LYNNWOOD—The Lynnwood City Council Leadership Team added three additional candidates to interview to fill the Position 6 council vacancy due to “an input error,” the City’s released in a statement on January 15. The Lynnwood City Council will now be interviewing 11 candidates on January 20. At its January 12 Business Meeting, the Lynnwood City Council selected eight finalists to interview to fill the Position 6 vacancy after voters elected Councilman George Hurst as mayor in November 2025.
“The Council was informed of an input error: the ranking order was inadvertently reversed, resulting in the applicants for the City Council vacancy being ranked incorrectly. With the corrected rankings, 3 additional applicants were identified as eligible for an interview. To create a fair and accurate process, the Council Leadership requested that the candidate pool be extended to 11 for the interviews,” the City’s released in a statement.
Council Members were instructed to assign in descending order 24 points for their top candidate to a point of 1 for their lowest ranking candidate. The ranking order from two council members were “inadvertently reversed, resulting in the applicants for the City Council vacancy being ranked incorrectly.”
The City Council will now interview the following 11 candidates, up from the original 8 candidates:
- Jacob Berger
- Han McDonald
- Paula Ferreira-Smith
- Quinn Van Order
- Chelsea Wright
- Noel Baca
- Richard Wright
- Cathy Baylor
- Dorina Katro*
- Abdullahi Abdullahi*
- Brandon Molina*
The asterisk next to a name denotes the new candidates the Council Leadership Team selected to interview. The probability of being appointed to Position 6 has decreased from 1 in 8 (12.5%) to 1 in 11 (9.1%) for each candidate.
Following the interviews, the City Council will reconvene on Monday, January 26th, for its scheduled Business Meeting, to appoint an individual to Position No. 6. The appointed Council Member’s first meeting will be Monday, February 2, 2026.
This isn’t the first time the City of Lynnwood had controversy surrounding it appointment process.
Back in early 2025, the appointment process to fill the Position 5 vacancy left by the resignation of Dr. Julieta Altamirano-Crosby on January 6, 2025, following her win as District 2 Snohomish County Public Utility District Commissioner, gained international attention.
The lead up to Councilman Robert Leutwyler’s swearing in on March 24, 2025—current Position 5 seat holder—was akin to a “Game of Thrones” season. Rebecca “Becky” Thorton was voted unanimously on February 29 to fill the Position 5 seat, however, just hours prior to her confirmation she withdrew from consideration.
The Council then on March 10, selected Jessica Roberts; however, it was discovered that she was an adult-theme OnlyFans model and allegedly expressed disturbing Reddit posts about women. Roberts were to be sworn in at the City Council Work Session at 6 p.m. on March 17 at Lynnwood City Hall, however the Lynnwood City Council scheduled a Special Meeting on March 13 to discuss rescinding their vote for her. Just hours before the Special Meeting on March 13, Roberts withdrew from consideration.
In an email sent to Assistant City Administrator Julie Moore on Saturday, March 15, 2025, Naz Lashgari, one of four remaining candidates to fill the Position 5 vacancy announced her intent to withdraw from consideration for the position.
“Over the past eight years, I have dedicated my time and expertise to serving this City, believing that experience, commitment and qualifications would be the foundation of the selection process,” Lashgari wrote. “Unfortunately, it has become clear that other factors took priority in this process. Rather than focusing on leadership, experience and the ability to serve, the process appeared to emphasize style over substance, overlooking the depth of knowledge and dedication that many candidates including myself brought to the table.”
Lynnwood resident Lashgari was the former Chair of Lynnwood’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission. She implemented successful initiatives, such as the development of the Race and Social Justice Coordinator position, spearheaded the “All Are Welcome” campaign to advance the process of creating a more inclusive culture in Lynnwood, and currently serves on the Lynnwood Planning Commission as well as serving on the Board of Snohomish County Public Facilities District which includes the Lynnwood Convention Center, the Edmonds Art Center and the Angel of the Winds Arena.
The remaining candidates for consideration all withdrew from consideration to fill the vacant Lynnwood City Council seat following Lashgari’s lead.
Of the original 19 candidates, only Army combat veteran Leutwyler remained.
Leutwyler was selected in a Special Meeting on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, to fill the Position 5 vacancy with a vote of 5 yeas and 1 abstention. Then-Councilwoman Derica Escamilla, now Council Vice President and member of the Leadership Team, abstained from voting for Mr. Leutwyler because he wasn’t diverse enough stating that “in good conscience” she “cannot support an appointment that does not reflect the full spectrum of voices in our community.”
Councilman Leutwyler successfully won his election to Lynnwood City Council in November 2025 with 58.80% of the vote.
Author: Mario Lotmore
