AN ACT Relating to provision of a process to alter local governments; adding a new chapter to Title 36 RCW; adding new sections to chapter 43.63A RCW; adding a new section to chapter 46.68 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 66.08 RCW; adding new sections to chapter 82.14 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 82.44 RCW; and providing a contingent effective date.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The purpose of this act is to partially implement the provisions of Article XI, section 17 (HJR 4227), of the Washington state Constitution by establishing a citizens' review process and incentives by which proposals to alter local governments can be developed and presented to voters for their approval or rejection. The citizens' review process is in addition to other processes included in the state Constitution and statutes for considering alterations of local governments, alteration of county governments, or alteration of city governments, including but not limited to those processes contained in Article XI, sections 4, 10, and 16 of the state Constitution.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "City" means any city or town, including any city operating under Title 35A RCW.

(2) "Citizens' review process" means the process to alter local governments established by this chapter.

(3) "Department" means the department of community development.

(4) "Director" means the director of community development.

(5) "Local government" means any county, city, or special district.

(6) "Special district" means any municipal or quasi- municipal corporation in the state, other than a county, city, or school district.

(7) "Temporary citizens' review committee" means a temporary committee created pursuant to this chapter in a county, or multicounty area, to review local governments and make proposals as it finds appropriate to alter local governments that are submitted to the voters for their approval or rejection.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The citizens' review process may be invoked in any county with the creation of a temporary citizens' review committee to review local governments within the county and, as it finds appropriate, present proposals to the voters for their approval or rejection by any of the following mutually exclusive procedures:

(1) A temporary citizens' review committee shall be created directly upon the presentation of a petition to the county legislative authority of the county calling for the creation of the temporary committee, which petition has been signed by county voters equal in number to at least ten percent of the number of county voters who voted at the last general election in the county. The county legislative authority of the county shall call special elections to nominate and elect persons to the directly elected positions on a temporary citizens' review committee whenever such a valid petition has been submitted, with the nominating special election being held at the next special election date occurring at least ninety days after the petition was submitted and the special election to elect such persons being held at the next special election date occurring at least forty days after the date the special election was held to make such nominations.

(2) A temporary citizens' review committee shall be created directly upon the adoption of a resolution by the county legislative authority of the county calling for the creation of the temporary committee. The county legislative authority of the county shall call special elections to nominate and elect persons to the directly elected positions on a temporary citizens' review committee whenever, with the nominating special election being held at the next special election date occurring at least ninety days after this resolution was adopted and the special election to elect such persons being held at the next special election date occurring at least forty days after the date the special election was held to make such nominations.

(3) A special election shall be called at which a ballot proposition is submitted to the voters of the county on whether or not a temporary citizens' review committee shall be created upon: (a) The adoption of a resolution by the county legislative authority of the county calling for the submission of such a ballot proposition; or (b) the adoption of a resolution or resolutions by the council or councils of the city or cities located within the county, that include at least fifty percent of the total population of the county residing within cities, calling for the submission of such a ballot proposition. The county legislative authority of the county shall call a special election to consider this ballot proposition at the next special election date occurring at least forty-five days after such a resolution has been adopted. If the ballot proposition is approved, the county legislative authority of the county shall call special elections to nominate and elect persons to the directly elected positions on a temporary citizens' review committee, with the nominating special election being held at the next special election date occurring at least ninety days after the election at which the ballot proposition was approved and the special election to elect such persons being held at the next special election date occurring at least forty days after the date the special election was held to make such nominations.

(4) The county legislative authority of each county shall call special elections to nominate and elect persons to a temporary citizens' review committee with the special election to nominate candidates for such positions at the following general elections: (a) The 1998 primary election, if the citizens' review process has not been invoked in the county prior to this election; and (b) the first primary election occurring ten years after a citizens' review committee last was created, or ten years after the last ballot proposition was submitted to the voters on whether or not a temporary citizens' review committee should be created, whichever occurs later. The election to elect persons to the citizens' review committee shall be held at the general election following this primary election.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A ballot proposition submitted pursuant to section 3(3) of this act shall be worded substantially as follows:

"Shall a temporary citizens' review committee be created to review local governments within .......... [insert the name of the county] and possibly submit proposals for altering local governments to voters for their approval or rejection?"

