Regional Policy Committee corrects municipal pass-through totals in parks-levy ordinance, recommends due pass

The Regional Policy Committee on April 9 adopted two amendments to Proposed Ordinance 2025-0070.3 that correct the list and total for municipal parks and open-space pass-through distributions tied to a King County parks-levy renewal set for the Aug. 5 ballot.

The committee voted, by roll call, 11-0 with one member excused to recommend a due pass on the ordinance as amended and to expedite the item to the full council on April 15 without placing it on the consent agenda.

Amendment 1 replaces “the individual municipal parks capital and open space pass-through distributions to cities and towns that were included in version 3 of the ordinance” with a new list and corrected dollar amounts for 39 cities and towns, Jake Tracy of council staff said. “You can see the cities and towns and the amounts on page 28,” Tracy said.

Amendment 0.5 adjusts the ordinance’s overall total to match the sum of the revised list. Vice Chair Mayor Bacchus described the change as technical, saying the approved list totaled $25,025,000—$25,000 more than the figure then printed in the ordinance—and moving to add the phrase $25,000 on page 16, line 338 so the ordinance would read $25,025,000 for the municipal parks and open-space pass-through distribution. “This is a technical correction and, to eliminate any ambiguity, I offer amendment 0.5 to adjust the total,” Bacchus said.

Committee members asked no substantive questions during the amendments; Kendall Moore, who had been scheduled to explain voting requirements, experienced a technical issue but later joined and confirmed she was online. John Taylor, a presenter on the proposal, thanked staff after the amendments were offered: “Thank you for fixing this,” he said.

With the amendments adopted, the committee chair said the RPC recommends a due pass recommendation to the full council and will send the ordinance forward for consideration on April 15. The vote was recorded as 11 ayes, no nos, and Council Member Moore excused.

The ordinance, as described at the meeting, would replace a King County parks-levy renewal proposition on the Aug. 5 ballot and includes a municipal pass-through distribution program whose city-by-city allocations were corrected by Amendment 1. The ordinance packet references the revised allocations on page 28 and the total-correction language on page 16, line 338.