AN ACT Relating to local reemployment centers; reenacting and amending RCW 42.17.310; adding a new chapter to Title 50 RCW; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds and declares that:

(1) The number of unemployment compensation claimants in the state who have exhausted their benefits has more than doubled in the past seven years;

(2) Many of the unemployed have emotional, medical, and financial problems as a direct result of their unemployment;

(3) Many communities in this state have inadequate and poorly coordinated resources and programs to assist the unemployed in coping with their problems that are associated with unemployment; and

(4) The lack of coordinated and effective services for the unemployed seriously hampers their ability to conduct an effective work search and may have the effect of prolonging their unemployment.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. It is the intent of the legislature to assist in the creation of pilot local reemployment centers which would increase the capacity of local communities to aid their unemployed. The pilot centers are intended to supplement but not supplant the efforts of the local job service centers of the employment security department. The legislature intends that the reemployment centers established by this chapter shall give first priority to those unemployed persons who have been unemployed a minimum of fifteen weeks.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) The department of community development shall issue requests for proposals to nonprofit agencies or to local government agencies to serve as the local reemployment centers under this chapter. The requests for proposals shall authorize the selected agencies to receive funds pursuant to this chapter for a two-year period.

(2) The requests for proposals shall be issued for these seven areas in the state:

(a) Eastern Washington, which for the purposes of this chapter shall include Spokane, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry, Lincoln, Whitman, Garfield, Asotin, Columbia, and Adams counties;

(b) Central Washington, which for the purposes of this chapter shall include Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, Grant, Douglas, Okanogan, Chelan, Kittitas, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties;

(c) Southwest Washington and Peninsula, which for the purposes of this chapter shall include Skamania, Clark, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Lewis, Pacific, Grays Harbor, Clallam, and Jefferson counties;

(d) South Puget Sound, which for the purposes of this chapter shall include Pierce, Thurston, Mason, and Kitsap counties;

(e) King County, including only distressed census tracts;

(f) King County, including only nondistressed census tracts; and

(g) Northwest Washington, which for the purposes of this chapter shall include Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, San Juan, and Island counties.

The department shall select one agency from each of the seven areas to serve as the reemployment center in that area.

(3) The department shall establish standards to govern the selection of the reemployment centers. At a minimum, each local reemployment center shall raise matching funds in an amount equal to the state grant.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The local reemployment centers shall provide direct or referral services to the unemployed. The referrals shall be made to agencies which provide any of the following services:

(1) Reemployment assistance;

(2) Medical services;

(3) Social services including marital counseling;

(4) Psychotherapy;

(5) Mortgage foreclosure and utilities problems counseling;

(6) Drug and alcohol abuse services;

(7) Credit counseling; and

(8) Other services as deemed appropriate.

The local reemployment centers shall demonstrate the utilization of the services of volunteers to maximize the effectiveness of the centers' programs, and outreach efforts to encourage the unemployed to seek assistance.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The employment security department and the department of social and health services shall each locate one or more workers on a full or part-time basis at each local reemployment center in an effort to increase the effectiveness of the local reemployment centers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The department of community development shall require each local center which receives funds under this chapter to submit semiannual reports to the department which document the effectiveness of the center's activities.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. The referrals and services provided by the centers shall be confidential. Reporting and recordkeeping necessary to file the required reports with the department of community development shall be conducted in a manner which will maintain the confidentiality of the client-provider relationship.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. Each local reemployment center designated by the department pursuant to this chapter shall receive a minimum of thirty thousand dollars per year for a two-year period. In addition to this minimum, and subject to legislative appropriation for this purpose, the department may allocate to each center up to five dollars for each of the unemployed in the county in which the project is located. The number of unemployed in the county shall be determined by the annual average number of unemployed for the years 1985 and 1986. If 1986 data on the number of unemployed is not available, data for 1984 shall be substituted.

Sec. 9. Section 31, chapter 1, Laws of 1973 as last amended by section 7, chapter 276, Laws of 1986 and by section 25, chapter 299, Laws of 1986 and RCW 42.17.310 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(1) The following are exempt from public inspection and copying:

(a) Personal information in any files maintained for students in public schools, patients or clients of public institutions or public health agencies, welfare recipients, prisoners, probationers, or parolees.

