Accomplishments
In my 14 years as your Senator, I’ve prime-sponsored and co-sponsored hundreds of bills. I’ve also contributed to the success of many other important progressive legislative actions, and have worked with my colleagues to hold the line on many fronts. For a complete list of bills that I’ve co-sponsored, you can check out the public website for the Legislature. Here’s a list of the fifty-six successful bills I’ve prime-sponsored.
2009-2010 Legislature
During the most recent biennium, I continued to serve as the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, responsible for legislation dealing with our courts, the criminal justice system, the laws regarding civil liability, and the civil liberties guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions. I had the honor and responsibility of serving on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the Senate’ s primary fiscal committee tasked with developing operating and capital budgets and tax and pension policy. We had to make many difficult decisions during this time of economic downturn. I also served on the Labor, Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, responsible for legislation relating to collective bargaining, the workers’ compensation and the unemployment insurance systems, an array of issues that impact consumers, regulation of professions (except for financial and health care professions), and the regulation and oversight of liquor, gambling, horse racing and the state lottery.
SB 5135: Helping our District Courts serve the public faster and more effectively. This bill adds five new Judge positions to the King County District Court over three years. Population growth and changes made by the King County Prosecutor’s Office mean that a higher number of cases will come through the district courts. A number of cases that historically have been heard in superior court will now be heard in district court. This legislation assists our courts to do good work in a timely manner.
SB 5147: Protecting free speech by repealing unconstitutional criminal libel statutes. The repealed criminal libel statutes had been held to be unconstitutional since 1964. However, the criminal libel statutes were occasionally cited in civil legal briefs likely due to a lack of awareness that these statutes had been invalidated. This bill insures that these unconstitutional laws will no longer be used to justify a limit on free speech.
SB 5151: Making our Superior Courts more efficient and cost-effective. This bill adds new Court Commissioners to the Superior Courts of larger counties, to assist in handling the criminal case workload. This will allow for the more efficient use of judge time to handle trials. The matters that a criminal commissioner may preside over are fairly routine hearings with established standards for the commissioner to follow. Any ruling of the commissioner is subject to revision and appeal.
SB 5153: Streamlining standards by which Washington courts will recognize judgments of courts of other nations. The Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act was created in 1962 to provide for the enforcement of foreign country judgments in a state court in the United States. It has been enacted in 32 states. It was created to simplify international business by recognizing money judgments obtained in other nations for the purpose of enforcement. This bill was the culmination of several years of review to update and clarify these statutes.
SB 5160: Increasing the fairness of our forfeiture laws used for drug-related crimes. The Uniform Controlled Substances Act allows forfeiture of real and personal property used in drug-related offenses. The seizing law enforcement agency must serve notice of the seizure on the owner of the property and on any person having any known right or interest in the property. Often, people who have an interest in the property are not involved in the alleged crime. This legislation clarifies the notification requirements for law enforcement agencies, and provides individuals, financial institutions, and other affected entities an appropriate amount of time to appeal the forfeiture.
SB 5171: Protecting Washington taxpayers by clarifying our rules regarding tax payments. This bill amends the Washington Principal and Income Act of 2002 by changing provisions related to estate tax marital deductions. It clarifies the rules that govern tax payments, and will assist taxpayers to avoid underreporting that may have led to trouble with the IRS. The bill corrected a problem created by a recent IRS ruling.
SB 5262: Increasing the ability of police officers to do their work on the road. This bill allows police officers to verify driver’s identities from the roadside by computer access to license photos retained by the Department of Licensing. Officers are allowed to check online license photos only when they have probable cause to check and verify a person’s identity. Given the proliferation of identity theft, forged licenses and individuals driving without licenses, it is important for officers to be able to compare the picture on the license to the picture in the DOL database, or to see if the DOL photo resembles the person who is driving without a license.
SB 5295: Amending our state’s Public Disclosure Act to allow for transparency and to protect our personal privacy. I serve as a member of the Sunshine Committee, which was created by the Legislature in 2007 to review exemptions to our state’s Public Disclosure Act (PDA). (When the PDA was created via initiative in 1972, it contained ten exemptions from disclosure. As of 2007, there were more than 300 exemptions.) This bill implements the Sunshine Committee’s unanimous recommendations.
