The Wards/Districts Initiative, Federal WAy C.I. 24-003
The initiative for 6 wards and ward seats in FW for Council Elections and Councilmember residency, plus 1 "at-large" seat.
Join Us
SIGN (starting 6/27) -Volunteer - see the Text of Initiative
To sign the Initiative, please see us at the Commons Mall between Target & Kohl's (3 to 6), M-F. Volunteer: push the "join" button or see further below if you want to have the petition mailed to you, or download yourself, to help us get signatures. To see the full text of this initiative, see the Initiative Text pg.
Seeking Volunteers - Get a $50-a-week stipend
The New Strategy, Door-to-Door Signature Gathering
Regarding the Federal Way Wards/Districts Petition, for districting and having a district map for Federal Way City Council (Citizens Initiative 24-003), it's the 7th Inning Stretch and we're in the hole, but Mark says we're not giving up on the Petition, thereby the Initiative. The new strategy is door-to-door but we will continue to maintain a presence in the Mall until October 30th (our last day there). We might restart the statutory collection period clock to September 1st (discarding signatures we collected before that date), which would give us until February 28th to get signatures (we can easily delineate which signatures were collected before or after 9/1). That hasn't been decided yet. We prefer to stick with the June 27th timetable and get this done by Christmas, and we're still going with that for now, but we'll go with the September 1st timetable if necessary. We'll let you know when or if that happens, right here on the official Website.
We need 3 Stipend-paid ($50-a-week) Volunteers to start going door-to-door on Thursday, September 19th. Each Volunteer would have to get 200 signatures per week. You can work it out any way you want but one option would be get 40 signatures-a-day in a 5-day work week and have two days off. Another option is to get 33-or-so signatures-a-day over the course of 6 days and have one day off. Yet another option is to get 28-or-29 signatures-a-day over the course of all 7 days. However you want to do it, but to get the Stipend you have to get 200 signatures a week in whatever per-day-scheduling option that you go with. Stipend-paid Volunteers must commit to gather signatures until December 19th, and hand in your final Petitions by Dec. 22nd or 23rd. The $50 Stipends will be paid weekly at the Volunteer Weekly Meeting, the time that completed petitions will be handed in as well. We haven't decided, yet, on a specific "Day of the Week" for the Weekly Meeting...that'll be determined by a consensus of the Volunteers.
Our proposed September 19th door-to-door start date is very close to the date of this post (this writing), but we can only postpone the start date a few days to a week and still keep to our June 27th timetable (6-mo. window). But if it's much more than a week, we'll have to revert to the September 1st timetable and discard pre-Sept. 1 signatures, which we really don't want to do but will if we have to. The longer we delay the start of the new door-to-door strategy from September 19th, the more likely we will have to go with the September 1st timetable. Overall, we have a month-and-a-half, more-or-less, to find our Stipend-paid Volunteers (with one or the other timetable)...and that's it. Our Mall deadline,Oct. 30th, is pretty much the last day to have 3 committed Stipend-paid Volunteers on hand, or the Initiative is done for.
If we stay with the June 27th timetable, we'll, more-or-less, stop gathering signatures around December 19th (hopefully, we'll have enough by the 19th).
If we have to go with the September 1st timetable, there'll be three weeks OFF during the Christmas - New Year's period December 19th to January 9th, then we'll start back up again on January 10th (maybe a little earlier if we're behind quota) and go all the way until February 28th.
This is it for "Wards/District", it's either one or the other of these two timetables but it will not stretch out beyond those. So "Ward/Districts" is in your hands, both Volunteers and Signers...and February 28th, 2025 is the absolute deadline for signatures. By the way, if you cannot commit to anywhere near 200 signatures a week for several weeks of either of the aforementioned timetables, you can still volunteer by getting us one page of 20 signatures...that's all, and that would be a big help to us (but no stipend). If you can only be a Signer, you can sign at the Mall (between Target & Kohl's), late afternoons, until October 30th.
Federal Way Citizens Initiative 24-003
Summary, Title and Districting Commission
Summary: Federal Way Citizens Initiative #24-003, if receiving enough signatures and getting on the ballot and passing, would implement 6 ward or district seats and 1 at-large seat for the Federal Way City Council after a district map is drawn by a Districting Commission and the 2027 elections ensue. The ward system would have one City Councilmember for each of 6 wards, thereby ensuring close proximity of at least one councilmember to any particular City neighborhood and, as would follow, closer attention to all neighborhoods and areas, and more of a councilmember-to-constituent connection. There would still be an at-large councilmember elected in alternate election cycles, along with the mayor, except for the first 2027 election when all the Council seats would be elected together.
Title: "Shall the City of Federal Way change the city council composition from seven "at-large" city council positions drawn from anywhere in the city limits to six positions from specifically defined geographical districts or wards (positions 1-6) with four-year terms and one "at-large" position (position 7) elected in 2027 to an initial two-year term from 2028-2029 and four-year terms thereafter, establish a five-member districting commission to define the districts, and codify eligibility and transition provisions?"
Districting Commission: A commission would set the lines for the wards & draw the map for 2027. See the Initiative Text page to see the districting commission section and the entire text of the initiative. We're going to need many signers, would-be signers and other volunteers to help by getting at least 20 signatures apiece from their social circle (about 2 hrs. of work in all). The PDF Viewer of the petition is further below on this page.
HELP OUR CAUSE
The Federal way wards/Districts Initiative
Help us get the FW "wards/districts" Initiative on the ballot. We'll need volunteers, donations & 9000 signatures. View the petition further below (download & print) and/or read more about it through the Initiative Text pg. Important: Petition Instructions. We'll mail it if you can't DL & print or you prefer that.
HELP OUR CAUSE
400 Volunteers wanted to Get Just 20 Signatures each
We don't have money for professional signature gatherers, we either get hundreds of volunteers to do just a couple of hours of work or we're done for. View the petition below (download & print) and, important, see instructions through the DL Petition Instructions page. We can mail it to you, too, if you can't print.