AN ACT Relating to an agricultural irrigation commission; adding a new chapter to Title 15 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This chapter may be known and cited as the Washington state agricultural irrigation commission act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the meanings indicated unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Agricultural commodity" means any distinctive type of agricultural, horticultural, viticultural, floricultural, vegetable, or animal product except timber or timber products.

(2) "Commission" means the agricultural irrigation commission.

(3) "Department" means the department of agriculture.

(4) "Director" means the director of agriculture or the director's designee.

(5) "Irrigated producer" means any producer who purchases electric power in excess of twenty-five thousand kilowatt hours per year for providing irrigation for the production of an agricultural commodity.

(6) "Producer" means any person engaged in the business of producing any agricultural commodity for sale and includes bailees who contract to produce or grow any agricultural product on behalf of a bailor who retains title to the seed and its resulting agricultural product or the agricultural product delivered for further production or increase.

(7) "To produce" means to act as a producer.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The public has an interest in irrigated agriculture within this state. It is the purpose of this chapter to promote the general welfare of the state by enabling irrigated producers to help themselves in establishing efficient, conservation-oriented, cost-effective irrigation practices and fair, sound, cost-based, competitive power rates and to protect the health, peace, safety, and general welfare of the people of this state.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A commission established under this chapter shall have the following powers and duties:

(1) To aid irrigated producers in preventing economic waste and hardship in the production of their agricultural commodities and in developing more efficient methods of irrigating agricultural commodities;

(2) To enable irrigated producers of this state: (a) To provide methods and means for monitoring, conducting studies of, and presenting testimony in conjunction with wholesale power rates, water-related issues, and other rate making procedures, within the constraints of RCW 42.17.190; (b) to research and develop more efficient production methods; (c) to restore and maintain adequate purchasing power for the irrigated producers in this state; (d) to protect the interest of consumers by assuring a sufficient, reasonably priced supply of agricultural products; and (e) to reduce or eliminate the competitive disadvantage of this state's irrigated producers relative to other regions and foreign operations;

(3) To enter into agreements with agencies or associations of other states which have the same objectives as the commission;

(4) To elect a chairman and such other officers as determined advisable;

(5) To adopt rules reasonably necessary for the administration and operation of the commission and the enforcement of its duties under this chapter;

(6) To employ such administrators and additional personnel, research agencies, and other persons and firms that it may deem appropriate;

(7) To acquire personal property and lease office space and other necessary real property and transfer and convey the same;

(8) To institute and maintain in its own name all legal actions, including actions by injunction, mandatory injunction, or civil recovery, or proceedings before administrative tribunals or other governmental authorities necessary to carry out this chapter;

(9) To keep accurate records of all its receipts and disbursements, which records shall be open to inspection and audit by the state auditor at least every five years;

(10) To apply for and receive grants from public or private entities to further the purposes of the commission; and

(11) Such other powers as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Petitions to form the commission shall be signed by not less than fifty of the irrigated producers alleged to be affected and shall be filed with the director. A petition shall be accompanied by a nonrefundable filing fee of one hundred dollars payable to the state treasurer and shall designate a person as attorney-in-fact for the purpose of this section. Upon receipt of a petition, the director shall prepare a budget estimate for handling the petition which shall include the cost of the preparation of the estimate, the cost of the hearings, and the cost of the proposed referendum. The petitioners, within sixty days after receipt of the budget estimate by their attorney-in-fact, shall remit to the director the difference between the filing fee of one hundred dollars and the total budget estimate. Upon formation of the commission, the petitioners shall be reimbursed for the total filing fee from funds of the commission as they become available.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. Upon receipt of a petition to form the commission, the director shall make a list of affected irrigated producers. In making a list of irrigated producers, the director shall publish a notice to irrigated producers affected requiring them to file with the director a report showing the producer's name, mailing address, and the quantity of electrical power consumed by him or her for irrigation purposes in the irrigation season preceding the date of the notice. Such information may also be required from other valid sources including electric utilities. The notice shall be published once a week for two consecutive weeks in such newspaper or newspapers, including a newspaper or newspapers of general circulation within the affected areas, as the director may prescribe, and shall be mailed to all affected producers on record with the director. All reports shall be filed with the director within twenty days from the last date of publication of the notice or within thirty days after the mailing of the notice to affected producers, whichever is later. The director shall keep such lists at all times as current as possible and may require information from affected producers at various times in accordance with rules prescribed by the director.

