Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1976 NO. 12 >

If, in order to attain "maximum net benefits" and protect the public welfare and interest against the long range detrimental effects of a perpetual water use not so restricted, the state department of ecology, in issuing a surface water right permit pursuant to RCW 90.03.290, determines to include a provision authorizing use of such waters unconditionally for specified initial period of time (e.g., fifty years), with any authorization to withdraw for further periods of time made dependent upon subsequent determinations by the department involving public needs for the waters involved, that action is likely to be upheld by the courts.

AGO 1983 NO. 12 >

(1) Although RCW 18.64.020 prohibits the practice of pharmacy by persons other than licensed pharmacists, it is nevertheless lawful for certain practitioners other than licensed pharmacists (generally those who are authorized to prescribe such drugs) also to dispense both legend drugs and controlled substances. (2) The State Board of Pharmacy is authorized by statute to promulgate rules governing the dispensing of drugs by those other persons, as well as by licensed pharmacists.

AGO 1979 NO. 12 >

(1) RCW 43.01.040, et seq., relating to annual leave for state officers and employees, applies to the legislative and judicial branches of government as well as to the executive branch. (2) RCW 43.01.040, et seq., applies, equally, to state employees in the classified service and to those occupying exempt positions; accordingly, with a single possible exception relating to employees of a state institution of higher education, no such employees are entitled to have vacation leave accumulated in excess of 30 working days without having a statement of necessity for deferral of leave on file with their particular employing agency. (3) RCW 43.01.040, et seq., relating to annual leave, applies to individuals appointed by the governor to an agency directorship or as a member of a state board or commission subject to gubernatorial appointment. (4) While it is the Governor's Office which is the "employing office" with which an application for extension of annual leave must be filed by an agency director or board or commission member referred to in (3), supra, it is the convenience of the agency, office, department or institution to which such individual is assigned which is determinative of the propriety of the extension.

AGO 1993 NO. 12 >

1.  RCW 42.17.125, which governs the personal use of campaign contributions, does not authorize the use of such contributions for nonreimbursed public office related expenses.2.  Prior to Initiative 134, RCW 42.17.095 authorized a public officer to use surplus campaign contributions for nonreimbursed public office related expenses.  Initiative 134 repealed this authority such that surplus campaign contributions can no longer be used for this purpose.3.   Although campaign contributions and surplus campaign contributions may not be used for nonreimbursed public office related expenses, a public office may solicit gifts for the specific purpose of defraying nonreimbursed public office related expenses.4.   If a public officer solicits gifts to defray nonreimbursed public office related expenses, such gifts must be reported to the Public Disclosure Commission pursuant to RCW 42.17.240 and .2415.

AGO 1978 NO. 12 >

(1) Because of the common law doctrine of incompatible public offices, the same individual may not simultaneously serve as a port district commissioner and as mayor of a town (fourth class city) which is situated entirely within the boundaries of such a district.   (2) Unless an individual who is so serving voluntarily resigns from one or the other of the two incompatible public offices, he will be vulnerable to ouster, from one or the other, by court action; however, based upon the de facto officer doctrine, even though the simultaneous holding of the two offices here in question is not permissible, this does not mean that the past actions of the individual involved in the position which is not retained would thereby be null and void.

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.

AGO 1977 NO. 12 >

Deputy county sheriffs appointed pursuant to RCW 36.16.070 and chapter 41.14 RCW are exempt from the state minimum wage act (chapter 49.46 RCW) by reason of so much of RCW 49.46.010(5)(k) as excludes any individual ". . . who holds a public . . . appointive office of . . ." the state, any county, city, town, municipal corporation or quasi municipal corporation, political subdivision, or any instrumentality thereof.

AGO 1969 NO. 12 >

(1) The amendment contained in § 26, chapter 209, Laws of 1969, Ex. Sess., deleting the proviso in § 1, chapter 140, Laws of 1961 (RCW 41.20.085) under which certain police widows' pensions were to be reduced by the amount being received "under social security or any other pension grant," is applicable so as to prospectively eliminate this offset factor in the case of those widows who began receiving such pensions prior to the effective date of the 1969 amendment. (2) The two percent per year post-retirement pension increase which is provided for by § 35, chapter 209, Laws of 1969, Ex. Sess., is to be computed on the basis of the pension benefit payable on the effective date of the 1969 amendment rather than that which was payable at the time chapter 209, Laws of 1969, Ex. Sess., was passed by the legislature.

AGLO 1981 NO. 13 >

(1) RCW 19.28.330 does not authorize the director of Labor and Industries to make expenditures from the Electrical License Fund without a legislative appropriation. (2) Exercising its authority under RCW 19.28.330, the Board of Electrical Examiners may, in effect, require the Department of Labor and Industries to reduce expenditures from the Electrical License Fund below the levels contained in the budget developed under the provisions of the Budget and Accounting Act, chapter 43.88 RCW, by disapproving, in advance, particular expenditures or kinds of expenditures.

AGO 1975 NO. 13 >

A board of county commissioners receiving federal forest funds under RCW 36.33.110 is not authorized or directed by that or any other statute to distribute any portion of those funds to a joint school district belonging to another county but lying partially within the county receiving the funds.