SB 5295 makes some previously exempted information available to the public, including the lists of candidates for the directors of several state boards. But the provision of the bill that received the most attention concerns the ORCA transit pass provided by a group of seven regional transit systems, including Sound Transit and Pierce Transit. (ORCA stands for “One Regional Card for All.”) These regional transit passes record the origin and destination of your trip, giving the transit agencies the ability to collect info about the traveling habits of riders. Under current law, personal identifying information can be disclosed to the media, to governmental agencies or groups concerned with public transportation and safety, and to the entity responsible for paying for the fare program.
SB 5295 limits the use of this private info. Under the bill, there are only two exemptions to the general rule of non-disclosure: organizations such as schools that subsidize transit passes can access information necessary to prevent fraud and law enforcement agencies investigating a crime can also obtain the information with a court order. Other than these limited uses, the privacy of this information would be safeguarded.
Disclosure of public records is definitely something that I support — it helps keep us government employees honest. But there’s a fine line between disclosure that provides government accountability and disclosure of information that unnecessarily encroaches on personal privacy. The limitation on personal identifying information regarding transit passes will prevent the latter from happening.
SB 5561: Protecting Washingtonians from the dangers of Carbon Monoxide poisoning in their homes. This bill requires Carbon Monoxide alarms in new residential construction by 1/1/2011, and in all existing residences by 1/1/2013. The Washington Poison Control Center receives about 400 calls per year about CO poisoning. Many families have lost children and loved ones to CO poisoning. People who don’t die from CO poisoning can experience a number of permanent harmful effects, including memory loss and brain injury. Death and injury can be prevented by the presence of an alarm to alert the victims of the presence of CO. CO is invisible, odorless, and tasteless, and can also pass through walls from garages or neighboring apartments. State law already requires smoke detectors in homes, and landlords are required to install them in their rental properties. With this new law, Washington became one of about 15 states to also require Carbon Monoxide alarms.
SB 5732: Stop punishing people for “Driving While Poor.” This legislation authorizes prosecutors and the courts to divert offenders to re-licensing programs and payment plans instead of prosecuting them for Driving While License Suspended, Third Degree (DWLS-3). These are folks who failed to show up at a hearing or pay a fine, other than for DUI. It is the common understanding of judges, prosecutors, and defenders that some small fraction are scofflaws; most are simply unable to pay their fines. They’re guilty primarily of “Driving While Poor.” DWLS-3 represents a whopping 30% of the caseload of our District and Municipal Courts. The goal of SB 5732 is to get many of these offenders off of the overstressed court dockets and into programs in which they pay their fines and get their licenses back. This benefits the drivers – many of whom need to drive to work and school – and the cities and counties to whom these fines are due.
SB 5873: Increasing apprenticeship opportunities. This bill expands the use of apprenticeships in public construction contracting. Apprenticeships are a crucial step for on-the-job training for a wide range of trades. Apprentices benefit from valuable job experience, and contractors benefit by having a strong workforce. Prior to this legislation, state agencies under the Governor’s authority and school districts needed to require that apprentices enrolled in state-approved apprenticeship training programs participate in public works projects. SB 5873 extends apprenticeship utilization requirements to public works contracts awarded by
institutions of higher education.
SB 6167: Making our criminal sentencing system more fair. This bill updates the dollar amount of criminal offenses that differentiate misdemeanors from felonies in property offenses, including theft. It raises the level of property offenses that qualify as felonies to $750 from $250; anything less than $750 would be a misdemeanor. These levels hadn’t been changed for more than 25 years, even though we’ve experienced significant inflation in since then. This was an extremely controversial bill that took a few years of negotiations with an array of stakeholders, including retailers and grocers, who wanted to retain the ability to charge shoplifters who steal $250 worth of goods with a felony. I saw this bill as a matter of fairness. Prices have literally quadrupled since these dollar amounts were put into law. As prices went up, the same act moved from being a misdemeanor to a felony even though the identical crime was committed.