If the proposition is approved by an affirmative vote of a majority of the county voters voting on the proposition, the county legislative authority shall provide for the creation of the temporary citizens' review committee.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A temporary citizens' review committee shall be composed of both persons elected directly to the committee, and local governmental elected officials appointed to the committee to act in an advisory capacity, as follows:

(1) In counties with a population of one million or more, the temporary citizens' review committee shall consist of thirty-one persons as follows: (a) Eighteen shall be elected directly to the committee; (b) three shall be county elected officials who are appointed to the committee; (c) six shall be city elected officials who are appointed to the committee; (d) three shall be special district elected officials who are appointed to the committee; and (e) one shall be either a county elected official who shall be appointed to the committee, if fifty percent or more of the total county population resides in the unincorporated area of the county, or a city elected official who shall be appointed to the committee, if less than fifty percent of the total county population resides in the unincorporated area of the county. The distribution of local government elected officials may be altered as provided in section 7(3) of this act if one or more categories of special district do not exist within the county.

(2) In counties with a population of from fifty thousand to less than one million, the temporary citizens' review committee shall consist of twenty-five persons as follows: (a) Fifteen shall be elected directly to the committee; (b) three shall be county elected officials who are appointed to the committee; (c) three shall be city elected officials who are appointed to the committee; (d) three shall be special district elected officials who are appointed to the committee; and (e) one shall be either a county elected official who is appointed to the committee, if fifty percent or more of the total county population resides in the unincorporated area of the county, or a city elected official who is appointed to the committee, if less than fifty percent of the total county population resides in the unincorporated area of the county. The distribution of local government elected officials may be altered as provided in section 7(3) of this act if one or more categories of special district do not exist within the county.

(3) In counties with a population of less than fifty thousand, the temporary citizens' review committee shall consist of fifteen persons as follows: (a) Nine shall be elected directly to the committee; (b) two shall be county elected officials who are appointed to the committee; (c) two shall be city elected officials who are appointed to the committee; and (d) two of whom shall be special district elected officials who are appointed to the committee. The distribution of local government elected officials may be altered as provided in section 7(3) of this act if one or more categories of special district do not exist within the county.

The populations used to calculate such membership shall be obtained from the latest census figures of the United States census bureau or the latest estimate by the office of financial management, whichever is the most recently compiled.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. Each directly elected position on a temporary citizens' review committee shall be numbered consecutively from one to eighteen, fifteen, or nine, depending on the number of directly elected positions. Each candidate for such a position shall file for a numbered position. A special election shall be scheduled to nominate two persons for each elective position and another special election shall be scheduled to elect one of the two nominated persons to each position.

The number of directly elected positions that is evenly divided by the number of county legislative authority districts in the county, if any exist, shall be assigned to each county legislative authority district, and the persons filing for such positions must reside within the county legislative authority district associated with the directly elected committee position. Persons who are elected directly to a temporary citizens' review committee position that is so associated with a county legislative authority district shall be nominated and elected by the voters of the county legislative authority district.

Any person filing as a candidate for any directly elected temporary citizens' review committee positions that are not so assigned to a county legislative authority district shall be a resident of the county, and the nomination and election of persons to such positions shall be on a county-wide, at-large, basis.

Elected officials may run for directly elected temporary citizens' review committee positions if otherwise qualified.

A person may be a candidate for both a directly elected temporary citizens' review committee position and other elective office at the same election.

Any vacancy in a directly elected position shall be filled by action of the directly elected members of the temporary citizens' review committee.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. (1) The county legislative authority of the county shall appoint sufficient county elected officials to represent the county in this advisory capacity. However, the executive of a charter county shall appoint the elected officials to represent the county in the manner the executive is authorized to make appointments, if the charter provides for an executive and grants the executive the general authority to make appointments. These appointees may be any members of the county legislative authority or other county elected officials.

(2) The mayors of the cities that are located all or partially within the county shall establish a procedure to appoint from their number sufficient city elected official positions to represent cities in this advisory capacity. Due regard shall be made in these appointments to the population of the various cities and the geographic location of the cities within the county, so that city elected officials are appointed in some relationship to the population of the cities from which the appointees are selected and the geographic dispersion of such cities.

(3) The three special district elected officials who are appointed to represent special districts in counties with fifty thousand or more population shall be selected as follows: (a) One commissioner of a port district or public utility district located all or partially within the county, if any exist, who is selected by the commissioners of such port districts and public utility districts; (b) one special district elected official, who is directly elected to the governing body of a sewer district, water district, or irrigation district that provides potable water service or sanitary sewer service within the county and is located all or partially within the county, if any exist, shall be selected by the elected officials of such special districts; and (c) one fire commissioner of a fire district, or one director of a library district, located all or partially within the county, who shall be selected by the fire commissioners of such fire districts and directors of such library districts.

