HOUSE BILL REPORT

ESSB 5020

BYSenate Committee on Governmental Operations (originally sponsored by Senators McCaslin, Lee, West and Stratton)

Authorizing creation of five-member board of county commissioners.

House Committe on Local Government

Majority Report:  Do pass.  (8)

      Signed by Representatives Cooper, Vice Chair; Beck, Dorn, Ferguson, Nealey, Nutley, Rayburn and Zellinsky.

Minority Report:  Do not pass.  (3)

      Signed by Representatives Haugen, Chair; Jones and Nelson.

House Staff:Steve Lundin (786-7127)

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT FEBRUARY 19, 1988

BACKGROUND:

Article XI, Section 5, Washington State Constitution requires the Legislature "by general and uniform laws" to provide for the election of various officials for county government, including a board of commissioners.  Article XI, Section 4, Washington State Constitution provides that "the Legislature shall establish a system of county government, which shall be uniform throughout the state."

Under statutory law, each county must have a three-member board of commissioners, the members of which serve staggered four-year terms.  County commissioners are nominated from commissioner districts in primary elections, but elected county-wide, at general elections.

Article XI, Section 10, Washington State Constitution, allows any county to frame and adopt a county "home rule" charter that can restructure county government.  Such a charter may provide for a legislative authority that differs from the three member board of commissioners in a noncharter county.  Home rule charters have been adopted in the five following counties:  King, Pierce, Snohomish, Whatcom and Clallam.  The changes in county government in these charters range from almost no change in the Clallam County charter to numerous changes in others of these charters.

Spokane County at present has an estimated population of 354,300.  Clark County at present has an estimated population of 203,400.

Article II, Section 15, Washington State Constitution, provides that a vacancy on a board of county commissioners is filled by appointment of the board from a list of three nominees made by the central committee of the political party of the person whose position has become vacant.  If an appointment has not been made after sixty days, the authority to make the appointment reverts to the governor.  A statute provides that if there are two vacancies, the governor makes one appointment, and the two commissioners make the second appointment.

SUMMARY:

A noncharter county with a population greater than 210,000 (i.e., Spokane County) may alter its board of commissioners from three members to five members.  The expansion may be initiated by resolution of the existing board of commissioners or by petition by at least 10 percent of the county voters voting at the last general election.  An expansion is authorized by a simple majority vote of the county voters at a general election approving a ballot proposition providing for the expansion.

Each member of a five-member commissioner board would be nominated by the voters of his or her commissioner district, but elected in county-wide elections for a staggered four year-term.  Three members of the board would constitute a quorum to do business.

Once the five-member board of commissioners is approved, the existing board must create the five new commissioner districts by the second Monday of the following March.  If the new commissioner districts have not been created by the second Tuesday of March in that year, the prosecuting attorney of the county is directed to petition the superior court to appoint a referee to establish the new commissioner districts.  The referee must draw the district lines by June 1st of that year.  No two existing commissioners may reside in the same district.  The two districts within which no current commissioner resides are numbered districts four and five.

Nominations from commissioner districts number four and five are made at the succeeding primary election, and two commissioners from these districts are elected at the next succeeding general election.  The terms of the persons who are initially elected to positions four and five are two years and four years, respectively, if the election is held in an even-numbered year, and one year and three years, respectively, if the election is held in an odd-numbered year.

A vacancy-filling procedure is established that parallels the current provisions for filling vacancies on three-member boards.  If the five-member board has three or more vacancies, the Governor appoints a member or members until there are three commissioners.  Whenever there are two vacancies, the three members appoint someone to fill one position.  The four commissioners then appoint someone to fill the last vacant position.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Senator McCaslin, Prime Sponsor.

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    Give the people a chance to vote.  They may not approve this.  Uniformity is in the eye of the beholder.  The Spokane Valley needs representation on the Board of County Commissioners, but the commissioners won't redistrict.  The valley is split in half by the existing county commissioner district boundaries.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      This is a local problem that can be solved at home by either redistricting the commissioner districts or adopting a home rule charter that increases the number of members on the county legislative authority.  This may be unconstitutional.