LYNNWOOD—Longtime Lynnwood City Councilman, and community servant, George Hurst was promoted to Mayor by voters in that last General Election under the platform of housing affordability, fiscal responsibility, and public safety. Lynnwood Times Senior Reporter sat down with Hurst to hear how this vision will work in practice, over the next four years, and what Lynnwood residents can expect in the coming months.
Hurst first spoke on housing affordability first, noting that he has some ideas for policy reform that would reduce the cost of construction on new homes.
“Unfortunately, last November the council passed some things that do increase the cost of constructing a new home, but I think they did that with sincere hope, and they really were pressured to come up with new revenues,” said Hurst. “I’d like to step back a little bit and ask them to reconsider some of those because the fewer costs the city imposes on new construction, the lower the costs for home ownership.”
Another big priority of Hurst’s is city employee retention, especially given the number of tenured executive leadership positions who left under the previous Mayor’s administration. Positions including Sarah Olsen, Deputy Parks Director, Art Ceniza, City Administrator, Lynn Sordel, Parks Director (who was always scheduled to retire but was still unsatisfied with the former Mayor’s dismissal of his recommendation for his successor), former Lynnwood City Councilwoman Shirley Sutton (who cited her lack of faith with city leadership as her reasoning) and so on.
Hurst suspects these departures were due to a “culture” in City Hall where the Mayor’s Office was “not very open to suggestions or ideas.”
“I will do everything I can to encourage all employees to bring forward ideas, because we are still facing a deficit,” said Hurst adding that, as it pertains to the City’s $4 to $5 million deficit going in to 2026, he intends to bring forward a Blue Ribbon panel in his first 30 days.
Hurst continued that, while looking at new revenues is definitely on the forefront of his mind, the City may have to look at some “hard decisions” as it pertains to expenditures but “Lynnwood will be better for it when we do that.”
Despite a recent U.S. GDP report observing an upward trend in consumer spending (and approximately 40% of Lynnwood’s revenue coming from sales tax), Hurst still plans to keep conservative as it comes to projected revenue and the City’s existing financial forecast using a zero growth projection. He said the city can always make adjustments when the city puts together its new biennium for 2027-2028, with forecasts in growth in mind.
“But right now I really want to be conservative. That’s what didn’t happen before in this budget and I just think we need to be careful,” said Hurst.
Hurst was asked about his transition team, who he said has been meeting with him for the last six weeks leading up into our interview. Hurst did not mention any specific names but explained that this team is more of an advisory team, to assist him as he transitions into Mayor without leading to any immediate staffing changes.
“We are going to assess what’s going on in the executive office, but I don’t think there will be any wholesale changes. The transition team I’m talking about are former city employees, they know the city, and it’s more just helping me ease me into the office and we’ll just see how things go from there,” said Hurst.
Regarding inclusivity, with Lynnwood’s motto being ‘All Are Welcome’ after all, Hurst was then asked how he intends to live true to this commitment – with specific reference to a recent controversy where the LGBTQIA+ community felt they were not being accepted over controversies revolving around raising of a pride flag at Wilcox Park.
Wilcox Park, colloquially known as Lynnwood’s ‘Flag Park,’ was erected during the City’s bicentennial. A large part of that controversy, Hurst explained, was that Lynnwood did not have existing policies regarding flags and what could, or could not be flown, and where.
Hurst said he wants to consult with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission to hear the city could bring new policies to address this and will rely on their suggestions to know how to move forward.
Hurst was also asked about fair labor practices, especially given that the ENSO project (just a block down from where our interview took place at the Lynnwood Event Center) was found to be using subcontractors that were not adhering to state and federal labor laws.
Hurst wants to bring forward a Wage Theft Ordinance and possibly a Community Workforce Agreements, in addition to promoting Project Labor Agreements. All of these things, Hurst said, not only protect workers on a job but will also draw on the residents of Lynnwood which benefits the local economy.
“All of those I want to act on pretty quickly, within the first quarter of the year,” said Hurst. “The council had heard about it, and in fact heard from some labor unions, so I think we can move pretty fast on that.”
With FIFA 2026 coming to Seattle this year, and Lynnwood being the current end of the line for Link light rail, Hurst was asked how he intends to attract visitors to Lynnwood as a ‘premier’ lodging and viewing destination.
Hurst plans to promote Lynnwood’s hotels in an effort to advertise the city as a launching off point for those traveling into Seattle for games, in addition to potentially partnering with nearby Fan Zone city Everett.
“We are the starting point for light rail, and I think it’s natural for people to want to stay up here,” said Hurst.
Hurst added that the FIFA World Cup will also fall on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence so hopes to leverage both momentous occasions as an opportunity to celebrate our nation’s history, paired with a global spectacle.
In meeting with Hurst, ahead of last November’s General Elections, he noted that public safety is a huge priority of his, yet the City of Lynnwood is still suffering from spikes in youth violence and gang activity.
Hurst specifically spotlighted Wally Webster II’s (who was named the Lynnwood Times Person of the Year for 2025) ACCESS project as an important partnership the city could leverage.
Hurst speculates that the spike in youth crime stems from the pressures of having gone through a pandemic, persisting social media pressures, and pressures at home influenced by larger causes such as housing unaffordability, food insecurity, and cost of living.
One way he plans to address this, he continued, is raising the household income of families in Lynnwood which cycles back to the Community Workforce Agreements he previously mentioned.
“It’s really tough when you have a single parent working a minimum wage job, or several minimum wage jobs, they’re not home, they’re living the kids there. We need to be able to address that and I think by raising the household income, creating more stable housing, that’s getting towards the root problems that are affecting our youth,” said Hurst.
In wrapping up our conversation, Hurst is considering 2026 as a year of ‘Recovery and Renewal.’ The recovery portion pertains to bouncing back from the budget’s deficit, but renewal refers to looking back at the city’s strategic plan which has priorities he believes have not been a focus at the city government.
“Part of that is financial stability, we want to be a safe city, we want to be a welcoming city. Those things have been lost over the last four years. We’re now focusing on the economic crises but there’s other things we need to be focusing on to and that’s the renewal I want,” said Hurst. “Let’s solve this deficit but let’s move forward and ensure people feel safe, are welcome, and feel proud to live here.”
Ultimately Hurst, in closing, is looking forward to the year of 2026 as the “year of change,” he added.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
One Response
Mayor George Hurst, thank you for having such caring and insight. I’m feeling reassured and hopeful regarding the recovery of our budget deficit, through more conservative expenditures and thoughtful restructuring. Thank you, Dorian 🙌✝️