Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1991 NO. 9 >

Chapter 90.70 RCW authorizes the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority to make recommendations regarding the protection of wetlands.  However, chapter 90.70 RCW does not empower the Authority to set minimum standards for wetlands protection or to require local governments to adopt the Authority's recommendations.

AGO 1982 NO. 9 >

(1) Under the provisions of § 6, chapter 8, Laws of 1982, 1st Ex. Sess., the Administrator for the Courts is required, in 1983, to compile a report covering crime victims' compensation penalty assessments paid, or due, during calendar year 1982.(2) A crime victims' compensation penalty assessment is to be paid pursuant to RCW 7.68.035(3), as amended by chapter 8, Laws of 1982, 1st Ex. Sess., upon forfeiture of bail where the offense with which the defendant was charged is either (a) a crime defined by state law which is punishable, thereunder, as a felony or a gross misdemeanor, or (b) a crime defined by a city ordinance which is punishable thereunder as a gross misdemeanor and which, in addition, covers conduct which is the same, or substantially the same, as conduct which is defined to be criminal by state law.(3) A crime victims' compensation penalty assessment is to be imposed under RCW 7.68.035(1), as amended, when an accused individual is found guilty of having committed any crime defined by either a state statute or a county or city ordinance, including ordinary misdemeanors, with the exception of those motor vehicle crimes expressly referred to in subsection (2) of the statute, whether defined by state statute or by a substantially similar municipal ordinance.(4) The penalty assessment provided for by RCW 7.68.035(1), as amended, is applicable in the case of a conviction, on or after March 27, 1982, of a crime committed prior to the date.(5) If a person is found guilty of a number of separate counts contained in the same criminal information, each of which represents a separate and distinct crime, a penalty assessment is to be imposed under RCW 7.68.035(1), as amended, on the basis of each such count.(6) A crime victims' compensation penalty assessment is not to be imposed, under RCW 7.68.035, as amended, on an alleged juvenile offender who has undergone diversion proceedings pursuant to chapter 13.40 RCW.

AGO 1974 NO. 9 >

The members of a board of county commissioners, during the remainder of the terms of office they were serving on the effective date of the salary increases granted by the legislature in chapter 88, Laws of 1973, 1st Ex. Sess., may receive those legislatively granted increases; they may not, however, constitutionally receive mid-term increases in such health care benefits as they have provided for themselves and other county officers and employees under the provisions of RCW 41.04.180.

AGO 1995 NO. 9 >

1.  If a vacancy occurs in a municipal court position established under Chapter 35.20 RCW (cities of over four hundred thousand population), or Chapter 3.50 RCW (all other cities), the vacancy will be filled by appointment for the remainder of the term, with no midterm special election.  2.  If a vacancy occurs in a municipal department of a district court operating pursuant to Chapter 3.46 RCW, the vacancy in the district court position will be filled by appointment by the county legislative authority with subsequent special election for the remainder of the term served (but any such election must occur only in an even-numbered year); the city will subsequently decide which judges on the district court will be designated as municipal department judges.  3.  If a city creates a new municipal court position or a new municipal department position, to take effect during the term prescribed by statute for such positions, the new position will be filled in the same manner as if a vacancy had occurred in an existing position in the same court.  4.  If a city creates a new municipal court position pursuant to Chapter 3.50 of Chapter 35.20 RCW, effective as of the beginning of the next statutory term for such a judgeship, the initial judge will be chosen by election if it is a full-time position or a part-time position covered by RCW 3.50.055; otherwise, the city may elect to make the position elective or appointive.  5.  If a city creates a new municipal department position within a district court pursuant to Chapter 3.46 RCW, and the judge is to serve the municipal department full-time, and the position will take effect with the beginning of the next term for district court judges, the initial judge will be nominated and elected in the manner for district court judges but with only electors of the city voting for the position.  6. If a city creates a new municipal department position within a district court pursuant to Chapter 3.46 RCW, to take effect with the beginning of the next term for district court judges, and the judge is to serve the municipal department part-time, the city may either designate an existing district judge to serve the municipal department, or provide that a new district judge nominated and elected by the judicial district will serve in the new municipal department position.

AGO 1990 NO. 9 >

1.  A registered architect or professional engineer must sign and stamp or seal each individual page containing a building construction drawing, or revision thereto, prepared or reviewed by him or her and submitted or permitted to be submitted in support of an application for a building permit, unless the activities are exempt from the requirement that drawings be signed and stamped or sealed by reason of RCW 18.08.410 or 18.43.130(1)-(7), (9). 2.  In the absence of one of the exemptions in RCW 18.08.410, a person who is not a registered professional architect or professional engineer violates RCW 18.08.310 by preparing a design or construction drawing for a building and submitting that design, or permitting that design or drawing to be submitted, in support of a building application. 3.   Under RCW 18.08.460(1) a local building official may accept a request for a building permit and issue the permit based on a design or construction drawing that does not bear the signature and stamp or seal of a registered architect or registered professional engineer, even if the activities are subject to the requirement that drawings be signed and stamped or sealed.

AGO 1995 NO. 10 >

1.  The term "tourist expansion" as used in RCW 67.28.210 refers to activities designed to increase tourism and tourist activity in a given geographical area.   2.  RCW 67.28.210 does not generally permit counties or cities to use tax revenues generated thereunder for the production or resale of shirts containing the logo of an annual community event; however, the proviso added to the statute by Laws of 1995, Ch. 290, section 1 does permit the proceeds to be used for advertising and promotional materials, which might include promotional shirts, where the conditions set forth in the proviso are met.   3.  RCW 67.28.210 governs the expenditure of revenues authorized by its language; RCW 35.21.700 is a more general statute covering expenditure by cities of other available revenues.

AGO 1989 NO. 10 >

1.The 1985 amendments to chapter 2.42 RCW, codified as RCW 2.42.110 through .180 [2.42.180], relate only to interpreter services for the hearing impaired.2.The pre‑1985 portions of chapter 2.42 RCW, codified as RCW 2.42.010 through 2.42.050, apply only to interpreter services for persons with speech defects or non-English speaking cultural backgrounds, except that RCW 2.42.050 applies also to interpreter services for the hearing impaired.3.With respect to criminal proceedings, the government whose officer is responsible for initiating the proceeding, usually the county, is responsible for the cost of providing the interpreter as defined in RCW 2.42.040.

AGO 1953 NO. 10 >

County commissioners have no authority to impose additional license requirements upon "peddlers."  They may, however, impose reasonable conditions upon the issuance of auctioneers' licenses.

AGLO 1975 NO. 10 >

Although a city which has established a department of a district justice court under chapter 3.46 RCW is required by RCW 3.46.090 to pay all or a portion of the district judge's salary, such city is not required to pay any portion of the county's terminal leave benefits to the judge upon his retirement.

AGO 2010 NO. 10 >

RCW 36.29.020 allows a county treasurer to allocate the interest and investment returns earned on the investment of a county’s own funds into the county current expense fund, except for county funds as to which the legislature has specifically provided that interest and investment returns are to be dedicated to a specific purpose, or be retained in their original fund.