardless of one’s stance on the initiative, it appears to be a highly divisive agenda item for the council, and there is significant disappointment with Council President Olson.

  5. Or maybe we back off the throttle a touch and let our elected Council do their work how they see fit. Item 10.2 explains it’s a public hearing. With how Edmonds is so vulnerable relative to our economy and our ecology right now, I’d love to hear more about what people think on this. Arguing against some discussion and opinion sharing seems like small thinking. And the suggestion that Edmonds citizens are easily persuaded on how to think and vote is ridiculous.

    1. I’d say the real problem is that the elected Council is doing their work as “they” see fit, with little regard for having real discussions about real city problems that actually need to be solved yesterday. Why are they running down this rabbit hole on how the state is run? They should be full throttle on figuring out a budget that’s short about $20million depending on who you choose to believe. And they want us to vote to give them more money to waste on things like this public hearing that has little to nothing to do with city business. Stuff like this is one reason why we are where we are at on the crippling city budget short falls.

  6. On a lighter note; I can remember riding horses down the streets of Edmonds and the only pollution we were concerned about was “road apples”.

  7. Many local governments such as, Shoreline, Burien, Kenmore and Lake Forest Park and others have had this exact topic on their agendas already. It’s an item of importance because repealing the CCA would make the work of implementing Edmonds Climate Action Plan (which was unanimously adopted) harder to implement. It would stop the flow of revenue from carbon auctions into state coffers which would mean direct cuts to city transportation projects going forward. In an already revenue-strapped city that relies on state funding for their transportation projects, the council appears to be doing what’s in the best interest of protecting a revenue source.

    1. My favorite saying of all time: When they say it’s not about the money ( in this case climate change), it’s always about the money.

  8. Jeremy, I haven’t heard any information to the effect that any of those cities are in a declared financial emergency, but, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Using your logic, then, all these Councils including ours should be having public hearings on the Presidency, too, because Trump’s tariffs might impact the cost of city supplies or Harris’ plan to tax the rich might impact some of our well healed benefactors. This is just more nonsense that impedes real progress and accomplishes nothing in terms of “righting the ship.”

    1. Hi Clinton, I hear you. I’m more so speculating on why it’s probably on the council’s agenda in the first place given some of the concerns above. It’s not my own theory, it’s based on what the CCA provides for local governments and local governments shaping adopted plans around funding sources. I do have a hunch that it’s probably similar to why other cities made it a priority to insert it into their agenda’s because there’s revenue impacts to funding capital projects that are at stake. I could be way off though on what the real reasoning is. I guess we will all know come tonight!

  9. Regarding the price of gasoline, I filled up in Yakima on Sunday at $3.17 per gallon, a price very similar to other states without a CCA in place. I’m not understanding all the hand-wringing about impacts on fuel prices. The internal machinations of the petroleum industry determine prices at the pump. If they can profit from $3.17 fuel in Yakima, they could do the same here in the Puget Sound region. I’m voting NO on I-2117.

    1. Out of curiosity John was it at a tribal station? Average gasoline prices in Yakima are up 2.0 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.68 per gallon today, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 91 stations in Yakima.
      Paul Harvey- The rest of the story…

      1. No Brian, not a tribal station. Same chain I buy from here locally.

        I rarely pay “average” price for anything; I shop around, and pay the lowest price I can find. You should give it a try sometime. I’m sure I save a few hundred $ annually on gasoline.

        1. Thanks Roger, you’re quite the shopper, if you know where I can get anything near 3.17 a gallon for gas locally please share the wealth. I know that most stations make pennies on a gallon so that’s quite a difference.

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