The irrigated producer list shall be final and conclusive in conducting a referendum of irrigated producers on formation of a commission or elections under this chapter.

The director shall notify all affected irrigated producers on the list, by mail, of the time and place of the public hearing on the proposal to form the commission. The notice shall be given not less than twenty days nor more than sixty days before the hearing.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. A public hearing shall be held on the proposal to form an agricultural irrigation commission in accordance with the administrative procedure act, chapter 34.04 RCW. The director shall receive evidence and testimony offered in support or opposition to the proposed commission. Within thirty days following the public hearing, the director shall make a finding as to whether sufficient support exists to warrant proceeding with the proposed referendum.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. The agricultural irrigation commission shall be formed if (1) at least sixty-five percent by numbers and at least fifty-one percent by volume of power consumed for irrigation purposes by irrigated producers who have been engaged in the irrigated production for market of an agricultural commodity, (2) at least fifty-one percent by numbers and at least sixty-five percent by volume of electrical power consumed, or (3) at least sixty percent by numbers and at least sixty percent by volume of those replying approve the formation. The approval shall be determined by the director by conducting a referendum.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. For the purposes of this chapter, the state is divided into seven districts as follows:

District 1 ... Benton, Klickitat, and Yakima counties

District 2 ... Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, and Asotin Counties

District 3 ... Adams and Whitman counties

District 4 ... Kittitas, Grant, and Franklin counties

District 5 ... Lincoln and Spokane counties

District 6 ... Douglas, Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, and Pend Oreille counties

District 7 ... All other counties not listed above.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. The commission shall consist of nine members. One member shall be elected from each of the districts by secret ballot under the supervision of the director. The member from each district shall be elected by majority vote of the irrigated producers in the district. These seven members must be irrigated producers. The seven members elected from the districts shall appoint, by majority vote, one additional member who shall be a representative of a private utility, public utility district, rural electric association, or other utility authorized to distribute electricity in the state, engaged in the business of providing electrical power to a service area of which the predominant load or end use is for irrigation purposes. Additionally, the director shall appoint one member who is neither an irrigated producer nor a representative of the electrical power interests to represent the department and the public generally.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. The members elected from the districts shall be irrigated producers or officers or employees of a corporation, firm, partnership, association, or cooperative actually engaged in production of irrigated commodities and shall be citizens and residents of this state over the age of twenty-five each of whom is and has been engaged in irrigated production within the state of Washington for three years. The qualification of members of the commission set forth in this section must continue during their terms of office. Failure of any of these qualifications automatically disqualifies the person from continuing to hold office.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. Any member of the commission may also be a member or officer of an association which has the same objectives as the commission. The commission may also contract with such association for services necessary to carry out any purposes authorized under this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 13. The terms of office of the commission members shall be three years, beginning on January 1st of each year or until their successors are elected and qualified. Terms of the office for the initial commission member shall be as follows:

(1) District I and II shall terminate December 31, 1986;

(2) District III and IV shall terminate December 31, 1987;

(3) District V, VI, and VII shall terminate December 31, 1988; and

(4) The member elected by the commission shall terminate December 31, 1987.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 14. (1) If an elected position becomes vacant because of failure to qualify, resignation, disqualification, removal, death, or any other reason, the position shall be filled by majority vote of the remaining members of the commission until an election can be held in the manner provided in section 17 of this act. At this election a member shall be elected to fill the balance of the unexpired term.

(2) If a nonelected position becomes vacant for reasons other than expiration of the term of office, the position shall be filled for the balance of the unexpired term in the same manner as the original appointment.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 15. A member of the commission may be removed by the director for malfeasance, misfeasance, or neglect of duty, after written notice of the charges and an opportunity to be heard publicly.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 16. Members of the commission shall receive compensation in the amount of thirty-five dollars for each day spent in attendance at or in traveling to and from meetings of the commission, or on special assignment for the commission, together with travel expenses in accordance with RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 17. Nomination and elections shall be conducted by the commission under the supervision of the director.