SB 6279: Facilitating the construction of transit systems. I introduced SB 6279 at the request of Sound Transit. Transit facilities are already considered “essential public facilities” under state law but this bill expressly states it under the Growth Management Act (GMA). “Essential public facilities” are facilities that are typically difficult to site, such as airports. The comprehensive plans of local governments planning under the GMA must include a process for identifying and siting essential public facilities.
Sound Transit is working to build a high-capacity transit system to help improve mobility in the Puget Sound region. This bill does not expand or grant Sound Transit new authority but will improve efficiency. It will help keep projects moving forward and creating jobs- which we need right now.
SB 6286: Strengthening Flood Control in our Region. This bill recognizes that the flood control activities that King County used to perform have now been transferred to the flood control zone district, and therefore the same legal immunity should be provided to them. The new law provides immunity to flood control zone districts and cities from liability for any damage caused by acts or omissions relating to the improvement, protection, regulation, and control for flood prevention and navigation purposes of any river or its tributaries.
SB 6395: Preventing Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). SLAPP suits are initiated to intimidate or retaliate against people who speak out about a matter of public concern. In the 1980’s, SLAPP suits became a common way for developers to silence the people who spoke out publicly against the development. The practice soon spread to other corporations. When advocates spoke out against a dangerous products, environmentally unsound development, or pollution from a factory, the corporations would institute a SLAPP suit claiming damages for defamation or interference with a business relationship resulting from a communication made by a person or group. Even if the suit was unsuccessful, the high-cost of litigation was an effective way of shutting down your opposition, who probably didn’t have enough money to defend themselves against well-paid corporate lawyers. That’s right: until our Legislature acted to slow this practice in 1989, it was technically legal to use the courts themselves as a weapon against free speech.
The need for an update to strengthen this law was brought to my attention by some attorneys and advocates who specialize in free speech cases. SB 6395 broadens the scope of the protection to cover “any statement submitted in connection with an issue under consideration by a legislative, executive, or judicial or other proceeding authorized by law…or that is reasonably likely to encourage or enlist public participation [in such an effort]…or made in a public forum in connection with an issue of public concern.” The bill creates a procedure by which a court, at an early point in the lawsuit, can consider whether it was brought to stifle speech. If so, it can award the speaker costs of litigation and attorney’s fees, as well as a penalty of up to $10,000.
The First Amendment freedom to “petition government for redress of grievances” means nothing if one can be forced to defend one’s words against a well-funded antagonist, even though court may ultimately agree that they are protected speech.
SB 6398: Strengthening Our Hate Crimes Statute. This bill clarifies the definition of “threat” in our state’s hate crime statute. Under current law, a person can be convicted of malicious harassment if he or she maliciously and intentionally commits one or more of the following acts because of his or her perception of the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or mental, physical or sensory handicap: causes physical injury to the victim or another person; causes physical damage to or destruction of the property of the victim or another person; or threatens a specific person or group of people and places that person or members of the specific group of persons in reasonable fear of harm to person or property.
However, the Court of Appeals has interpreted “threat” to include only future threats and not immediate or near future threats. Because of this, this bill was supported by the King County Prosecutor’s office, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and the Anti-Defamation League. SB 6398 changed the definition of threat to include immediate as well as future threats and codifies current prosecutorial practice.
SB 6590: Requiring law enforcement officers to “be truthful and honest” while carrying out their duties. Although the majority of police officers are honest, we in Southeast Seattle have too often witnessed the questionable behavior of police officers toward suspects or those already in custody, which often has been covered up in subsequent investigations. In 2009, our state Supreme Court ruled that an arbitrator had the power to reinstate a deputy who was fired by the Kitsap County sheriff’s office for a long list of allegations, including misconduct and lying to his superiors. The deputy’s union has a contract with the county that stipulates a binding arbitration process in cases of employee discipline. The arbitrator insisted that the county shouldn’t have fired the deputy because there is no policy that prevents the employment of dishonest police officers, and the Supreme Court affirmed the arbitrator’s decision.
We must insist on honesty from our officers. SB 6590 states, “It is the policy of the state of Washington that all commissioned, appointed, and elected law enforcement personnel comply with their oath of office and agency policies regarding the duty to be truthful and honest in the conduct of their official business.”
