Governor Gregoire Invites South King and Pierce County Residents to Share Their Thoughts on the Issues Most Important to Them, to Their Community and Washington

For Immediate Release: July 19, 2006

OLYMPIA - Governor Chris Gregoire will meet with south King and Pierce county residents on Thursday, July 27, at 7:00 p.m. at Pioneer Park Pavilion in Puyallup. The event is open to the community and those interested may RSVP to guarantee space.

Thursday, July 27, 2006
A Town Hall with Governor Chris Gregoire
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. � Please plan to arrive early
The program will begin at 7:00 p.m.

Pioneer Park Pavilion
330 South Meridian
Puyallup

You may RSVP by filling out the online registration form.

The citizen engagement process is designed in three tiers to engage citizens in a meaningful dialogue, and to gather information from multiple sources.

1. Citizen Workshops: Fifty citizens are selected at random to represent a cross-section of each community. These citizens attend a three-hour workshop facilitated by an independent consultant to discuss, design and prioritize performance measures to track progress in critical services, such as health care, the economy, transportation and education.

2. Community Leader events: Community leaders representing a broad spectrum of interests and organizations meet with Governor Gregoire�s senior staff to discuss the priorities developed in the citizen workshops, delving further into the most important issues in that community.

3. Town Halls: In an open community forum, Governor Gregoire will ask citizens directly what results they think their state government ought to be accountable for delivering.

Governor Gregoire will use the citizens� ideas about how to measure progress to inform state budget development in the fall. She also conducts bi-weekly performance review sessions with agency directors, holding them accountable for delivering real results and ensuring that citizens get a good return on their tax dollars.

A final report on the summer tour will be completed by September 30, 2006.

The date for the Snohomish County town hall has been changed from August 1 to August 14.

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