Today, we are very hap­py to announce that King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci will be the open­ing speak­er at our 2017 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala, which will take place April 29th at the Mer­cer Island Com­mu­ni­ty & Event Center.

A for­mer Belle­vue City Coun­cilmem­ber, Clau­dia joined the King Coun­ty Coun­cil last year fol­low­ing her over­whelm­ing 2015 vic­to­ry over entrenched Repub­li­can Jane Hague. She rep­re­sents much of the East­side on the coun­ty coun­cil, includ­ing most of Kirk­land, the major­i­ty of Belle­vue, all of Mer­cer Island, the Points com­mu­ni­ties, and precincts in Red­mond, Wood­inville, and Bothell.

Like the team at NPI, Clau­dia has worked for years to advance the cause of tran­sit for all. She was instru­men­tal in help­ing the City of Belle­vue and Sound Tran­sit reach an agree­ment on the align­ment for East Link light rail, which is now under con­struc­tion. Clau­dia is present­ly one of eigh­teen mem­bers of the Sound Tran­sit Board of Direc­tors, chaired by Sno­homish Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dave Somers.

In addi­tion to par­tic­i­pat­ing in Sound Tran­sit’s gov­er­nance, Clau­dia chairs the Region­al Tran­sit Com­mit­tee for the King Coun­ty Council.

King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci prais­es Sound Tran­sit CEO Emer­i­tus Joni Earl for mak­ing East Link happen

A post shared by NPI (@nwprogressive) on Apr 22, 2016 at 11:41am PDT

Like the coun­cil’s oth­er eight mem­bers, she spends much of her time work­ing on issues like flood con­trol, pub­lic plan­ning, and low­er­ing bar­ri­ers to vot­ing.

A ded­i­cat­ed pro­po­nent of bet­ter pub­lic health and com­mu­ni­ty well-being, Clau­dia sup­port­ed and con­tributed lan­guage to the ordi­nance approved last year that imple­ments King Coun­ty’s vot­er-approved Best Starts for Kids ini­tia­tive.

Clau­dia under­stands the chal­lenges and impor­tance of gov­ern­ing from a region­al per­spec­tive. While we here in the Pacif­ic North­west cher­ish our tra­di­tion of home rule, we’re not going to get our schools ful­ly fund­ed or secure tran­sit for all at the city lev­el, school dis­trict lev­el, or coun­ty lev­el. Region­al prob­lems require region­al coop­er­a­tion to solve. Clau­dia will speak to the impor­tance of work­ing across polit­i­cal bound­aries to sur­mount thorny obsta­cles, includ­ing bar­ri­ers to health­care access.

If you haven’t yet bought your tick­et to our 2017 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala yet, we urge you to do so now. A house­hold tick­et admits all the mem­bers of an imme­di­ate fam­i­ly and is a good val­ue if you plan to attend with your spouse or chil­dren. (The gala is a fam­i­ly-friend­ly event, and young peo­ple of all ages are welcome!).

These are our tick­et rates:

• Indi­vid­ual ($75, admits one person)
• House­hold ($120, admits an entire family)
• Liv­ing Light­ly ($25, for stu­dents and activists on lim­it­ed incomes)

Here’s what else you can expect at our 2017 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala:

• A full din­ner buf­fet with veg­e­tar­i­an and veg­an choices
• Beer and wine selec­tions from our cash bar
• Oppor­tu­ni­ties to min­gle with fel­low activists and elect­ed leaders
• A chance to win a scrump­tious dessert for your table at our sec­ond annu­al Dessert Dash, orga­nized by our Host Committee
• A fam­i­ly-friend­ly atmosphere

If you’d like to RSVP for the gala on Face­book, you can do so here.

Stu­dents who want to vol­un­teer to help put on the event can get in the door free. If you’re inter­est­ed in vol­un­teer­ing, please get in touch with us.

In the days to come, we’ll be shar­ing more details about our 2017 gala, includ­ing the names of our oth­er speak­ers. We hope you’ll help us make our biggest event of the year a suc­cess by buy­ing your tick­et and com­mit­ting to attend.

See you on April 29th!