Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1959 NO. 8 >

Where an incumbent county treasurer is re‑elected [[reelected]] and dies before the commencement of the new term an appointee filling the vacancy holds office from the date of appointment until the next general election and until a successor is elected and qualified.

AGLO 1978 NO. 8 >

RCW 41.14.030 does not prohibit a person from simultaneously serving as a county civil service commissioner and as a high school librarian.

 

AGO 1982 NO. 8 >

There is no authority, under existing state law, for the adoption and implementation, by the board of county commissioners of a noncharter county, of a county personnel system covering the employment, compensation, subsequent promotion, suspension or discharge of all county employees‑-including those appointed by other, independent, county elected officials; there are, however, certain limited actions which may be taken in this area pursuant to a joint agreement between all affected county offices.

AGLO 1979 NO. 8 >

House Bill No. 75, currently pending before the legislature, which (if enacted) would permit the voters of any noncharter county to increase the composition of their board of county commissioners from three to five members, would in all probability be unconstitutional in view of Article XI, §§ 4 and 5 of the Washington Constitution as heretofore

AGLO 1974 NO. 9 >

In a fourth class county, where the prosecuting attorney serves as ex officio coroner, and where, due to a vacancy in the office of sheriff, the said prosecuting attorney in his capacity as coroner has also performed temporarily the duties of the sheriff by reason of RCW 36.24.010, the prosecuting attorney/coroner is not entitled to the sheriff's salary or fees for the period in which he performed the sheriff's duties.

AGO 1968 NO. 9 >

(1) Where a sheriff finds a reported stolen vehicle abandoned on a public highway or at some other place in his county, he may, in the absence of available public equipment and facilities for such purposes, employ the operator of a private towing and storage service to tow and store such vehicle until the owner appears and claims it. (2) In such a case, the private towing and storage operator who has been thus employed may assert a lien in the vehicle against the owner for payment of such towing and storage charges as are due at the time the owner appears to claim the vehicle.

AGO 1984 NO. 9 >

RCW 41.14.140 does not authorize, or empower, a county sheriff to fix the compensation of his deputies without regard to what the board of county commissioners might have determined.

AGO 1982 NO. 10 >

The board of county commissioners of a fifth through ninth class county may not, simply by making a public announcement to that effect prior to the period for candidates' filings, cause the office of county prosecuting attorney to become a full-time office so as to prohibit the candidate then duly elected to that office from thereafter engaging in the private practice of law.

AGO 1971 NO. 11 >

The percentage of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for a certain King county office which is determinative of the number of voters who must sign a petition to recall the person holding such office is twenty-five percent, as provided for in RCW 29.82.060 (1).

AGO 1972 NO. 12 >

A county civil service commission for sheriff's office employees, organized and operating under the provisions of chapter 41.14 RCW, may not promulgate a blanket regulation excluding persons otherwise qualified under RCW 41.14.100 from making application for any civil service position in a sheriff's department, regardless of its duties, on the basis of their being less than twenty-one years of age and thus not legally able to enter a tavern for law enforcement purposes; however, in those selected classes of positions which require the employee to enter taverns for these purposes, a requirement that the applicant be at least twenty-one years of age, and thus legally able to enter a tavern, would be valid.