Everett, Washington

How Everett is governed

Form of government not yet listed.

1 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.

• Mayor

  Executive

  • Cassie Franklin per Wikidata

  The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.

  • City Manager / Administrator

    Executive

    Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

    The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).

    • Police Chief

      Administration & departments

      Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

      Leads the police department.

    • Fire Chief

      Administration & departments

      Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

      Leads the fire and emergency services department.

    • Public Works Director

      Administration & departments

      Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

      Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.

    • Finance Director

      Administration & departments

      Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

      The budget, taxes, and city accounts.

    • Planning & Zoning Director

      Administration & departments

      Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

      Land use, zoning, building permits.

    • Parks & Recreation Director

      Administration & departments

      Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

      Parks, programs, and public facilities.

• City Council

  Legislative

  Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

  The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.

  • City Clerk

    Administration & departments

    Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

    Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.

  • City Attorney

    Administration & departments

    Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

    The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.

  • Boards & Commissions

    Legislative

    Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

    Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.

• Municipal Court

  Judicial

  Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

  Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.

  • Municipal Judge

    Judicial

    Not yet listed. Log in to add who holds this

    Presides over the municipal court.

Website

everettwa.gov

Looking for your county, state and federal representatives too? See who represents 98201 or everyone in Washington.

Population over time

From 7,838 in 1900 to 110,629 in 2020 (+1,311.4%).

History

Prehistory and Hibulb village

The earliest humans entered the Puget Sound region approximately 12,000 years before present after the recession of the Vashon Glacier. The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Port Gardner Peninsula dates back to approximately 2,000 years before present. The Snohomish people, who had many villages along the Snohomish River and around Possession Sound, had their principal settlement at Preston Point, known in the Lushootseed language as hibulb (pronounced HEE-bulb). The village of Hibulb, located below the bluff at the mouth of the Snohomish River, was one of the largest Snohomish settlements and the tribe's most important. It held considerable influence over other settlements and had the largest potlatch house in the Snohomish's territory; it was also heavily fortified by a large cedar palisade to deter attackers. The village also had four large cedar longhouses, each around 100 feet (30 m) long, and smaller structures.

The Snohomish consider hibulb to be their place of origin and references it in the creation myth for the deity dukʷibəɬ. The tribe's population was estimated to be over 6,000 prior to several smallpox and measles epidemics in the early 19th century that severely affected the Puget Sound region. A massive landslide at Camano Head (Lushootseed: x̌ʷuyšəd) in the 1820s destroyed several villages and caused a tidal wave that washed away portions of Hibulb.

In Lushootseed, the modern city of Everett has two names: dᶻəɬigʷəd, the name of Forgotten Creek near the waterfront; or hibulb, which comes from the name of Preston Point and the village. The name hibulb itself originates from hibuləb, which means "water bubbling out of the ground." It is related to the word bələwəb, meaning "boiling" or "bubbling." In 2013, the City of Everett and Tulalip Tribes installed signage at Legion Park to display illustrations of the Hibulb village and its history; the park is atop the bluff that overlooks the village site.

Early history and American settlement

The first Europeans in the area were explorers from the 1792 Vancouver Expedition, who landed on a beach on the modern Everett waterfront and claimed the land for England on June 4, the birthday of King George III. Puget Sound was further explored and charted by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1824 and the United States Exploring Expedition under Charles Wilkes in 1841, ahead of a larger American presence in the area.

The Snohomish were one of the signatory tribes of the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, which ceded their lands to the Washington territorial government and established the nearby Tulalip Indian Reservation, to which many of the Snohomish would be removed. The first permanent American settler to arrive on the peninsula was Dennis Brigham, a carpenter from Worcester, Massachusetts, who claimed a 160-acre (65 ha) homestead and built a cabin for himself. Several other families established their own homesteads, as well as a general store and a sawmill that quickly went out of business. Over the next several years a handful of loggers moved to the area, but plans for a settlement were not conceived until 1890.

During an Alaskan cruise via the Inside Passage aboard the steamship Queen of the Pacific in July 1890, lumberman Henry Hewitt Jr. and railroad executive Charles L. Colby drew up plans for an industrial city on Port Gardner Bay. Hewitt and Colby had previously met in Wisconsin, where they operated lumber and maritime businesses, respectively, and in Tacoma, Washington, from which the voyage began. The pair sought to build an industrial center at a site they speculated would be the first ocean port for Great Northern Railway, to be constructed by James J. Hill, and turn it into a "Pittsburgh of the West". On August 22, 1890, the plat for a 50-acre (20 ha) townsite on the peninsula was filed by the Rucker Brothers, who had moved north from Tacoma and had more modest plans for the area.

By September, Colby had secured $800,000 in funding (equivalent to $25.4 million in 2024 dollars) from oil magnate John D. Rockefeller and his railroad associate Colgate Hoyt to begin acquiring land while avoiding property speculators. The Hewitt–Colby syndicate decided to use a name that would not identify a specific location, naming their planned city after Everett Colby, the fifteen-year-old son of investor Charles L. Colby, who had displayed a "prodigious appetite" at a group dinner. The Everett Land Company was incorporated in Pierce County on November 19, 1890, and acquired 434.15 acres (175.69 ha) of property from the Rucker Brothers a week later. Several businesses had already been established on the peninsula, generally dividing themselves between the Bayside facing Port Gardner and Riverside facing the Snohomish River. The Rucker Brothers' plat was withdrawn after an agreement to donate half of their holdings was reached with Hewitt, who promised a series of industrial developments under the "Remarkable Document", which was also used to acquire property from other landowners in the area.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Other cities in Washington

• Seattle 737,015
• Spokane 228,989
• Tacoma 219,346
• Vancouver 190,915
• Bellevue 151,854
• Kent 136,588
• Renton 106,785
• Federal Way 101,030

All Washington cities →