_______________________________________________
HOUSE
BILL 1583
_______________________________________________
AS
AMENDED BY THE SENATE
Passed
Legislature - 1995 Regular Session
State of Washington 54th
Legislature 1995 Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/31/95.
Referred to Committee on Government Operations.
Changing
whistleblower provisions.
AN ACT
Relating to local government whistleblower reporting; and amending RCW
42.41.030.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE
OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
42.41.030 and 1992 c 44 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
Every local government employee has the right to report to the appropriate
person or persons information concerning an alleged improper governmental
action.
(2)
The governing body or chief administrative officer of each local government
shall adopt a policy on the appropriate procedures to follow for reporting such
information and shall provide information to their employees on the policy.
Local governments are encouraged to consult with their employees on the policy.
(3)
The policy shall describe the appropriate person or persons within the local
government to whom to report information and a list of appropriate person or
persons outside the local government to whom to report. The list shall include
the county prosecuting attorney.
(4)
Each local government shall permanently post a summary of the procedures for
reporting information on an alleged improper governmental action and the
procedures for protection against retaliatory actions described in RCW
42.41.040 in a place where all employees will have reasonable access to it. A
copy of the summary shall be made available to any employee upon request.
(5)
A local government may require as part of its policy that, except in the case
of an emergency, before an employee provides information of an improper
governmental action to a person or an entity who is not a public official or a
person listed pursuant to subsection (3) of this section, the employee shall
submit a written report to the local government. Where a local government has
adopted such a policy under this section, an employee who fails to make a good
faith attempt to follow the policy shall not receive the protections of this
chapter. (6) If a local government has failed to adopt a policy as
required by subsection (2) of this section, an employee may report alleged
improper government action directly to the county prosecuting attorney or, if
the prosecuting attorney or an employee of the prosecuting attorney
participated in the alleged improper government action, to the state auditor.
The cost incurred by the state auditor in such investigations shall be paid by
the local government through the municipal revolving account authorized in RCW
43.09.282.
(7)
The identity of a reporting employee shall be kept confidential to the extent
possible under law, unless the employee authorizes the disclosure of his or her
identity in writing.
