Increasing public input in the 2013 Budget: County Council implements social media tools to provide more opportunity for public input in budget process

September 26, 2012

Summary

Social media options for those unable to attend public meetings

Story

Metropolitan King County Councilmembers Reagan Dunn and Joe McDermott today announced the Council will use social media to allow residents to comment on the 2013 budget process.

“I would first like to commend Councilmember McDermott for his commitment to openness and transparency throughout the budget process,” said Dunn. “Using social media tools like Twitter will open up the dialogue and allow for members of the public to further comment and provide more opportunities for us their elected officials to hear their concerns.”

Councilmember Dunn asked McDermott to explore ways of involving more of the public in the budget process. Now, people who use Twitter will be able to comment on the budget process by adding the hashtag #KCBudget to their tweet. While this can be done during meetings, the public can provide budget input at any time convenient for them. Their input will be reviewed by the Council.

“Social media makes government more accessible and responsive.” By using these new tools, we will hear from more constituents. Consequently, we will have a more robust and informative budget debate,” said McDermott who chairs the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee. “I want to thank Councilmember Dunn for proposing this idea and the members of our Budget Leadership Team for heartily endorsing it.”


2013 County Budget