SB 6591: Improving the Work of the Human Rights Commission: I introduced this bill at the request of the Washington State Human Rights Commission (HRC), the agency responsible for administering and enforcing the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD). (The WLAD provides that every person has a right to be free from discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, sex, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal. This right applies to employment, public accommodations, real estate transactions, credit transactions, insurance, and commerce. Additionally, discrimination on the basis of age, marital status, or family with children status is prohibited in some circumstances.)
In order to make the agency work more efficiently, my legislation changes the initial review and investigation requirements of complaints alleging unfair practices in violation of the WLAD. It’s important to note that the bill doesn’t reduce any of the law’s protections for those whose complaints are substantial.
SB 6673: Reforming Our State’s Policies and Procedures Regarding Bail. Because the man who killed four police officers in Lakewood last fall was out on bail, there has been intense discussion about our state’s bail policies, procedures and practices. While a public outcry has been mounted by radio talk-show hosts, in an attempt to restrict the right of bail, it quickly became apparent to me that we needed to take a more deliberate and thoughtful route before making any major changes. This bill establishes a legislative work group to review all aspects of bail and pretrial release, and to make recommendations to the legislature by the end of the year, hopefully when the political climate has become calmer.
This bill is my alternative to literally every bill that was filed in the House or Senate on the issue of bail, other than the constitutional amendment that will go to the voters in November. While working with my Republican colleagues to devise constitutional language that would preserve the constitutional right to pretrial release to the extent possible, I did not want to have the Legislature vote on individual bills when the political pressure was so strong in the opposite direction. This bill will give us more time to act calmly and deliberately.
The task force will bring together a wide range of stakeholders, including prosecutors, defenders, corrections officers, the ACLU, bail bond agents, and representatives from the courts and law enforcement. I firmly believe that the recommendations of the task force will lead to strong and effective procedural changes and legislation.
SB 6674: Increasing fairness for small trucking companies. Currently, small trucking companies who sign contracts with large shippers (mostly manufacturers and giant retailers) are forced to sign contracts that shift all of the liability to the smaller companies. This has been a problem for some time but has recently been brought to a boil by the economy. There is both a decrease in shipping in this recession and an abundance of trucks; therefore, rates have suffered. The small trucking companies often fail to understand what it means to sign an indemnification contract. They end up taking on all responsibility and often do not have insurance. They end up facing horrendous consequences compared to the more sophisticated, big companies. Seventeen states have passed similar statutes. This bill gives smaller companies negotiating power and levels the playing field, and brings motor carrier transportation indemnification contracts into parity with similar contracts. It also makes things fair and consistent with the tort reform act. Truckers should only be responsible for their share of the fault.
SB 6702: Implementing educational programs for juveniles in adult jails. I sponsored this bill at the request of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The number of juveniles being held in county jails has increased dramatically over the past several years. At the prosecutor’s request, courts may decline to treat a 16- or 17-year old as a juvenile offender, resulting in “adult” felony charges in Superior Court. Rather than being incarcerated in juvenile facilities, where they would have access educational programs, these youth are incarcerated in the adult county jails where there are no educational programs.
The new law sets forth the responsibilities of OSPI, school districts and adult jail facilities regarding the new educational programs. Education certainly isn’t a cure-all, but numerous evidence-based studies show that educational programs are an effective way to assist incarcerated youth to become contributing members of their communities when they are released. This bill is a good investment.
2007-2008 Legislature
During the 2007-2008 biennium, I continued to serve as the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for legislation dealing with our courts, the criminal justice system, the laws regarding civil liability, and the civil liberties guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions. I served on the Senate Rules Committee, which considers all of the legislation passed out of policy and fiscal committees and determines whether, and in what order, to schedule their consideration on the Senate floor by the full Senate. In addition, I served on the Senate Government and Operations Committee, which considers issues relating to the operations of counties, cities, and special districts; elections; regulatory reform; open government; public works issues; and performance audits. The Gov Ops Committee also considers issues relating to the Growth Management Act and related land use issues, such as local permitting, the subdivision of property, and property rights.
