Participatory budgeting in Unincorporated King County

The program is focusing on these five urban unincorporated areas:

• Skyway-West Hill
• North Highline/White Center
• East Federal Way
• Fairwood
• East Renton Plateau

This program is focusing on:

1. Equity: Creating a process that uses authentic community engagement to reach those who are farthest away from traditional power, resources, and opportunities. Creating and participating in those outreach efforts throughout all phases (idea collection, project development, voting, planning, and evaluation). Considering investments that address the greatest community needs when choosing projects.
2. Access: Allowing all community members to participate in the process. Providing language interpretation and translation and accessibility accommodations for meetings. Engaging the community in ways that meet the needs of people of different ages and with different amounts of education.
3. Accountability: Developing ways to measure how the committee is actively engaging people who have not been involved in past government or budget processes. Informing and engaging residents of each community about the process, timelines, project identification, submittal, and selection.
4. Prioritization and cost estimation: Validating each area’s community needs list (a list of needs created using community input and discussions). Prioritizing projects and evaluating cost estimates for the projects that will be considered by the community for investment.

Support the Steering Committee with administration, education, project management, facilitation, cost calculation, and determinations regarding legal use of funds. Provide training, mentoring, and coaching to help the team navigate government systems effectively. The county also provides a committee budget for services related to the participatory budgeting process.

Membership on the steering committee is open to all members of the public who live, work, attend school, play, and/or worship in the communities they seek to represent, or who can demonstrate some other strong connection to that community, such as having been displaced from there due to gentrification.

King County staff members will take steps to recruit people of color and those who are LGQBTIA, youths, seniors, immigrants, refugees, and/or who have low incomes or disabilities, as well as people from other underrepresented groups.

The committee will include representatives from each community listed above. Each service area delegation will be a mix that includes representatives from businesses and community-based organizations, youths under age 21, and “at-large” members who represent the community as a whole.

King County is partnering with community organizations in each community to recruit and select local applicants.

View/download a job description information sheet.