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He opened his State of the County address by acknowledging Mayor John Spencer for his leadership. Hear the County Executive's update on the State of the County on Wednesday, March 20th at the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center Center, 2000 Hewitt Avenue. Register today at EconomicAllianceSC.org/events/snoco-update/. During the last three years, the County Executive has graciously given us a sneak peak at his State of the County address. On Friday morning, March 1st, he talked about public safety, economic development, financial stewardship and sustaining our way of life. - He praised the extraordinary effort of the public works and fleet crews expended during the recent snow storms. Somers signed an emergency declaration prior to the storm to make sure we had the maximum flexibility to respond.
- Events such as these point to how everyone comes together when there is a potential threat to public safety.
- In November 2017, he partially activated our emergency management system. This had never been done before and the actions allows better responses across jurisdictions, ensuring that resources are being used in the most effective way possible.
- And for the first time, they were able to gather data across the county to better understand the details of opioids epidemic. In the past year, the county has opened the Diversion Center and Carnegie Resources Center and expanding the embedded social worker program. Old ways of doing business, were not working. A new approach was needed and set in motion.
- A top priority was strengthening and diversifying our economy. Although everything is looking good right now, we need to be prepared when a down-turn in the economy occurs. And the biggest advance in meeting the economic criteria was starting commercial airlines service at Paine Field. Companies who want to invest in Snohomish County often look at the long drive to Sea-Tac Airport which can be a drag on productivity. Now that Alaska and United Airlines will be flying from our own Paine Field, we are a gateway to the world.
- Of course this all happened because of the public/private partnership between the County and Propeller Airports who built and will manage the terminal and our excellent airport staff.
- Aerospace continues to be central to Snohomish County's economy and our partnership with Boeing is strong. The signing of an agreement for Boeing to manage the Flight Aviation Center will continue the top tourist attraction in the county. Boeing also signed an option to lease additional land on the west side of the airport. Other acknowledgements included Boeing and the Air Force Pegasus tankers, establishing a Aerospace Task Force in the event Boeing announces a new airplane. More announcements could come later this year.
Financial Stewardship and Reform is the stewardship of his position because the county has limited resources and must spend the dollars wisely. The County Courthouse project is underway. The budgets over the past few years have put the county on much sounder financial footing and they were able to do this without a general fund tax increase. While the courthouse project saves us some $86 million, it will serve our growing county for years to come. Since launching LEAN into county government, results t has shown that the culture is changing with improving service to the public. Planning ahead is the only way to create the future we choose. Vision 2050 Summit was the process of planning for the growth we know is coming. A better transportation system is critical to sustaining the quality of life. Shortly, we will be breaking ground for Lynnwood Link Light Rail. Working on neighborhood congestion relief is another goal of the county. The county has started a US 2 trestle study which will surely be a long process to fix US 2.
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