1894

Theodore Roosevelt helps found the National Municipal League in Philadelphia. On March 17, A.A. Denny, Morgan J. Carkeek, John McGilvra, and 45 other leading Seattle citizens convene in the Chamber of Commerce offices to form a Municipal League and launch a campaign that will culminate in a new City Charter in 1896. Despite its ultimate election victory, this prototype League does not survive past its March 7, 1895 meeting.
1910

The Municipal League of Seattle is formally established at a May 23 meeting of 120 charter members, all men and mostly professionals, climaxing an organizing effort that began in the fall of 1909. Hugh M. Caldwell who would later become City Attorney and Mayor, is elected to be the League's first president. On October 8, the League and allied citizen organizations file petitions for the recall of Mayor Hiram Gill and the league campaigns successfully for creation of a "Municipal Plans Commission."
1911

Gill is recalled and voters approve Plans Commission. which hires Olmstead protégé Virgil Bogue. The League publishes the first edition of Municipal League News on June 24, in which it advocates a Port Commission and nonpartisan elections.
1912

League conducts its first "evaluations" of candidates for local office. Voters reject Virgil Bogue's visionary city plan.
1913

League membership tops 1,000. It launches Seattle's first referendum campaign, a successful effort to repeal a City ordinance relating to police powers. The League supports a new Charter reestablishing the ward system (repealed in 1910), but the proposal is voted down, as is the League's own first serious proposal to admit women as members. The League opposes plans for City-County Building (now King County Courthouse) and proposes merger of city and county governments.
1915

The League becomes involved in social issues, including child labor laws, establishment of the 8-hour day, prevention of slums, and housing for transients and unemployed workers. It also supports mandating the pasteurization of milk and opposes use of then new voting machines. Anticipating one consequence of Prohibition, the League proposes creation of “public comfort stations” to replace restrooms in the 300 bars to be closed the following year.
1922

The League launches the first of several unsuccessful campaigns to adopt a City Manager form of municipal government.
1924

Seattle creates a permanent City Planning Commission at the urging of the League.
1926

The League provides a forum for the first proposal to build a floating bridge across Lake Washington (not achieved until 1940).
1927

The League raises the first serious alarms over water pollution and campaigns successfully for creation of a city Sewage Commission.
1928

The League makes the first proposals for tax subsidies for public transit, which is funded exclusively through fare revenues at the time.
1930

Warren G. Magnuson, who will later become a U.S. Senator, is hired to edit the Seattle Municipal News, and is later promoted to executive secretary of the League. Other luminaries who will fill these slots over the following years include C.A. Crosser, historian Murray Morgan Seattle Center Director Ewen Dingwall, and William Massey.
1937

The Depression takes its toll on the League as membership plummets (reaching a nadir of 345 in 1939). The League responds by hiring its first full-time executive secretary, Glen Eastburn, and by finally voting to admit women members on March 6-fully 17 years after the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution granted women the right to vote.
1943

Despite the distractions of World War II, the League remains active, proposing a City Freeholders election that ultimately results in adoption of Seattle’s 1946 Charter.
1948

Following on the success of its campaign for state law to mandate centralized County purchasing in 1945, the League wins passage of enabling legislation to permit adoption of "Home Rule" County charters. The League again advocates the merger of city and county governments.
1950

An appointed City Transit Commission is created at the urging of the League. The League's membership nears 4,000.
1952

A proposed King County Charter advocated by the League fails at the polls. Membership reaches 5,205.
1953

The League successfully champions expansion of the Port Commission from three to five elected members. Attorney James R. Ellis gives a speech proposing a “Metropolitan Government” for Greater Seattle.
1955

The League wins passage of laws providing for election of municipal judges. The League releases a report entitled “Metropolitan Seattle-The Shape Were In," which proposes creation of a metropolitan government for King County and is authored in large part by James Ellis.
1958

After securing passage of enabling state legislation the year before, the League leads the battle to win voter approval of the "Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle," or "Metro” for short, on the fail ballot, (having failed in the spring) and a $135 million effort is launched to clean up Lake Washington. The League also champions the City's adoption of its first noise control ordinance.
1959

The League helps to persuade the Seattle School District to install sprinklers in older, wood-framed schools.
1966

In a speech to the League on January 21. James Ellis proposes a massive. comprehensive program of capital improvements for parks, mass transit. roads, and other public facilities. This program will later become “Forward Thrust”
1968

King County votes pass the bulk of Forward Thrust bonds, with the notable exception of a proposed rail transit system, and they approve, at long last, a Home Rule Charter.
1969

Buoyed by its victories on the County Charter and Forward Thrust, the League enters a new phase of hyperactivity, proposing a County Ombudsman, a County hearing examiner system, a household tax to support Seattle Transit services, and a grand jury investigation into gambling and police graft in Seattle, League membership peaks at about 5,000.
1971

The first King County Executive and County Councilmembers are elected under the new Charter. The League becomes involved in community fights over 1-90, the Bay Freeway, and the high-level West Seattle Bridge.
1972

The League is a leader in the campaign for Initiative 276 which establishes open government meetings, the reporting of political contributions, and the state Public Disclosure Commission. Locally, it successfully opposes a $40 million bridge repair bond issue as unnecessary, and it is a leader in the creation of Metro Transit.
1975

The League "blows the whistle" on contracting irregularities for Seattle's financial computer system and for the West Seattle Bridge. The latter investigation will lead to indictments against the City Engineer and two prominent state legislators, The League also undertakes a major internal reorganization and hosts its first 'Election Night Countdown" party.
1977

The League champions five major City Charter amendments (all but one pass), supports the Seattle School District's desegregation plan, and becomes involved in the revision of the Seattle Comprehensive Plan.
1979

The League is a leader in successfully opposing a plan for King County government to absorb Metro. It begins evaluating judicial candidates for the King County Superior Court and launches a major effort to create a partnership between private interests and the public schools.
1980

Overcrowding in the King County Jail prompts the Municipal League to propose solutions, and the League critiques the Mayor's proposals for reorganizing city departments.
1981

The League proposes principles to guide the revision of Seattle's downtown plan, and it continues major efforts to educate the public about public school issues.
1982

The Eastside Municipal League marks its first anniversary, having evaluated local candidates and sponsored forums on ballot issues and the disposition of surplus school property.
1983

The League turns its attentions to planning for power rates and energy resource recovery, and it endorses Metro’s downtown transit proposal. 0n the Eastside, the League supports acquisition of a downtown Bellevue site for a major new park.
1984

The League argues successfully for creation of City reserves to finance maintenance, establishes a task force to advise in the development of King County's Comprehensive Plan, and completes a six month study into the needs of Seattle's homeless mentally ill population, Thus, the Municipal League begins its anniversary year dealing with many of the same issues that motivated its creation 75 years ago: the prudence of government administration, the need for strong public planning, and the responsiveness of the community to pressing social needs. How much has changed since 1910, and how much remains the same!