As you can see from this issue of The Muni News, your Municipal League is hard at work. In March we completed an excellent study on Seattle City Light. We have just published our study on the state wide initiative process. We are now launching a new study on the future of King County government. Of course, we have the Civic Awards coming up on June 21^st and will be kicking off our annual candidate rating efforts in July.

Undoubtedly, you notice that the League is back in the business of studying civic issues. As a citizen organization, an issue study is one of the most powerful tools we have of influencing current debate and our community’s future. The League has a long and notable history of providing leadership in this way. The examples are many, but I’ll give you one: it was the League that in the 1950’s took on the issue of cleaning up Lake Washington. At that time, it was not safe to eat its fish or swim in its water. Many municipalities were dumping sewerage in the lake. The outcome of that study and the years of persistent work that followed was the formation of METRO, a regional authority that assumed the sewerage treatment responsibilities of all the municipalities in the area. It worked! Now our children swim in the lake again.

Sometimes the only way to successfully fix a nagging problem is to change the civic structures that have responsibility for it. Power and authority need to be properly aligned to deal with the problem. A well thought out study from the League can help pave the way for making change. That is why I am excited about our new study on the future of King County governance. It’s a beginning in the effort to look at how we have organized our local governments, what they are responsible for, and how effective those structures are in dealing with our nagging problems.

I am sure that you can think of many subjects that should be studied, water and transportation, for example, weigh on my mind. So here is where you come in. With just a few volunteers, we can only do a few things. With many volunteers, we can do many things. Become active in the League. Tell us your ideas and join a committee.