LAKE STEVENS—During the conclusion of the Lake Stevens City Council meeting, Mayor Brett Gailey announced he and his family will be relocating to Idaho and therefor resigning from elected office, effective April 13.
“My wife and I over the last year have spent many nights talking, lots of deliberation and prayers,” Mayor Gailey said. “And we have made it a family decision that we are going to relocate out of the state. So, I will be tendering a resignation from being the mayor of Lake Stevens, and it will be effective April 13th…. It has been such a privilege for me to be the mayor and to help build this community that I absolutely love and the citizens of this community and all their help. So it was not a light decision whatsoever, but our current family circumstances just dictate a need for change, and so we are going to make that bold decision and do so.”
The process to fill Mayor Gailey’s vacancy will follow that for a Lake Steven City Councilmember:
- Staff will open up that application process to the community
- The Council will interview applicants
- The Council will vote to appoint the mayor
- The appointed mayor will be sworn-in and fulfill the vacancy until November 2027.
Until a new mayor is officially sworn-in, Lake Stevens Council President Anji Jorstad will be President will be Mayor Pro Tem effective midnight April 13.
Councilmembers thanked Mayor Gailey for his service, who held back tears.
Mayor Gailey has been a resident of Lake Stevens since 2004. He was elected to the City Council in 2017 before winning election as Mayor in 2019 and assuming the city’s first full-time mayor position in 2020 and was reelected in 2023.
Gailey retired in May 2020 from the Everett Police Department after 21 years of service. He is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, branched in Military Intelligence, and currently commands a Strategic Intelligence Detachment for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Boise State University and a Master of Business Administration from American Military University. He also graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
Married to Micah, Gailey and his wife have seven children. As mayor, he focused on parks, recreation, and preserving the city’s small-town quality of life.
Author: Mario Lotmore