Nomination petitions shall be mailed to all producers in a district notifying them when a vacancy will occur in the position representing that district.

Nomination petitions shall be mailed not earlier than September 1st and not later than October 1st of each year in the district where the vacancy will occur. Nomination petitions shall be signed by not less than five affected producers residing in the district from which such candidate will be elected.

Final date for filing nominations to the director shall not be earlier than October 8th and not later than October 15th of each year.

Ballots shall be mailed to all producers in the district wherein the vacancy will occur not earlier than October 15th and not later than November 1st. Ballots shall be returned to the director not later than December 1st of such year. With respect to the initial commission, the director shall call for nominations and elections as soon as practical after passage of the referendum.

Members of the commission shall be elected by a majority of votes cast by the irrigated producers residing in the district, each producer being entitled to one vote. The ballot for the election of commission members shall be kept secret. If a nominee does not receive a majority of the votes on the first ballot, a run-off election shall be held by mail in a similar manner between the two candidates for the position who received the largest number of votes.

When only one nominee is nominated for any position on the board, that nominee shall be considered to satisfy the requirements of the position and shall be considered to be duly elected.

In establishing a list of producers, the director shall use the most current and complete list on file in the department.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 18. (1) Upon approval of the referendum to form the commission as provided in section 8 of this act, the commission shall meet as soon as practicable for the purpose of organizing. Thereafter the commission shall meet at least once every three months at such time and place as shall be fixed by resolution of the commission.

(2) The commission shall hold an annual meeting for the presentation of an annual report and proposed budget. The commission shall notify affected irrigated producers of the time and place of the annual meeting by mail at least thirty days prior to the meeting.

(3) The commission shall establish, by resolution, the time, place, and manner of calling special meetings. Reasonable notice of such meetings shall be given to each commission member and to the public.

(4) Five members shall constitute a quorum. Any action taken by the commission shall require the majority vote of the members present.

(5) The procedure followed by the commission shall be governed in all applicable respects by chapter 34.04 RCW.

(6) The commission shall, by resolution, establish and maintain an office where books, records, and minutes shall be kept.

(7) All meetings of the commission shall be conducted in accordance with the open public meetings act, chapter 42.30 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 19. The commission may assess each irrigated producer up to .00075 mills per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed for irrigation purposes to be collected by the utility distributing the electricity. The commission shall contract with local utilities for reimbursement for reasonable costs incurred in the collection of this assessment. Reimbursement for costs of collection shall not exceed two percent of the revenue derived from the assessments.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 20. Moneys collected by the commission under this chapter shall be used by the commission only for the purposes of this chapter.

Upon the termination of the commission any moneys remaining with the commission and not required to defray expenses or repay obligations incurred by the commission shall be returned to the affected irrigated producers in proportion to the assessments paid by them in the two-year period preceding the date of termination.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 21. The commission shall establish a fund outside the state treasury into which shall be deposited all moneys received under this chapter. The fund shall be maintained in a public depository. Disbursements from the fund shall be on authorization of the commission, but no appropriation is required for disbursements.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 22. If any person fails to pay the full amount of any assessment or other sum on or before the due date, the commission may add to the unpaid assessment or sum an amount not exceeding twelve percent of the amount due. The commission may collect delinquent assessments by civil action.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 23. Upon request of the director, the commission shall reimburse the department for actual expenses and costs incurred under this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 24. The commission shall terminate at the end of any calendar year if the director finds that fifty-one percent of the affected irrigated producers and fifty-one percent by volume of production of the affected irrigated producers favor termination. The director shall make this determination whenever twenty percent by numbers or twenty percent by volume of electrical consumption of the affected irrigated producers petition the director for termination. The director shall make the determination by conducting a referendum.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 25. Any person who violates any provision of this chapter or any rule adopted under this chapter is subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars for each violation.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 26. All rules adopted under this chapter and all proceedings held by the director to form or dissolve the commission shall be in accordance with chapter 34.04 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 27. The remedies provided in this chapter are in addition to any other remedies provided by law.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 28. Sections 1 through 27 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 15 RCW.