The Covington City Council received a pre‑session briefing Tuesday from Emily Shea, the city’s state lobbyist with Gordon Thomas Honeywell, who reviewed the 2026 legislative calendar, the state budget process, and a set of draft city priorities for consideration.

Shea said 2026 is the second year of the biennium and a 60‑day “supplemental” session in which the legislature typically makes adjustments to the adopted biennial budgets rather than proposing sweeping new budgets. She noted the composition of the legislature will remain similar to 2025, described the governor’s review timeline for agency requests, and flagged ongoing discussions about tax policy and potential special sessions tied to federal funding changes.

On municipal priorities, Shea presented a draft legislative agenda and policy manual prepared with city staff. Staff asked council to approve the list of priorities while acknowledging language in the document will be refined as items develop. Key priorities presented included:

- Capital: a request for $723,000 from the 2026 capital budget for locker‑room and family‑changing‑room renovations at the city’s aquatic center; the total project is estimated at about $1.5 million and staff said about half of that funding is already secured through a King County grant.

- Transportation: continued advocacy for State Route 18 and for maintenance and preservation funding statewide; Shea said constrained transportation revenues delayed projects and the legislature allocated $15 million for SR‑18 in 2027 in the final statewide budget.

- Public safety and public defense: staff requested guidance and state assistance to implement new training and public‑defense standards, noting contract cities face challenges meeting some statutory or administrative requirements and that indigent‑defense caseload standards will create implementation demands.

- Policy manual: a standing list of issues where the city will weigh in for or against bills, including housing reporting and growth‑management guidance and collaboration with the Department of Commerce.

Councilmembers asked about prioritization, likely request sizes, and coalition building; staff said the city typically targets smaller supplemental requests (roughly $500,000–$750,000) in a supplemental year and relies on coalitions and associations such as the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) and the Sound Cities Association to advance shared asks. Shea and staff said they would refine language, prepare one‑pagers for individual asks as they firm up, and schedule pre‑session briefings with legislators in November and December.

What’s next: staff asked council for direction and said they will bring the final legislative agenda back for formal adoption after edits and formatting.