The two special district elected officials who are appointed to represent special districts in counties with less than fifty thousand population shall be selected as follows: (a) One commissioner of a port district, public utility district, or a sewer district, water district, or irrigation district that provides potable water service or sanitary sewer service within the county, and which is located all or partially within the county, if any exist, shall be selected by the commissioners of such special districts; and (b) one fire commissioner of a fire district, or one director of a library district, located all or partially within the county, who shall be selected by the fire commissioners of all such fire districts and directors of such library districts.

The county legislative authority of the county shall appoint a local elected official to serve on the temporary citizens' review committee for each category of representation of the type or types of special districts, as set forth in this subsection, that are not located all or partially in the county. Such an appointee can be an additional county elected official, city elected official, or special district official.

(4) Any vacancy in an appointed position shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. The county legislative authority of each county shall convene a meeting of the temporary citizens' review committee. Only citizen members who are elected directly to the temporary citizens' review committee may vote on any matter, and the local government elected officials who are chosen as members of the committee to represent local governments act in an advisory capacity only and shall not have a vote on the committee.

A citizen member who is elected directly to the committee shall be elected as the chair of the committee for any term established by the committee.

Any action by a temporary citizens' review committee in electing a chair, adopting procedural rules, adopting any proposal that is to be submitted to the voters for their approval or rejection, or disbanding the committee shall be by approval of a majority of the entire committee members.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. (1) A temporary citizens' review committee may propose any ballot proposition to the voters of the county or an area less than county-wide that can be answered in the affirmative or negative. Any proposal may be cast in the form of a charter, an amendment to an existing charter, or any other specific alternative or ballot proposition to which the voters can respond with an affirmative or negative vote, including an affirmative or negative vote on a general concept for further study or planning and later formulation into a specific ballot proposition. Where appropriate, voters may be offered a ballot proposition providing for the acceptance or rejection of a general change, together with the making of subsequent choices between two or more options implementing the general change, where, if the general ballot proposition is approved, the option receiving the most approval controls.

(2) A proposal may provide for any change in local governments located within the county, including the dissolution or disincorporation of a local government, the transfer of powers or authorities between local governments, the transfer of revenues between local governments in relationship to their obligations for providing facilities and services, the consolidation of local governments, or the creation of new units of local government, including any changes authorized under Article XI, section 16 of the state Constitution, except that school districts shall not be affected by any change. Such transfers of revenue could include, but are not limited to: (a) Tax-base sharing; (b) reallocating the distribution of state collected tax receipts that are distributed to the county and cities within the county pursuant to RCW 46.68.100 through 46.68.124, 66.08.200, 66.08.210, and 82.44.150; (c) reallocating the sales tax equalization receipts provided for in RCW 82.14.200 and 82.14.210 for which the county and cities within the county are eligible; (d) altering or eliminating the percentage of a city's sales and use tax receipts that are distributed to the county pursuant to RCW 82.14.030(2); and (e) altering the rate of a city's sales and use taxes that are imposed under RCW 82.14.030(1), not to exceed a rate of five-tenths of one percent.

(3) Any proposal for voter action shall be forwarded to the county legislative authority of the county at least one hundred twenty days before the general election at which it will be considered by the voters. The county legislative authority of the county shall cause the proposal or proposals to be placed upon the ballot at this general election to be considered county- wide, or in a less than county-wide area if specified by the citizens' review committee.

(4) Any proposed change must be approved by a simple majority of the voters in the entire area to which the proposal is submitted who vote on the proposal. However, any portion of a proposal that provides for the dissolution or disincorporation of a local government shall not be effective even with this simple majority approval if the vote of the voters who vote on the proposition, and who reside in the geographic area encompassing the boundaries of the local government or governments proposed to be dissolved or disincorporated, disapprove of the proposal by a sixty percent or larger margin.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. A temporary citizens' review committee is not required to make any proposed changes to local governments within the county.

