| Passed by the Senate March 13, 2007 YEAS 46 BRAD OWEN ________________________________________ President of the Senate Passed by the House April 10, 2007 YEAS 98 FRANK CHOPP ________________________________________ Speaker of the House of Representatives | I, Thomas Hoemann, Secretary of the Senate of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5445 as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the dates hereon set forth. THOMAS HOEMANN ________________________________________ Secretary | |
| Approved April 21, 2007, 11:28 a.m. CHRISTINE GREGOIRE ________________________________________ Governor of the State of Washington | April 23, 2007 Secretary of State State of Washington |
| State of Washington | 60th Legislature | 2007 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 02/28/07.
AN ACT Relating to cost-reimbursement agreements; and amending RCW 43.30.490.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 43.30.490 and 2003 c 70 s 2 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) The department may enter into a written cost-reimbursement
agreement with a permit or lease applicant or project proponent to
recover from the applicant or proponent the reasonable costs incurred
by the department in carrying out the requirements of this chapter, as
well as the requirements of other relevant laws, as they relate to
permit coordination, environmental review, application review,
technical studies, ((and)) establishment of development units and
approval or establishment of pooling agreements under chapter 78.52
RCW, including necessary technical studies, permit or lease processing,
and monitoring for permit compliance. The cost-reimbursement agreement
shall identify the specific tasks, costs, and schedule for work to be
conducted under the agreement. ((An applicant for a lease issued under
chapter 79.90 RCW may not enter into a cost-reimbursement agreement
under this section for projects conducted under the lease.))
(2) The written cost-reimbursement agreement shall be negotiated
with the permit or lease applicant or project proponent. Under the
provisions of a cost-reimbursement agreement, funds from the applicant
or proponent shall be used by the department to contract with an
independent consultant to carry out the work covered by the cost-reimbursement agreement. The department may also use funds provided
under a cost-reimbursement agreement to assign current staff to review
the work of the consultant, to provide necessary technical assistance
when an independent consultant with comparable technical skills is
unavailable, and to recover reasonable and necessary direct and
indirect costs that arise from processing the permit or lease. The
department shall, in developing the agreement, ensure that final
decisions that involve policy matters are made by the agency and not by
the consultant. The department shall make an estimate of the number of
permanent staff hours to process the permits or leases, and shall
contract with consultants to replace the time and functions committed
by these permanent staff to the project. The billing process shall
provide for accurate time and cost accounting and may include a billing
cycle that provides for progress payments. Use of cost-reimbursement
agreements shall not reduce the current level of staff available to
work on permits or leases not covered by cost-reimbursement agreements.
The department may not use any funds under a cost-reimbursement
agreement to replace or supplant existing funding. The restrictions of
chapter 42.52 RCW apply to any cost-reimbursement agreement, and to any
person hired as a result of a cost-reimbursement agreement.
(((3) The department may not enter into any new cost-reimbursement
agreements on or after July 1, 2007. The department may continue to
administer any cost-reimbursement agreement that was entered into
before July 1, 2007, until the project is completed.))