S-0596.1  _______________________________________________

                         SENATE BILL 5127

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2001 Regular Session

By Senators Prentice, Patterson, McAuliffe and McDonald

Read first time 01/11/2001.  Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce & Financial Institutions.

Determining the number of unclassified personnel in the sheriff's office.

    AN ACT Relating to determining the number of unclassified personnel in the sheriff's office; and amending RCW 41.14.070.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 41.14.070 and 1997 c 62 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) The classified civil service and provisions of this chapter shall include all deputy sheriffs and other employees of the office of sheriff in each county except the county sheriff in every county and an additional number of positions, designated the unclassified service, determined as follows:

                                       Unclassified

           Staff Personnel                       Position Appointments

          1     through 10                        2

         11     through 20                        3

         21     through 50                        4

         51     through 100                       5

        101     ((and over)) through 250          6

251 through 500 8

501 and over 10

    (2) The unclassified position appointments authorized by this section must include selections from the following positions up to the limit of the number of positions authorized:  Undersheriff, inspector, chief criminal deputy, chief civil deputy, jail superintendent, and administrative assistant or administrative secretary.  The initial selection of specific positions to be exempt shall be made by the sheriff, who shall notify the civil service commission of his or her selection.  Subsequent changes in the designation of which positions are to be exempt may be made only with the concurrence of the sheriff and the civil service commission, and then only after the civil service commission has heard the issue in open meeting.  Should the position or positions initially selected by the sheriff to be exempt (unclassified) pursuant to this section be under the classified civil service at the time of such selection, and should it (or they) be occupied, the employee(s) occupying said position(s) shall have the right to return to the next highest position or a like position under classified civil service.

    (3) In counties with a sheriff's department that operates the 911 emergency communications system, in addition to the unclassified positions authorized in subsections (1), (2), and (4) of this section, the sheriff may designate one unclassified position for the 911 emergency communications system.

    (4) In addition to the unclassified positions authorized in this section, the county legislative authority of any county with a population of five hundred thousand or more operating under a home rule charter may designate unclassified positions of administrative responsibility not to exceed ((twelve)) twenty positions.

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