The county legislative authority of the county for which a temporary citizens' review committee has been elected may adopt a resolution declaring the citizens' review process to be concluded and disband the temporary citizens' review committee whenever citizen members who are elected directly to the temporary citizens' review committee have been elected to those positions for three hundred sixty-five or more days without forwarding a proposal to the county legislative authority of the county. A temporary citizens' review committee shall not remain in existence for longer than seven hundred thirty days after the citizen members who are elected directly to the committee have been elected to those positions, and shall be disbanded at that time.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. The temporary citizens' review committees of two or more adjacently located counties may join together, under jointly established terms, and establish a multicounty temporary citizens' review committee from among all or part of the citizen members who are elected directly to the committees of each county, and all or part of the local government elected officials who serve in an advisory capacity on the committees of each county, to consider possible changes for local governments within all or part of the multicounty area for a specified purpose or purposes.

A multicounty temporary citizens' review committee shall function in the same manner as a single county temporary citizens' review committee, except that: (1) Any proposal must be approved by each single county temporary citizens' review committee before it is submitted to the county legislative authorities of the counties for submission to the voters of all the included counties or portions of the included counties, as specified by the multicounty temporary citizens' review committee; and (2) the county legislative authority of any county that is included within a multicounty temporary citizens' review committee can provide for the dissolution of the multicounty temporary citizens' review committee under the conditions provided for in section 10 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. Documents related to a proposed alteration of local governments, that has been approved by the voters, shall be submitted to the department. The department shall review these documents for conformance with the requirements of this chapter.

The financial incentives provided for in HB ______ shall be available for the county and local governments located within the area subject to the approved proposal if the department certifies that the approved proposal alters local governments and conforms with the requirements of this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 13. A new section is added to chapter 43.63A RCW to read as follows:

The department shall develop and make available to temporary citizens' review committees a variety of model charters and other designs for accomplishing particular structural changes, including but not limited to full-service county structures, city-county consolidations, multiple city consolidations, regional councils, multipurpose special districts, and consolidations of special districts.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 14. A new section is added to chapter 43.63A RCW to read as follows:

The department shall make grants from the moneys appropriated for such purpose to each county to assist in financing the costs of temporary citizens' review committees. The department shall make rules governing the award of such grants pursuant to chapter 34.04 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 15. A new section is added to chapter 46.68 RCW to read as follows:

Any funds that are distributed to counties, cities, or towns pursuant to chapter 46.68 RCW may be transferred by the recipient county, city, or town to another unit of local government if such a transfer is made as the result of a proposal approved by the voters under chapter 36.-- RCW (sections 1 through 12 of this act).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 16. A new section is added to chapter 66.08 RCW to read as follows:

Any funds that are distributed to counties, cities, or towns pursuant to chapter 66.08 RCW may be transferred by the recipient county, city, or town to another unit of local government if such a transfer is made as the result of a proposal approved by the voters under chapter 36.-- RCW (sections 1 through 12 of this act).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 17. A new section is added to chapter 82.14 RCW to read as follows:

The rate of sales and use tax imposed by a city under RCW 82.14.030(1) may be altered not to exceed a rate of five-tenths of one percent of the selling price (in the case of a sales tax) or value (in the case of a use tax) if such an alteration is made as the result of a proposal approved by the voters under chapter 36.-- RCW (sections 1 through 12 of this act).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 18. A new section is added to chapter 82.14 RCW to read as follows:

The percentage of a city's sales and use tax receipts that a county receives under RCW 82.14.030(2) may be altered or eliminated if such an alteration or elimination is made as the result of a proposal approved by the voters under chapter 36.-- RCW (sections 1 through 12 of this act).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 19. A new section is added to chapter 82.14 RCW to read as follows:

Any funds that are distributed to counties or cities pursuant to RCW 82.14.200 or 82.14.210 may be transferred by the recipient county or city to another unit of local government if such a transfer is made as the result of a proposal approved by the voters under chapter 36.-- RCW (sections 1 through 12 of this act).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 20. A new section is added to chapter 82.44 RCW to read as follows:

Any funds that are distributed to cities or towns pursuant to RCW 82.44.150 may be transferred by the recipient city or town to another unit of local government if such a transfer is made as the result of a proposal approved by the voters under chapter 36.-- RCW (sections 1 through 12 of this act).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 21. This act shall take effect on the same date as the proposed amendment to Article XI of the state Constitution, authorizing the legislature to establish processes by which citizens and local officials can alter their local governments, is validly submitted and is approved and ratified by the voters of the state at a general election held in November 1988. This act shall be null and void in its entirety, if this proposed constitutional amendment is not so approved and ratified.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 22. Sections 1 through 12 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 36 RCW.