Everett to pay $500K to settle bikini barista dress code lawsuit

The city of Everett is poised to sign a settlement agreement with bikini baristas, bringing an end to years of legal back-and-forth over the city's coffee stand dress code.

"I am satisfied that the city entered into doing this whole process as a way to protect vulnerable people and to support and protect our community members who were near these stands, and to civilize this to the degree that we can," Councilmember Ben Zarlingo said at the council's meeting Wednesday.

The Everett City Council voted unanimously in favor this week of allowing the mayor to sign a settlement agreement with a barista stand owner. The settlement pays the owner and baristas $500,000, but the city will still enforce some requirements around the coffee stands.

The city will amend its laws, starting with a rewrite of its barista dress code to align with its existing lewd conduct rules. An amendment would also require stand owners to post signage with information about sex trafficking, with resources for victims.

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At the council's meeting Wednesday, Assistant City Attorney Ramsay Rammerman went through the history of Everett's barista dress code drama, beginning in 2009.

"When we had dozens upon dozens of citizen complaints about the stands," Rammerman told the council. "Our subsequent investigations revealed that the coffee stands were not just selling coffee, but they were selling sex shows, allowing customers to have physical contact with baristas, we had a problem of men masturbating near the stands. It was part of a business model. The stand owner was encouraging this conduct, because he was also selling the baristas oxycontin and he wanted them to earn tips so they could buy the drugs."

That first investigation resulted in the prosecution of four baristas. Rammerman said the coffee stand owner disappeared and was eventually declared dead. Other bikini coffee stands became more careful after this, Rammerman said.

In 2013, a county deputy traded information about investigations into the businesses in exchange for sex, helping them avoid the police. Eventually, an investigation determined that two more stand owners were encouraging baristas to perform sex acts for tips. The investigation also reported that one barista was sexually assaulted, and that in one case, a stand owner was encouraging an underage employee to engage in the conduct. The two coffee stand owners were charged and convicted with promoting prostitution and exploiting a minor.

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That history led to Everett's strict rules on bikini barista stands in 2017, which banned g-strings and pasties. Baristas were required to at least wear tank tops and shorts. Coffee stand owners also had to obtain a license for the operation, which required them to enforce the dress code. The city was sued over the rules. The case bounced between different courts, and rulings, over the following five years.

In 2022, a federal court ruled that Everett's bikini barista dress code violated the United States Constitution and the Washington Constitution. That ruling led the city to to the current settlement agreement with plaintiffs. Read more about the decision here.

Rammerman told the council that the city attorney's office believed that if the city wanted to challenge the recent ruling in court, the city would win. That option comes with a costly risk, however. If the city lost, it would be on the hook to pay $3 million in damages and attorneys fees. The $500,000 settlement is the cheaper option.

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KUOW's John O'Brien contributed to this report.