BILL REQ. #:  S-0578.2 

Read first time 01/31/2007.   Referred to Committee on Government Operations & Elections.

     AN ACT Relating to intercounty rural library districts; and amending RCW 27.12.190.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 27.12.190 and 1982 c 123 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The management and control of a library shall be vested in a board of either five or seven trustees as hereinafter in this section provided. In cities and towns five trustees shall be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the legislative body. In counties, rural county library districts, and island library districts, five trustees shall be appointed by the board of county commissioners. In a regional library district a board of either five or seven trustees shall be appointed by the joint action of the legislative bodies concerned. In intercounty rural library districts a board of either five or seven trustees shall be appointed by the joint action of the boards of county commissioners of each of the counties included in a district.
     (2) The first appointments for boards comprised of but five trustees shall be for terms of one, two, three, four, and five years respectively, and thereafter a trustee shall be appointed annually to serve for five years. The first appointments for boards comprised of seven trustees shall be for terms of one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven years respectively, and thereafter a trustee shall be appointed annually to serve for seven years. No person shall be appointed to any board of trustees for more than two consecutive terms. Vacancies shall be filled for unexpired terms as soon as possible in the manner in which members of the board are regularly chosen.
     (3) A library trustee shall not receive a salary or other compensation for services as trustee, but necessary expenses actually incurred shall be paid from the library funds.
     (4) A library trustee in the case of a city or town may be removed only by vote of the legislative body. A trustee of a county library, a rural county library district library, or an island library district library may be removed for just cause by the county commissioners after a public hearing upon a written complaint stating the ground for removal, which complaint, with a notice of the time and place of hearing, shall have been served upon the trustee at least fifteen days before the hearing. A trustee of an intercounty rural library district may be removed by the joint action of the board of county commissioners of the counties involved in the same manner as provided herein for the removal of a trustee of a county library.
     (5)(a) If a county comprising part of an intercounty rural library district has a population exceeding fifty percent of the total district population, and if fewer than fifty percent of the trustees of that intercounty rural library district are residents of that county, the following applies:
     (i) The votes of the trustees for the district, which shall be equal in number to the number of trustees, shall be allocated to the nearest one-tenth of one percent among the trustees of the counties comprising the district in direct proportion to the population of each county, excluding incorporated areas that are not part of the district, as it relates to the population of the district; and
     (ii) A board subject to this subsection (5) shall adopt procedures for the proportional distribution of trustee votes, including procedures ensuring that voting rights of trustees from the same county are shared equally.
     (b) Population determinations made in accordance with this subsection (5) shall be determined by the most recent federal decennial census.
     (c) The office of the secretary of state is responsible for enforcing this subsection (5).

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.