LYNNWOOD—Newly appointed Lynnwood City Councilwoman Rebecca Thornton, who were to take the Oath of Office at Monday’s Business meeting on February 24, withdrew her name from consideration for “personal reasons.” Because of power outages leading to technical issues, the 6 p.m. meeting adjourned at 6:35 p.m.
Just before 5 p.m., on Monday, the city received a notification from Thornton informing them of her decision. The council is anticipated to perform another round of voting on March 10, 2025.
“Although our Council was uniformly excited to have a passionate and qualified resident like Rebecca Thornton join us on the Council, this is an unfortunate reminder of the tough commitment that public service carries with it,” Lynnwood City Council president Nick Coelho wrote in a statement to the Lynnwood Times. “I encourage Rebecca to consider applying for a City Board or Commission. It goes without saying that our community would be better off for her involvement.”
The City Council on February 20 appointed Thornton to the Lynnwood City Council Position 5 seat that was vacated in January of this year by Councilwoman Julieta Altamirano-Crosby who was sworn in as the new District 2 Snohomish County PUD Commissioner.
President Coelho remains confident that the council “will land on another fine addition” from “six excellent candidates to choose from in a couple weeks.”
The council chose to wait until March 10 to select a new candidate from the remaining six finalist, Coelho shared, is to allow Councilman Patrick Decker who is currently out of the country on a business trip, the opportunity “to participate in the appointment process.”
“Had we not been able to speed the appointment along as planned, our original back-up plan was to have the vote on the next business meeting when Councilmember Decker would be available: March 10,” Coelho wrote.
The original timeline to fill the council vacancy was expedited to ensure all council members participate in the process.
According to Washington State law, the council must appoint a qualified replacement within 90 days of the vacancy—in this case, April 6, 2025. If the City Council fails to select a candidate by the 90-day deadline, the Snohomish County Council then must appoint an eligible candidate within 180 days of vacancy or July 5, 2025. If the County fails to select a candidate, then Governor Bob Ferguson will decide who sits in the seat.
The six finalists to be considered to fill the vacancy for the March 10 vote are: Forrest Baum, Naz Lashgari, Robert Leutwyler, Chelsea Deone Wright, Marie MacCoy, Jessica Ann Roberts.
Author: Mario Lotmore
