Other LanguagesArticle XI, section 4 of the Washington Constitution does not prohibit a county from providing in its charter for the election of the prosecuting attorney as a nonpartisan office.
Under existing federal and state law, there is considerable doubt as to the authority of a county when enacting an ordinance establishing regulations pertaining to speed and manner of operation of motorboats to include therein a provision that motorboats may not be used on waters of the particular county unless numbered in accordance with a registration requirement of that county or of some other county or state having a similar registration requirement.
1. When an air pollution control authority is comprised of a single county, the member representing the largest city in the county is not required to be an elected official or an employee of the city. 2. When an air pollution control authority is comprised of a single county, the city selection committee is not obligated to select, as the representative on the authority of the largest city in the county, a person nominated or designated by the city's mayor or city council.
1. The board of county commissioners is required to canvass petitions seeking to remove the county seat; the board may not delegate the discretionary elements of the canvassing process. 2. Canvassing of signatures on a petition to remove the county seat by the board of county commissioners is action that must be taken at a properly called meeting as set forth in the Open Public Meetings Act. 3. There is no statutory limit on the amount of time that may elapse between the date that a petition to remove a county seat is signed and the date when the petition is submitted to the county legislative authority. 4. Signatures on a petition to remove the county seat may be withdrawn, and serial petitions adding signatures may be submitted, prior to the statutory deadline for filing any removal petition.
1. When a person is charged with a sex crime before his or her eighteenth birthday and is later convicted and receives a "special sex offender sentencing alternative", the state Department of Corrections is financially responsible for any treatment associated with the sentencing alternative. 2. When a person is charged with a sex crime before his or her eighteenth birthday and is later convicted and receives a "special sex offender sentencing alternative", the financial obligation of the Department of Corrections to pay for treatment continues after the person reaches the age of eighteen.
A county legislative authority may not meet outside of its county in order to hold a joint meeting with the legislative authority of another county unless a specific exception applies, but the legislative authorities may conduct joint meetings using video conferencing.
Because the First Avenue South Bridge in Seattle is a part of the state highway system, and not a county road, RCW 36.83.010 does not authorize King County to form a service district as a financing tool for improvements and/or new construction relating to that specific bridge.
Where counties, cities, and towns charge fees for short plats in amounts designed to cover the actual cost of administering a regulatory program, such fees are authorized by statute and are not an improper form of taxation. However, where fees for short platting are designed to raise revenue over and above the actual costs of administering the regulatory program, the fees are a form of taxation in excess of the local government's statutory taxing power.
RCW 35.13.360 through .400 do not entitle sheriff's employees to transfer to the police department of a city which, having incorporated prior to the effective date of those statutes, but having contracted with the county for law enforcement services for several years, then (subsequent to the enactment of the statutes) forms its own police department.
(1) RCW 36.33.065 does not authorize a board of county commissioners to establish a special fund for the payment of only a certain category of claims against a county; i.e., tort claims not covered by insurance; however, RCW 36.33.020, authorizing the creation of one or more county cumulative reserve funds for specified county purposes, does authorize a board of county commissioners to establish such a special county fund for the payment of tort claims not covered by insurance. (2) Except as provided by RCW 36.29.020, any interest earned through the investment of monies in a county cumulative reserve fund established under RCW 36.33.020, would properly be creditable to the cumulative reserve fund from which the particular investments were made.