King County Charter Review

Every ten years, a citizen commission reviews the King County Charter and recommends charter amendments for the King County Council to place before voters to update the County’s “constitution.” This is one of those years, and the Council has placed six proposed charter amendments on the November ballot:

• Anti-Discrimination: Elevating to Charter status the existing prohibition in the King County Code against discrimination based on disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression in county employment and contracting - joining such other prohibited grounds as sex, race, religion and age (Ordinance 2008-0358).
  
  
• Regional Committees: Reducing the number of County Councilmembers on the Council’s three regional committees, establishing a vice-chair position to be filled by a non-Council member, authorizing the committees to initiate legislation, and authorizing the Regional Policy Committee to adopt its own work program without the need for Council approval (Ordinance 2008-0359)
  
  
• Qualifications: Permitting the Council to establish additional qualifications for separately-elected officials who head charter-based executive branch departments, as is currently permitted for the office of Sheriff (Ordinance 2008-0360).
  
  
• Charter Amendment by Citizen Initiative: Streamline the process by which citizens may amend the charter through initiative by eliminating the requirement to hold two separate public votes on such measures, and increase the signature threshold to 20 percent (Ordinance 2008-361).  The Council also adopted a separate ordinance to extend the time period for gathering charter amendment initiative signatures to 120 days, if the charter amendment is approved by voters (Ordinance 2008-0407). 
  
  
• Budget Timeline: Providing the Council with an additional 20 days to review the Executive's proposed County budget, for a total of 65 days for review, in recognition of the increased scope and responsibilities of County government from the time the review period was originally established 37 years ago (Ordinance 2008-0363)
  
  
• Economic Forecasts: Establishing an economic forecasting council for King County and an Office of Economic and Financial Analysis, to provide greater reliability in the economic and revenue forecasts on which the County’s budget is based (Ordinance 2008-0362).

The first five measures were among the 12 recommended by the 2007-2008 King County Charter Review Commission, which presented its Final Report and Recommendations to the Council on May 30. To avoid overloading the ballot in any one year, the Commission proposed a schedule for phasing in its proposed amendments over the next three general elections. Five proposed substantive amendments that the County Council may place on the ballot in 2009 or 2010 are: 

• Commission Procedures: Clarify the Commission appointment and confirmation process, and require the County Council to review all charter review commission recommendations and decide at an open public meeting how to proceed on each recommendation.

• Elections Deadlines: Authorize the county to establish deadlines by ordinance for submitting local ballot measures to the Elections Division, in response to an Elections Division request for addtional time to process such measures.

• Elected Officials and Collective Bargaining: Require the Council to provide by ordinance for increased involvement of separately elected county officials, including the Sheriff, in collective bargaining.

• Open Space Protection: Establish additional protection for over 100,000 acres of open space properties of high conservation value in which the county owns an interest.

• Unincorporated Areas Representation: Designate a high-level position and a structure within the Office of the Executive to represent and serve the interests of rural and urban unincorporated area residents, and amend the Charter Preamble to reflect the county's commitment to unincorporated areas.

The Commission also recommended two non-substantive, technical charter amendments:

• Budget Allotments: Remove the outdated requirement that county agencies submit estimates of spending to the Executive.

• Transitory Provisions: Remove obsolete charter language pertaining to the County’s transition to a home rule charter government and consolidation with Metro.

Voters in 1968 first adopted the King County Charter, the foundation for county government that serves the same role that the U.S. Constitution does for the federal government. The Charter calls for a citizen commission to be assembled once every ten years to review the Charter and recommend proposed amendments to the County Council for consideration for the general election ballot.

Members of the 2007-2008 Charter Review Commission held 55 meetings over more than a year in preparation of their final report and recommendations. The Council began its review of those recommendations on June 2 and held a special Town Hall meeting in Federal Way on June 16, which brought more than 75 people to the Federal Way Community Center.