(b) Personal information in files maintained for employees, appointees, or elected officials of any public agency to the extent that disclosure would violate their right to privacy.

(c) Information required of any taxpayer in connection with the assessment or collection of any tax if the disclosure of the information to other persons would (i) be prohibited to such persons by RCW 82.32.330 or (ii) violate the taxpayer's right to privacy or result in unfair competitive disadvantage to the taxpayer.

(d) Specific intelligence information and specific investigative records compiled by investigative, law enforcement, and penology agencies, and state agencies vested with the responsibility to discipline members of any profession, the nondisclosure of which is essential to effective law enforcement or for the protection of any person's right to privacy.

(e) Information revealing the identity of persons who file complaints with investigative, law enforcement, or penology agencies, other than the public disclosure commission, if disclosure would endanger any person's life, physical safety, or property: PROVIDED, That if at the time the complaint is filed the complainant indicates a desire for disclosure or nondisclosure, such desire shall govern: PROVIDED, FURTHER, That all complaints filed with the public disclosure commission about any elected official or candidate for public office must be made in writing and signed by the complainant under oath.

(f) Test questions, scoring keys, and other examination data used to administer a license, employment, or academic examination.

(g) Except as provided by chapter 8.26 RCW, the contents of real estate appraisals, made for or by any agency relative to the acquisition or sale of property, until the project or prospective sale is abandoned or until such time as all of the property has been acquired or the property to which the sale appraisal relates is sold, but in no event shall disclosure be denied for more than three years after the appraisal.

(h) Valuable formulae, designs, drawings, and research data obtained by any agency within five years of the request for disclosure when disclosure would produce private gain and public loss.

(i) Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, and intra-agency memorandums in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended except that a specific record shall not be exempt when publicly cited by an agency in connection with any agency action.

(j) Records which are relevant to a controversy to which an agency is a party but which records would not be available to another party under the rules of pretrial discovery for causes pending in the superior courts.

(k) Records, maps, or other information identifying the location of archaeological sites in order to avoid the looting or depredation of such sites.

(l) Any library record, the primary purpose of which is to maintain control of library materials, or to gain access to information, which discloses or could be used to disclose the identity of a library user.

(m) Financial information supplied by or on behalf of a person, firm, or corporation for the purpose of qualifying to submit a bid or proposal for (a) a ferry system construction or repair contract as required by RCW 47.60.680 through 47.60.750 or (b) highway construction or improvement as required by RCW 47.28.070.

(n) Railroad company contracts filed with the utilities and transportation commission under RCW 81.34.070, except that the summaries of the contracts are open to public inspection and copying as otherwise provided by this chapter.

(o) Financial and commercial information and records supplied by private persons pertaining to export services provided pursuant to chapter 53.31 RCW.

(p) Financial disclosures filed by private vocational schools under chapter 28C.10 RCW.

(q) Records of local reemployment centers established under chapter 50.-- RCW (sections 1 through 8 of this 1987 act) if such records identify individual clients.

(2) Except for information described in subsection (1)(c)(i) of this section and confidential income data exempted from public inspection pursuant to RCW 84.40.020, the exemptions of this section are inapplicable to the extent that information, the disclosure of which would violate personal privacy or vital governmental interests, can be deleted from the specific records sought. No exemption may be construed to permit the nondisclosure of statistical information not descriptive of any readily identifiable person or persons.

(3) Inspection or copying of any specific records exempt under the provisions of this section may be permitted if the superior court in the county in which the record is maintained finds, after a hearing with notice thereof to every person in interest and the agency, that the exemption of such records is clearly unnecessary to protect any individual's right of privacy or any vital governmental function.

(4) Agency responses refusing, in whole or in part, inspection of any public record shall include a statement of the specific exemption authorizing the withholding of the record (or part) and a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the record withheld.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. The department of community development shall submit a report to the governor and to the commerce and labor committees of the house of representatives and the senate prior to the start of the 1989 legislative session. The report shall assess the effectiveness of the centers and their service delivery approaches.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. Sections 1 through 8 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 50 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. The sum of .......... dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1989, from the general fund to the department of community development for the purposes of this act.