Lake Forest Park, Washington

Coffee with the Mayor (City of Lake Forest Park)

Problem

Low trust stalls collaboration, leadership emergence, and shared risk-taking.

Solution

Coffee with the Mayor is a Saturday-morning, roughly one- to ninety-minute informal session in the Council Chambers at Lake Forest Park City Hall where residents and business owners can raise concerns or comments with the mayor over coffee. Mayor Jeff Johnson announced it in fall 2016 as a monthly event and held sessions through at least March 2023; his successor Tom French announced its restart in February 2024. Lake Forest Park is a King County city of 13,630 (2020) with a strong-mayor government.

Patterns used: Trust Infrastructure

Read more success stories