What would you spend a million dollars on for your community?

If you live, go to school, worship or demonstrate a strong community connection to East Federal Way, you are invited by King County Local Services to be part of the second year of a participatory budgeting process. King County is looking for community ideas on how to spend $1,516,000 on a capital project for the public.

Ideas must be submitted by Nov. 26, 2023. They must also be used for capital projects, which must be for public benefit, accessible to the public and within the county’s jurisdiction to implement.

Unincorporated East Federal Way refers to areas that are close to Federal Way, but not technically part of the city. Even longtime Federal Way residents may be surprised to learn where these boundaries lie. The Federal Way Senior Center, for example, is in unincorporated King County and has an Auburn address.

In 2022, the county used a participatory budgeting framework for the first time to decide what to do with capital funds in unincorporated areas. The process was modeled after successful frameworks in other cities to focus on “centering Black and Indigenous communities in developing solutions that aim to repair the harm and bring healing and well-being,” according to King County’s website.

Photos by Keelin Everly-Lang / The Mirror One of two sets of bleachers that frames the grassy field at Lake Geneva Park. Capital funds were voted on to transform this into a space that can be utilized for multiple sports.

Last year’s selections include $1.5 million toward upgrades at Lake Geneva Park; $100,000 toward a community garden fund and $35,000 toward utility box art murals.

A community event is coming up from 1 – 3 p.m on Oct. 14 at Lake Geneva to talk about and receive community input about the upcoming park improvements.

The community garden and utility box murals should be seen by community members by the beginning of next year, according to the King County Department of Local Services.

Local resident Trenise Rogers said in last year’s round that the top request was for a community center, but this was outside of the budget they had to work with. She was the chair of the steering committee for the East Federal Way participatory budgeting team last year and is also a member of the Diversity Commission with the city of Federal Way. To find a way to move toward this eventual goal of building a community center in East Federal Way, the decision was made to allocate some of the capital funds toward a study to assess how much a community center would cost.

Rogers said participatory budgeting is a positive tool not only because it helps shift power to the community members, but also because it is about “having access to the tools and support and resources that an everyday King County employee would have.”

A trail through Lake Geneva Park filters the fall light through trees and underbrush. The park hosts a variety of places for community members to walk and enjoy the outdoors.

She said that as a participant, “you’re able to bring your passion as a community member. You’re simply being invited to the table with your own genuine passion, but in addition to that, we were afforded the resources and support.”

The process is currently in the idea collection Phase, which will last through December. In January, the proposal development phase will begin. During this phase, community members can volunteer as proposal advocates to “build submitted ideas from the public during the idea collection phase into actual project proposals to go on the ballot for communities to vote and decide what projects to fund.” This stage will go through June.

Once the proposals are decided on, those over the age of 12 can vote on the proposals. Even after projects are chosen, community input is still a core piece of the puzzle to make sure that they are implemented in a culturally relevant and useful way, according to the county.

Rogers shared that for her, the most exciting part was the outreach efforts and events, especially, “making face to face contact, embracing the culture and the needs [of the area] based on the feedback of participants that were coming to the community event.”

For event information and to get involved in participatory budgeting in East Federal Way, visit https://publicinput.com/I0667#1