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Earlier this spring during our Council Strategic Retreat, the Council established our 2024 short-term and long-term priorities.  One of our short-term priorities was to better utilize our DEI, MYAC and PAC committees.  I, myself, was a member of the DEI Commission, as was Jason Moon, a fellow Councilmember.  In fact, during each our respective tenures on the DEI, we were each elected by our peer volunteers to serve as the Chairman of the Commission.

Mukilteo grows increasingly diverse with each passing decade. The “browning” of America continues apace, and Mukilteo is no different. A little over one third of our residents are of other than European descent, up from one quarter just ten years ago, per Census data. Blacks skew highest as a group to above median income in our city, while Asians are the fastest growing group comprising over 20% of all residents.  With so much to offer, new residents will continue to come here to raise their families and enjoy our quality of life.  These new residents will be increasingly diverse, and it will be our strategic asset to be a welcoming place for these new prospective residents to choose to come and build their families, start their businesses, and raise their children.

And, as a city, Mukilteo is not only named, literally, to pay homage to our indigenous neighbors, but we also display numerous examples of indigenous art and artifacts found throughout our city.  We take pride to work with our Federally recognized indigenous neighbors and to pay respect to their desires.  Mukilteo is a great place to live for us all.

Our appreciation for diversity does not end with our appreciation for our indigenous neighbors.  The Council has consistently funded the DEI Commission each year since its inception and has supported its nascent efforts to find its footing and provide value added service to the community.  The first step the Commission took was to survey the community, author a mission, vision statement and strategic plan, and establish operating policies and an organizing framework for the structure of the Commission.  In 2022 and 2023, the Commission hosted annual multicultural book readings for the community which have been extremely well attended and uniformly enjoyed by our residents. 

The DEI Commission authored the Land Use Statement adopted by the Council in 2023.  And this year, the Commission partnered with Jason Moon, Louis Harris and me to host a community social at Tapped Mukilteo featuring a panel of four diverse Mukilteans.  Lastly, it just completed Implicit Bias training with a noted consultant from the Association of Washington Cities, an effort I would like to see replicated for the Council and throughout the Administration. 

As a budget hawk, I am proud to note that in no year did the Commission spend more than $6,000.  This is why I am so proud to join several fellow Councilmembers to march annually with the DEI Commission in our annual Lighthouse Festival.  The Commission does great work, is very responsible with its limited budget and is much needed and appreciated. 

Building on those successes, this May the Council assigned the task to the DEI Commission of formally reviewing our comprehensive plan with a DEI lens to ensure that no groups are ignored in our planning processes.  The Commission did an admirable job on that ambitious task of reviewing the comprehensive plan and working to provide meaningful input from their unique vantage point as the Council’s conduit to identify and bridge the gap to potentially underserved pockets of our community.  DEI is for all and I thank them for their work.

Despite the prioritized express will of the Council, the preliminary budget did not fund the DEI Commission this year, just like it did last year.  Last year the Council addressed that oversight by reducing their Council travel budget to fund the Commission with $6,000.  Given the now expressed Council prioritization of the DEI Commission’s work, Steve Schmalz and I made the motion to address this new “oversight” in the mayor’s preliminary budget and thankfully, the Council agreed, and the DEI Commission received funding of $5,000 for 2025 and 2026, as part of our $19 million general fund expenditures in 2025 and our $20 million general fund expenditures in 2026. That’s 0.025% of the general fund – a bargain for a wonderful service to our community. 

The Mukilteo DEI Commission is always in need of volunteers.  If you are looking to contribute your talents and join the commission, apply here.

Mike Dixon, Mukilteo Councilman

Mike Dixon was elected to a four-year term in 2023. Born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he has made Mukilteo his home since 2007. Mike is currently a cleantech executive with GM Energy, owns and operates an insurance agency in Old Town, and is a solar farm investor in the Caribbean. Mike is also a three-time elected water sewer commissioner, former president of the Board of the Alderwood Water & Wastewater District, and current commissioner of the Mukilteo Water & Wastewater District. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management science and an MBA, both from MIT.

According to his bio, his council goals are building a cleantech cluster in Mukilteo, developing the waterfront as a commercial and recreational economic hub in the region, marketing Mukilteo as a welcoming and inclusive city, building policy to support the middle class and ensure our city’s sustainability, working collaboratively to ensure strong and robust long term financial planning and annual budgets, and partnering regionally to help Mukilteo remain an inclusive, sustainable, vibrant and growing city.

COMMENTARY DISCLAIMER: The views and comments expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Lynnwood Times nor any of its affiliate.

Author: Lynnwood Times Contributor