From the Director: AWC Regional Meetings Just Around the Corner

These meetings are intended to provide an opportunity for AWC Officers, Board Members, and staff to have discussions with city officials regarding the upcoming 2007 legislative session. Staff will provide a political overview of the session; describing the political "lay of the land" in Olympia; and discuss those issues that we see bubbling to the top as key AWC priorities for the 2007 session

This past year, the AWC Board revised the legislative policy development process to encourage more input from the state’s elected and appointed city officials. Pursuant to the revisions, the delegates at the AWC Annual Conference adopted a limited number of general resolutions, and then specific legislative goals are developed during the fall by the subcommittees of the AWC Legislative Committee. Those specific issues are either submitted by city officials or arise in discussions at the small city round-ups or at this series of regional meetings. The Board has felt strongly that the AWC policy development process should build upon a foundation of input from city officials and should be reflective of the diverse needs of our state’s 281 cities and towns. A substantial portion of the regional meeting will be set aside for discussion by city officials of their legislative needs, and how the city family can work together to achieve a successful 2007 legislative session.

The regional meetings are the opportunity for city officials to come together, discuss their needs, and impact the Association’s legislative agenda. All elected and appointed city officials are encouraged to register and attend. (Please see www.awcnet.org/regionalmeetings for a complete listing of dates and locations of the upcoming regional meetings.)

AWC Policy Development Process Underway

As mentioned above, last year the AWC Board of Directors adopted a substantially revised policy development process. Previously, the AWC legislative agenda was based on a series of 25-30 specific resolutions adopted at the AWC Annual Conference in June. While there was always the capacity to augment those resolutions by individual city requests, it was the resolutions that drove the development of the AWC legislative agenda.

Pursuant to the new process, the membership adopts a series of 5-8 very general resolutions at the Annual Conference. However, it is the responsibility of the Legislative Committee to flesh out those resolutions and propose a series of specific issues to be recommended to the AWC Board for inclusion in an AWC legislative agenda. The Legislative Committee is divided into five subject matter subcommittees, and reviews legislative requests from member cities for inclusion on the list of recommendations to the Board.

What distinguishes the new process from the former is the relying on city officials to help craft the AWC legislative agenda. City officials are asked to discuss their legislative issues during the small city round-ups and at the AWC regional meetings. In addition the Legislative Committee has requested city officials to directly submit suggestions for legislation. The process is intended to be more reflective of changing conditions, as well as more designed to engage all city officials in the process.

To date, the new process is working reasonably well. The subcommittees have all had at least one meeting, and we expect the process to conclude by mid-November. The AWC board will adopt the 2007 legislative agenda at its meeting on December 6.

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