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Hello, King County Cultural Advocates!

Here's our latest update on the process to approve King County's Doors Open program to increase public funding of science, heritage, and arts programming by $90+ million. We have just received word that the Regional Policy Committee (RPC) will not be taking public comments at Wednesday’s 3pm meeting. However, that doesn't mean advocacy isn't needed. Your voices and opinions need to be heard!

The process to approve Doors Open as King County's Cultural Access program requires two critical votes. First, the Regional Policy Committee will vote to recommend the program or not at the end of November. In December, King County Council has the final vote to authorize the program.

ACTIONS NEEDED ASAP:

Please send an email of support to the Regional Policy Committee and King County council by Wednesday at 1pm.

The RPC values community input and wants to hear from us! Even if you already submitted emails to King County Councilmembers, it is important to now contact the RPC since it is made up of additional members who don’t attend the King County Committee of the Whole meetings. We have provided email instructions below but please feel free to reach out to someone on the Inspire WA team if you have questions.

For your email, please use the following:

SUBJECT LINE: "To RPC: Support Doors Open"

TO: (copy and paste all email addresses) [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

What to write:

This doesn’t need to be lengthy; a paragraph or two will do nicely. Put in writing what you would have said publicly if you could have testified in person: 

• Begin with “Dear RPC members” or “To members of the RPC”
• Introduce yourself and which organization/group you represent or support
• Include which county district AND CITY you live and/or work in.
• Include a direct request for the RPC to vote in favor of Doors Open.
• Why does Doors Open matter to you? 
• How will it help your community, your child, your organization, your business, your service to others, public schools, etc. 
• Feel free to use any of the sample letters we have created as a starting point or utilize our One-Page Summary and Talking Points documents if you need more inspiration or facts to support your email.

Regional Policy Committee Members and their email addresses:

• Chair: King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer
• Vice Chair: Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus: [email protected]
• County Council Members: King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski
• Redmond Mayor Angela Birney: [email protected]
• Bothell City Councilmember James McNeal: [email protected]
• Bellevue City Councilmember John Stokes: [email protected]
• Seattle Councilmember Andrew Lewis: [email protected]
• Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant: [email protected]
• Alternate, Renton Mayor Armondo Pavone: [email protected]
• Alternate, Kent Mayor Dana Ralph: [email protected]
• Alternate, Seattle Councilmember Lisa Herbold: [email protected]
• Alternate, Seattle Councilmember Debora Juarez: [email protected]

King County Executive Dow Constantine and Council are deliberating on a plan to implement the state’s Cultural Access Program through councilmanic action, which is a majority vote of the council. They aspire to increase county funding by $90+ million for science, heritage, and arts programs through the Doors Open program. Doors Open is about cultural equity. The program aims to provide every King County resident–especially those in under-resourced communities and outside of Seattle–with equitable, transformative access to science, heritage, and arts programming. It will be game changing. To achieve this, we need your help.

What can you do?

1. Watch the public hearings! We had over a hundred community members watch the last livestream public hearing. We need to continue this momentum at the upcoming meetings on Nov 8 at 3pm to show Council that our communities are committed and engaged in this opportunity. Click here to stream the meeting.
2. Educate Your Community. Please get your whole community excited about Doors Open and refer them to the recent Seattle Times article. They will be great advocates for the final vote if we decide to trigger a massive email campaign.
3. Join the Inspiration League AND Inspire WA’s newsletter. InspirationLeague.org is our political platform where we issue action alerts. The system makes it really easy to send a message to any elected official that represents you. Please also sign up for our newsletter because we’ll have a lot of critical information to share over the next few months.
4. Share your education sector contacts. We’ve hired Andy Jensen as the Community Organizer for the Education Sector. It’s critical that we demonstrate support from school districts, PTSAs, booster clubs, parents, and students. Email Andy at [email protected] with your education contacts and he will bring your folks into our coalition!

This is the most important thing that we want you to understand. Securing this funding isn’t something that Inspire Washington can do for you. It’s something we must do together. You, your team, board, partners, and community must advocate for this funding and the programs that will expand access, equitably, to communities across King County. Please join us and advocate for Doors Open!

QUESTIONS?

We imagine you may have lots of questions and we want to bring you up to speed. Join us for a briefing of the Doors Open program and our plan to secure King County approval. To ensure good communications, we will be hosting an Open Office Hour, every Tuesday, 12:30-1:30 pm. Click here to register! And feel free to share this invitation with members of your team and community that need more information.

About Inspire Washington

Inspire Washington nurtures the human spirit and strengthens communities by increasing access to science, heritage, and arts programming through advocacy, resource development, education, and coalition building.

Inspire Washington

[email protected]

P.O. Box 806, Seattle, WA 98111

InspireWashington.org

Manuel R. Cawaling, Executive Director: [email protected]

Jessi Wasson, Programs and Operations Manager: [email protected]

Anna Tatelman, Annual Fund Manager: [email protected]

Madeline Dalton, Outreach Coordinator: [email protected]

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