May is shaping up to be an important month for AWC’s legislative program.
City legislative issues survey
We’ve asked approximately 3,600 city elected and key staff officials to share their ideas about what they need to help make and keep cities strong. Following several busy and impactful legislative sessions for cities, it’s time to take a fresh look at what communities of all sizes and locations would like AWC to focus advocacy efforts on in the coming two-year biennium. If you haven’t shared your ideas yet, please take a few minutes and do so by Friday, May 4.
Legislative Priorities Committee
We’re excited to work with AWC President Pat Johnson and Vice President Don Britain as they consider and appoint a cross-section of city officials to our new Legislative Priorities Committee. Applications closed on April 27 and those appointed to two-year term will be notified in advance of the committee’s first meeting on May 30 at the Sea-Tac Conference Center. The committee will review input from our issues survey and other unresolved items from the last session. Their work will continue throughout the rest of the year and they’ll forward preliminary recommendations to AWC’s Board for their review in early fall.
Legislative Champions
We are preparing to announce AWC’s fifth annual Legislative Champion Award winners. As a reminder, we’ve sought nominations to recognize and publicly thank those legislators who’ve made a point of advocating for and supporting cities in the last session. Again this year, we received an ever-growing list to choose from. Once announced, we’ll work with cities in legislators’ districts to arrange for hometown recognition and thanks.
Legislative candidate questionnaire
AWC is gearing up to circulate our legislative candidate questionnaire. Candidates running for legislative office will file during the week of May 21 and our questions will go out to them soon thereafter. All state House positions and half of state Senate seats are up for election. As we’ve done during the last two such election cycles, we provide each of the several hundred candidates with some brief background on Washington’s cities and towns and ask them to answer several questions about how they view key issues like local control. We post responses and encourage city officials to use the questionnaire as one of the tools to approach candidates who may be seeking your endorsement or support. We’ve found this tool useful to help strengthen or establish relationships with legislators coming to Olympia to represent your interests.
AWC Annual Conference
AWC's Annual Conference offers something for everyone. This year will feature several sessions with updates on legislative issues. Registration is now open. We hope to see many of you in Yakima, June 26-29!