Noted restaurateur's initiative seeks more citizen involvement

Citizens who don't feel they have enough voice in King County government would get a new forum for their views under an initiative written by Dick's Drive-In restaurants co-founder Dick Spady and his son Jim.

The Spadys plan to deliver at least 63,000 signatures to the county clerk today in support of Initiative 24, which would create a "citizen councilor network" of small discussion groups in homes, libraries and other venues.

Dick Spady, 83, funded the $50,000 petition campaign through the family-controlled Easy Citizen Involvement political-action committee.

"He's absolutely convinced people are going to love this the way they loved his burgers, fries and shakes. I agree," said campaign manager Jim Spady.

If adopted either by County Council action or by a vote of the people, I-24 would:

• Hold small-group meetings to discuss a specific public issue four to 12 times a year. The county would coordinate the meetings.

• Start each meeting with a factual presentation, allow every participant to speak uninterrupted, and collect detailed questionnaires from participants.

• Fund the process through private donations. The money would be used for expenses such as materials and staff to coordinate events and tabulate results.

• Convene the small groups only if contributions reach $20,000 and at least 1,000 citizens volunteer to participate.

"A lot of people are intimidated by big meetings," Jim Spady said. "Almost everyone feels comfortable talking around the dinner table or in a small group."

Dick Spady, who founded the Forum Foundation in 1970 to promote small-group dialogue, has lobbied the Legislature to create citizen discussion groups and last year proposed a statewide initiative that didn't get enough signatures to make the ballot.

"The big 'aha!' we had this year was, 'Let's do this process at the county level, prove that it works, then it should be easy to extend it to other counties and the state,' " said Jim Spady.

He and his father are "very, very confident" they have enough petition signatures so the County Council will legally have to either adopt the initiative as an ordinance or put it before voters on the November ballot. The council also has the option of letting voters choose between the initiative and an alternative it would write.

About 55,000 validated voters' signatures are required to certify the initiative, based on turnout in the 2005 county-executive race, Jim Spady said. He said he has 63,000 signatures in hand and a signature-collecting firm has collected 10,000 to 15,000 additional signatures it hadn't provided him as of Tuesday.

Spady said he was hopeful the council would adopt the initiative because the council showed its desire for citizen input when it held a series of budget workshops and forums earlier this year.

Council Chairman Larry Gossett, D-Seattle, said Tuesday he hasn't studied the initiative but will receive a briefing on it this morning.

Councilmember Kathy Lambert, R-Redmond, called the initiative "superfluous" because citizens can watch the County Council on TV and can contact their representatives easily. "I'm not hard to find. None of the nine of us are hard to find," she said.

Redmond used a modified version of the Spady process from 1990 to 1998, holding 13 sets of small-group meetings that involved an average of 450 participants. The tax-funded process ended when a majority on the City Council "thought it had run its course," said chief communications officer Kim van Ekstrom.

Meetings on emergency preparedness drew 1,200 participants, van Ekstrom said.

Initiative 24's Web address is www.easycitizeninvolvement.com.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105

or kervin@seattletimes.com