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.
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For your email, please use the following:
SUBJECT LINE: "To RPC: Support Doors Open"
TO: (copy and paste all email addresses) kcccomitt@kingcounty.gov; mayor@redmond.gov; jstokes@bellevuewa.gov; nbackus@auburnwa.gov; james.mcneal@bothellwa.gov; mayor@rentonwa.gov; Mayor@KentWA.gov; Andrew.Lewis@seattle.gov; Kshama.Sawant@seattle.gov; Lisa.Herbold@seattle.gov; Debora.Juarez@seattle.gov; mayor@rentonwa.gov; Mayor@KentWA.gov
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.
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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: nbackus@auburnwa.gov
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County Council Members: King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski
- Redmond Mayor Angela Birney: mayor@redmond.gov
- Bothell City Councilmember James McNeal: james.mcneal@bothellwa.gov
- Bellevue City Councilmember John Stokes: jstokes@bellevuewa.gov
- Seattle Councilmember Andrew Lewis: Andrew.Lewis@seattle.gov
- Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant: Kshama.Sawant@seattle.gov
- Alternate, Renton Mayor Armondo Pavone: mayor@rentonwa.gov
- Alternate, Kent Mayor Dana Ralph: Mayor@KentWA.gov
- Alternate, Seattle Councilmember Lisa Herbold: Lisa.Herbold@seattle.gov
- Alternate, Seattle Councilmember Debora Juarez: debora.juarez@seattle.gov
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 andyjoe1024@gmail.com 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!
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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.
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2024 WA State Legislative Session | |
Believe it or not, the 2024 Washington State Legislative Session is just around the corner and the Inspire WA team has been hard at work meeting with members of the legislature across the state in preparation for another great year for culture.
Manny and Jessi toured 22 cities across our state this summer and were inspired by your work and heard loud and clear the needs for continued new funding. We are excited by early conversations with our partners and look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks!
Statewide advocacy activities coming up:
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SAVE THE DATE: Feb 7, 2024 - Arts, Heritage, and Science Day
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District Teams: Advocacy Coordinator, Madeline will begin assembling district teams in a few weeks! Please email her if you are interested in participating: advocacy@inspirewashington.org
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Legislative Agenda: Stay tuned for our announcement regarding the 2024 Cultural Sector Legislative Agenda and Virtual Rally!
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Cultural Futures Report: We will soon be releasing the 2023 report based on our 2023 state tour. Take a look at the 2022 report in anticipation!
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Join Inspire Washington!
We have worked tirelessly to represent your cultural programs and secure financial support, including the transformative Working Washington 5 grant program and the upcoming Covid Relief grants. But there's still so much left to do. Inspire Washington must remain visionary, ambitious, collaborative, and aggressive for the cultural sector. Please consider investing in our advocacy objectives by joining as an invested cultural partner. We exist because of the growing list of partners that pledge and pay dues every year. Like you, it's been a hard year for us so we ask you to seriously consider joining our circle. Click here to learn more.
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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
info@inspirewashington.org
P.O. Box 806, Seattle, WA 98111
InspireWashington.org
Manuel R. Cawaling, Executive Director: manny@inspirewashington.org
Jessi Wasson, Programs and Operations Manager: jessi@inspirewashington.org
Anna Tatelman, Annual Fund Manager: anna@inspirewashington.org
Madeline Dalton, Outreach Coordinator: advocacy@inspirewashington.org
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