SB 5228: Protecting consumers from unfair practices. Under our state’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA), various business practices are declared unlawful. These practices include engaging in monopoly, and the restraint of trade or competition. The Attorney General may bring an action to restrain a person from violating the CPA, and to seek relief for persons injured by violation of the CPA.
As a result of a federal court ruling, the question arose as to whether the Attorney General is authorized to bring an action for a CPA violation on behalf of persons who are “indirect purchasers” of goods or services. (An example of an indirect purchaser might be the ultimate consumer of a product that was bought from a retailer who bought from a producer who violated the act. The retailer would be the direct purchaser, and the consumer would be the indirect purchaser of the product.)
In the years before the federal court ruling, our AG had brought in $48 million on behalf of consumers who were “indirect purchasers” and had been hurt by activities that violate our CPA. Washington was in the small minority of states which hadn’t clarified the availability of indirect purchaser remedies, and we needed to pass this law to make sure our AG was able to continue to take legal action on behalf of indirect purchasers.
SB 5340: Protecting People with disabilities: Our state law against discrimination has protected people with physical, mental or sensory disabilities a decade longer than the federal American Disabilities Act (ADA). When we added disability as a prohibited ground of discrimination in the early 1970’s, we left the term “disability” undefined in statute. This allowed the courts to define the term on a case-by-case basis, as courts have done historically when terms are left undefined in statute. Through a series of court cases, our state’s definition of “disability” became a fairly broad one: although a condition must present a substantial problem in life and work, it may also be temporary in nature.
In a 2006 State Supreme Court decision, a majority of the Justices disregarded 35 years of judicial opinion defining “disability,” on the ground that an administrative regulation written by the Human Rights Commission in the 1970’s contained “circular logic.” They were quite right that the regulation was circular – which is why the courts had for 35 years simply ignored it and written their own definition, as courts do. The accumulated judicial opinions had long ago superseded the regulation as the reigning definition of the term.
The Court, however, seized upon the regulation as a pretext to disregard our state’s strong law against discrimination, and to weaken it to those conditions which severely restrict a person’s ability to live his or her daily life – in effect, defining as disabled only those who need help literally to just manage living. This is the effect of the federal ADA, which the majority, in an undisguised act of judicial activism, grafted upon state law. As a protection for employment, the majority opinion would render the law virtually irrelevant, for it would then apply to very few of the thousands of gainfully employed Washingtonians with disabilities.
I drafted the bill with the assistance of a wide range of community groups as well as attorneys who represent workers and people with disabilities. Our purpose was not to expand the definition of “disability” — though business interests apparently saw it that way – but to simply restate the essence of those 35 years of case-decisions and preserve the status-quo of our state law which does a much better job of protecting people with disabilities than does the ADA.
SB 5351: Closing a loophole in travel reimbursement for judges in Court of Appeals. Our state Court of Appeals contains three divisions, each serving a defined geographic area of the state, headquartered in Seattle, Tacoma, and Spokane. Because of the size of the regions, many of judges serving the Court of Appeals are required to travel as part of their duties. Unlike judges in every other type of court, the Court of Appeal judges were not reimbursed for court-related travel expenses, and were absorbing significant out-of-pocket expenses. SB 5351 closed this loophole in our state law, and directed the Court of Appeals to draft the reimbursement rule so that the cost fits within the appropriation authorized by the Legislature.
SB 5868: Curbing the work of Paramilitary Training Camps. In 2002, I helped pass an anti-”civil disorder training” bill making it illegal to instruct others how to commit violent public disturbances intended to hurt people. The goal was to prevent hate groups from operating paramilitary training camps in Washington. After this statute was originally passed, there was a drop off in the number of groups from other states crossing into Washington in order to conduct training in our state. However, we discovered that the existing law has a loophole, in that it didn’t prohibit training in how to commit violent disturbances if those violent disturbances are intended to destroy property. This bill closes that loophole.
