Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1983 NO. 6 >

In the event that the currently serving commissioners of a public hospital district by duly adopted resolution raise their own daily rate of compensation from $25 per day to $40 per day in accordance with RCW 70.44.050 as amended by § 14, chapter 84, Laws of 1982, those increases (as to each such commissioner) may not constitutionally take effect until the commencement of his or her next ensuing term of office.

AGO 1984 NO. 6 >

Voter approval only constitutes a condition precedent to continuation of a port district tax levy under RCW 53.36.100, after the sixth year of the levy, in those instances where, in response to publication of the district's notice of intent to continue the levy, a sufficient petition in opposition thereto has been circulated and filed with the county auditor.

AGO 1993 NO. 6 >

1.  Chapter 70.105 RCW requires local governments to adopt hazardous waste plans for the management of moderate-risk waste.  A local government can implement such plans through its board of health. 2.  A local health board can assess a fee against a sewer district for services the board performs in connection with the implementation of a local hazardous waste plan.  However, the fee must be no greater than the actual cost of providing the relevant services. 3.  The authority granted to the Department of Ecology to regulate hazardous waste does not preempt the authority of a local health board to adopt a local hazardous waste plan for the management of moderate-risk waste and to charge a fee in connection with the implementation of the plan.

AGO 1979 NO. 6 >

Certain proposed legislation now pending before the state legislature (see Senate Bill No. 2241 and House Bill No. 502) to require specified immunizations of school age children as a prerequisite for admission to public or private schools would, if enacted as drafted, be constitutionally valid.

AGLO 1977 NO. 7 >

The provisions of RCW 70.39.140 et seq., under which hospital rates and related matters are regulated by the state hospital commission, are applicable to hospitals maintained and operated by public hospital districts formed under chapter 70.44 RCW.

AGO 2002 NO. 7 >

1.  When the commissioners of public utility districts draw new commissioner districts after a decessional census, they must include in their plan all the territory within any city which did not, at the time the public utility district was organized, own or operate all of the utilities which a public utility district is authorized to furnish; it is immaterial whether such a city of such description was later incorporated.  2.  If the commissioner district boundaries submitted by a the board of a public utility district do not include all the territory of the public utility district in the districting plan, the public utility district board of commissioners has the authority, and the duty, to submit a new plan correcting this infirmity.

AGLO 1982 NO. 7 >

(1) RCW 54.24.018 does not apply to PUD contractual obligations not involving issuance, by the district, of its own bonds.(2) If a PUD issues bonds in order to fund a prior contractual liability, the provisions of Wash. Const., Article VIII, § 6 (but not Article VII, § 2 or Article VIII, § 7) would be applicable.

AGO 1995 NO. 7 >

A public utility district commissioner is entitled to receive only the compensation specified for the position in RCW 54.12.080, and is not entitled to any additional compensation for serving as president or secretary of the board of commissioners.

AGO 1968 NO. 7 >

(1) A person who is certificated as a school nurse by the state board of education under the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 18-84-075 through 090, but who does not hold a certificate which will entitle her to be assigned to a teaching position as a certified teacher, is not a "certificated employee" for the purposes of chapter 143, Laws of 1965.(2) A school nurse, who is not employed in a supervisory capacity for a school district, and is not employed as a teacher, is not covered by the provisions of RCW 28.58.450 or RCW 28.67.070.

AGO 1979 NO. 7 >

RCW 56.08.020 and RCW 56.16.030 apply to sewer districts and not to irrigation districts; therefore, once a sewer district has been merged into an irrigation district, those statutes no longer apply with regard to the extension of sewer service by the surviving irrigation district.