For months in 2024, Auburn City Councilmember Larry Brown battled an ongoing yet unspecified medical condition that kept him from attending city meetings.

On Feb. 18, Brown resigned from his seat, Position 6.

Mayor Nancy Backus read a brief statement from Brown, who was not in the council chambers at the time.

“It is with deep regret,” Backus began for Brown, “that I must tender my resignation as Auburn City Councilman as of Feb. 18, 2025. It has been my honor to serve with my fellow council members, and I wish you all the best.”

Then, speaking for herself, Backus said it had been an honor to serve with Brown, who was deputy mayor at the beginning of 2024, and “served the city with dignity with respect, and with the common goal of making sure he left the city better than he found it. And I would say he accomplished each and every one of those goals.”

Brown began his first term on Jan. 1, 2018. From 2018 to 2022, he was president of the Washington State Labor Council, which represents over 550,000 union workers throughout the state. He worked in the aerospace industry for over 40 years and for the union for 23 years.

Brown has served on the board for Communities in Schools of Auburn and the Board of Trustees for Green River College. As a past member of the King County Airport Roundtable Advisory Board (Boeing Field), he worked to protect the airport to ensure its continued operations. He also served as co-chair of the Washington Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board and served on the Governing Board for the Valley Regional Fire Authority.

Brown and his wife, Donna, have two grown children, Cara and Gregory, and five grandchildren. He is an avid fan and a season ticket holder of the Seattle Seahawks.

What’s next?

Citing the council’s recently revised rules and procedures, Backus explained the process of filling the vacant seat, as follows.

Should an unexpired council position become vacant, the city council has 90 days from the occurrence of the vacancy to appoint, by a majority vote of a quorum of the remaining members of the council — that is, at least four of them — a qualified person to fill the vacancy, according to state law.

The council may make the appointment at its next regular meeting, or at a special meeting called for that purpose. If the council does not appoint a person within the 90-day period, King County may step in and appoint a qualified person to fill the vacancy, as provided by state law. The city clerk’s office must prepare and display an advertisement to the city’s official newspaper, and the city council will follow the process laid out in the city’s rules and procedures.

If there are more than 1o completed applications, each council member will submit to the city an unranked list of the candidates he or she wants to move forward in the process. If there are 10 or fewer, all of those names will be brought forward, and the aggregated list will be provided to council during an executive session prior to the interview meeting. If fewer than 10 completed applications are submitted, it will move forward with all of the applicants.

At the Feb. 24 council study session, council members hashed out the process they will follow to replace the two-term councilman. In the end, they opted to choose a placeholder to serve only for the time remaining on Brown’s term, which expires in December.

In November, the city will hold an election for Position 6. It will be open to everyone, with the winner taking office in January 2026 to serve a full-four year term.

Larry Brown