Mayor Backus is scheduled to attend a meeting of the Regional Transportation System Initiative (RTSI) on Friday, February 2, 2018 and will represent the City of Auburn at this meeting. Mayor Backus has asked staff in advance of this meeting to brief City Council to obtain its input to assist in representing the City’s interest at the February 2nd meeting. Please note that the February 2nd meeting date was recently confirmed after consideration of several other dates.

According to the project website, “The Regional Transportation System Initiative" (RTSI) is jointly convened by King County and the Sound Cities Association to define the regional transportation network and its unmet needs, and to identify ways to improve network performance on the roads, streets and routes that connect communities.” The RTSI project began in March 2017. Two advisory bodies were created for the project: a) a Technical Committee composed of individuals from the incorporated cities of King County, Sound Cities Association, Puget Sound Regional Council, Washington State Department of Transportation, regional transit agencies and King County; and b) an Elected Officials Committee composed of elected officials from King County and cities within King County. The Technical Committee has met 7 times with the most recent meeting occurring on November 3, 2017. Ingrid Gaub and Kevin Snyder have participated in the Technical Committee meetings. The Elected Officials Committee met once in 2017 on June 3, 2017.

To assist Council in providing input, City staff will provide an overview of the RTSI project at the Council’s January 29th study session. Brian Parry, Senior Policy Analyst, Sound Cities Association (the Sound Cities Association staff representative for the RTSI project) will attend the meeting to assist Council and staff in the discussion.