Months of preparation, planning and teamwork has gone into the development of the legislative priorities for the cities of Covington, Maple Valley and Black Diamond.

All three city councils met last summer to talk about their common interests.

Black Diamond city administrator Gwen Voelpel said that while her city’s agenda is relatively light this year, significant work needs to be done to the transportation infrastructure that runs through the three cities.

“It’s important for us to work with our neighboring cities at this point in our development” Voelpel said in an e-mail. “We understand the impact future development in Black Diamond will have on the transportation network in other cities. It is important for the cities to continue to look at more creative ways to deal with transportation needs in coming years.”

Transportation is at the top of the lists for all three cities with particular focus on Maple Valley Highway and Kent Kangley Road as well as pushing for funding for a commuter rail concept called Diesel Multiple Units that could connect them to Auburn’s Sounder Rail station.

Covington City Council members met with Rep. Pat Sullivan, D-47th Legislative District which includes Covington, on Jan. 5 to give the house member a heads up on what they hope for out of the session.

“This is a first for us,” said Mayor Margaret Harto. “We always travel down to Olympia around Valentine’s Day. We said, ‘Why don’t we do this before hand.’ We’re trying to look externally and not just internally.”

Over dinner they talked about Covington’s agenda and not just for state money but for requests the city will submit to the federal government to get funds from the stimulus package expected later this year.

Councilman Wayne Snoey is particularly enthusiastic about the DMU concept.

“The transportation centers in Auburn, Kent and Tukwila are overflowing,” Snoey said. “The reality is that a lot of those vehicles are coming from this area. We need the transit centers even if DMU doesn’t exist.”

Snoey is serving on a local committee made up of council members from all three cities as well Pete Lewis, mayor of Auburn, and John Wise, mayor of Enumclaw.

Maple Valley will lead the push to get $600,000 from the state to study DMU commuter rail.

Passenger service used to exist on the Stampede Pass line years ago and cities in this part of the county would like to see DMUs run on them again to link commuters to other existing transit like the Sounder rail line that runs through the Kent Valley.

Diesel Mechanical Units are self-propelled passenger rail cars with one engine hauling a single passenger car.

The first phase would put stations in Covington and Maple Valley and run to Auburn with the potential to eventually link to Kittitas County as well as add stations in Black Diamond and Enumclaw later on.

In addition to finding new and creative ways to get people to work, city officials are looking for ways to improve existing roads, while Covington wants to make sure the $700,000 for the design and construction of the first phase of the Southeast 180th Street/240th Avenue Southeast park project is re-appropriated.

This park site is near Tahoma High School. Covington spent several months working through the master planning process to come up with a final design for the project. It could potentially replace existing ball fields at Tahoma High if the Tahoma School District builds a performing arts center there.

Sullivan said that the budget will tight and getting requests for capital improvement projects will be tough but he’s cautiously optimistic about the park money.

“We’re going to push for the the park,” Sullivan said. “It’s a lot easier to keep it in than to try and get it in (as a new request).”

Covington officials also hope to work with legislators to find ways to work on economic development.

City Manager Derek Matheson said Covington also made another strategic decision for the first time — it hired a lobbyist.

“The Association of Washington Cities’ lobbyists have represented cities’ interests for many years, but it is becoming more common for individual cities to hire lobbyists to emphasize their individual interests and funding requests,” Matheson said. The Covington City Council felt it was especially important to have a full time presence in Olympia during a session in which the Legislature will have to close a $5 billion-plus budget deficit.”

Matheson said the city used a competitive process to hire lobbyist Dick Little, who will be paid $16,000 plus expenses to represent the city in Olympia as well as work on the city’s behalf in Washington, D.C. as it attempts to get federal economic stimulus funds.

Maple Valley has also submitted a number of requests from the federal economic stimulus package with the top priority being improvements at the intersection of Witte Road and Southeast 248th Street.

On one corner of that intersection is the Maple Valley Library and on another corner is the Greater Maple Valley Community Center.

City officials will be requesting money for a number of other improvements around Maple Valley from both the state and the federal government.

According to information provided by Christy Todd, interim city manager, Maple Valley will lead the advocacy efforts for SR 516 – 207th Place SE to Witte Road SE; Black Diamond will lead the advocacy efforts for SR 169 – Roberts Drive to Jones Lake Road; and Covington will lead the advocacy efforts for SR 516 – Wax Road to 185th Avenue SE.