HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  HB 2244

                    As Passed Legislature

Title:  An act relating to classifications of cities and towns.

Brief Description:  Changing provisions relating to classification of cities and towns.

Sponsors:  Representatives Dunshee, Horn, H. Myers and Springer.

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Local Government, February 1, 1994, DP;

Passed House, February 8, 1994, 94-0;

  Passed Legislature.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 11 members:  Representatives H. Myers, Chair; Springer, Vice Chair; Edmondson, Ranking Minority Member; Reams, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Dunshee; R. Fisher; Horn; Moak; Rayburn; Van Luven and Zellinsky.

Staff:  Steve Lundin (786-7127).

Background:  A variety of different types of cities and towns may be created, including first class cities, second class cities, third class cities, towns, unclassified cities operating under territorial charters, and code cities.  No second class cities exist.

Perhaps the most fundamental difference in statutes relating to different classes of cities and towns involves the array of elected officials for the class of city or town.  Noncode cities and towns have a mayor/council plan of government, with different arrays of elected officials, unless the noncode city opts to have a council manager plan of government or a commission plan of government or a town opts to have a council manager plan of government.

Any noncode city or town may become a code city and choose to retain its own array of elected officials or may have the array of elected officials provided in code city statutes.  Any code city may opt to have an array of elected officials that any other class of city or town may have.  Hoquium is a code city that has chosen to retain its old array of elected officials as a second class city.

Legislation was enacted in 1959 removing a town from any metropolitan park district and prohibiting a metropolitan park district from including a town.  This change removed Fircrest from the Tacoma Metropolitan Park District.

Summary of Bill:  Every third class city becomes a second class city.  Many statutes relating to second class cities are altered by changing the term "third class" to "second class" and are recodified in second class city statutes.  Many second class city statutes are repealed.  General statutes that refer to a string of different classes of cities are altered to eliminate the reference to third class cities.

Statutes relating the array of elected officials in a third class city are retained and become the array of elected officials for a second class city.  However, existing statutes relating to the array of elected officials in a second class city with a mayor/council plan of government are retained, limited only to any code city that opted to retain such an array of elected officials, and are recodified at the end of second class city statutes.

Code city statutes are amended to more clearly state that any noncode city or town that becomes a code city may retain its old array of elected officials in lieu of the array of elected officials provided in code city statutes.  The option of any code city to change its plan of government to any plan of government and different array of elected officials of any other type of noncode city is eliminated.

Statutes are clarified as to how a noncode city or town may change its class to another type of noncode city or town as the population of the noncode city or town changes.

References to municipal corporations of the fourth class, or fourth class cities, are changed to towns.

The definitions of different classes of noncode cities and towns are clarified to acknowledge that a first class city is a noncode city with a population of 10,000 or more that has adopted a city charter.

Statutes creating commissions with membership distributed among officials of different classes of noncode cities and towns are altered to distribute the officials among cities or towns with different arrays of population that are associated with the classes of noncode cities and towns used in the statutes.

The 1959 statutes are repealed detailing how assets are distributed to a town that is removed from a metropolitan park district as a result of other 1959 statutes removing towns from a metropolitan park district.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  This cleans up unneeded statutes.  This is a technical bill.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Jim Justin, Association of Washington Cities.