Drafter
Clerk 4/19/2007
Title
A MOTION accepting the final report of Elway Research on the council's 2008 budget citizen engagement project; thanking citizens who participated in the process; reporting to the public on the citizen identified countywide priorities, and transmitting suggested 2008 budget policy priorities to the county executive.
Body
WHEREAS, Ordinance 15652 was adopted by the council in November 2006 as the 2007 budget and set "Priorities for People"; and
WHEREAS, Section 1. F.(1) Earning Public Trust, established citizen engagement in policy making as a priority: "Citizen Engagement: The county's budget prioritizes those services that are most important to county residents by funding an initiative to engage county citizens in developing countywide priorities for their county government. In 2007, the council will conduct workshops with citizens to enable them to prioritize their county services on a broad level. The council will report back to the public on the countywide priorities citizens identify. The report will guide alignment of county services to the priorities of the people and will be adopted as a policy directive for development of the executive's 2008 proposed budget. The council will also develop a process for continued citizen engagement with regular reports back to the public"; and
WHEREAS, through a competitive process the firm of Elway Research was engaged by the council to conduct the workshops and to produce a written report on that effort, and
WHEREAS, in March 2007, a total of two hundred thirty-two randomly selected King County citizens gathered in five communities across the county to discuss county government budget priorities. They were recruited to take part in citizens' budget workshops designed to engage citizens in the work of developing the county's 2008 budget, and
WHEREAS, the objective of the citizen workshops was to explore citizen priorities for county spending. Participants were asked to evaluate and prioritize programs across the range of county government programs and services, and
WHEREAS, the workshops were followed by two public budget forums designed to discuss the results of the workshops and to gather additional citizen input, and
WHEREAS, an online interactive survey has also been utilized to gather citizen input on budget priorities, and
WHEREAS, Elway Research has produced the final report which documents the citizen engagement process and the results of the process in terms of budget issues and priorities important to the citizens who participated in the process, and
WHEREAS, the council initiated the citizen engagement process as one means of identifying budget priorities for 2008 that should be used to inform the county Executive as he prepares his proposed budget for 2008;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
A. The final report of Elway Research on the council's 2008 budget citizen engagement project, Attachment A to this motion, which highlights an array of budget priorities, is hereby accepted.
B. The council hereby reports to the public the citizen-identified countywide priorities.
C. The council expresses it's appreciation to the citizens who gave of their time to inform these priorities.
D. The council hereby transmits the results of the project, along with a cover letter from the budget leadership team, to the county executive to inform him as he prepares his budget instruction for his proposed budget for 2008.
E. It is the intent of the council to further deliberate on this report and
communicate the council's final 2008 budget priorities to the executive by August 1, 2007.
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