SB 6060: Assist tenants to retain their homes. This bill revises the legal time-lines for evictions for lack of rent. SSB 6060 clarified an ambiguous section of eviction law which had for many years been a stumbling block to tenants’ access to due process under the law. The bill addressed the issue of payment of rent into the court registry. Prior to the legislation, the eviction summons and complaint documents delivered to a tenant did not have to include clear information regarding when a tenant must make the payment of rent into the court registry in order to maintain his or her right to a hearing. As a result, tenants who would otherwise have a legal defense on the merits of the case would lose their right to a hearing because they failed to file with the court either a rent payment or a declaration that the amount is not owed. SB 6060 clarifies that the payment or declaration may be made up to the date and time of the hearing, and clarifies the procedure for tenants who are facing an eviction for non-payment of rent who actually have evidence that rent is not owed. These practical changes can make the difference between stable housing and homelessness for fixed income and low income folks.
SB 6100: Eliminating programs in our criminal justice system that are related to “bribery.” This bill mandates that a city attorney, county prosecutor, or other prosecuting authority may not dismiss, amend, or agree not to file a criminal charge or traffic infraction in exchange for a contribution, donation, or payment to any person, corporation, or organization. This bill was unfortunately necessary because some defendants in at least two municipalities were allowed to, in essence, buy their way out of a charge by making donations to non-profits. We can’t run a system of justice that allows anything like bribery.
SB 6776: Expanding Protection for Whistleblowers. This is the second time in my work as a Senator that I’ve improved our state’s whistleblower laws, which encourages state employees to disclose improper governmental action and provides protection to those employees who report improper action. (My first improvement of our whistleblower program was SB 5672 in 1999.) This legislation is a significant expansion of the whistleblower act. Among other things, it provides more protections to employees who experience retaliations based on their whistleblower activities and expands the time-frame for investigations. An employee who discovers corruption or illegal behavior should feel confident and protected as they come forward. This bill strengthens our whistleblower protections, and improves government accountability and transparency.
2005-2006 Legislature
During the 2007-2008 biennium, I continued to serve as the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for legislation dealing with our courts, the criminal justice system, the laws regarding civil liability, and the civil liberties guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions. I served on the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee, which considers policy and financing issues relating to health care delivery and access, emerging public health issues, long-term care for all vulnerable populations, regulatory matters involving health professions and health care facilities. The committee also considers such topics as end-of-life, medical marijuana, emerging health-related technologies, and medical malpractice legislation.
In addition, I served on the Senate Government and Operations Committee, which considers issues relating to the operations of counties, cities, and special districts; elections; regulatory reform; open government; public works issues; and performance audits. The Gov Ops Committee also considers issues relating to the Growth Management Act and related land use issues, such as local permitting, the subdivision of property, and property rights.
SB 5053: Facilitating more effective notice requirements for parenting plans, legal separation or invalidity of marriage, and for nonparental custody. This legislation authorizes “service by publication” in court actions to establish or modify parenting plans, for legal separation or invalidity of marriage, and for nonparental custody. Court proceedings are commenced by delivery of a copy of the summons and petition to the respondent. Personal service – the actual delivery of the documents — is the preferred method. Service of summons by mail or by publication is sometimes effective when all attempts at personal service have failed in spite of due diligence. Prior to this legislation, service by publication was authorized by statute for divorce proceedings when the respondent cannot be located and personally served. It was also available if the respondent conceals himself, or herself, or has moved out of state to avoid service. The summons must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the action is brought, once a week for six consecutive weeks. This legislation expands the instances in which service by publication can be used as a last resort.
SB 5332: Renaming King County after Martin Luther King, Jr. Almost every year of my time in the Senate, I had filed a bill which read in its entirety, “King County is named in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Until this year, I was told by Republicans that “we can’t rewrite history.” But this year, the Senate voted unanimously for this legislation. King County was established in 1852 and originally named for William Rufus DeVane King, a slaveowner and Senator from Alabama who went on to serve as vice-president of the United States from 1853 to 1857 during the Franklin Pierce administration. In 1986, the King County Council changed the origin of the name to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But the state had to certify the change to make it official and to allow King County to change its official motto. The bill required no spending and provided no funds. King County is a very diverse county and when we come together to solve our communities’ problems, having the spirit of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. with us is a great inspiration and motivation. I’m proud to live in Martin Luther King County!
SB 5433: Increasing the fairness and effectiveness of our Commission on Judicial Conduct. The Commission on Judicial Conduct investigates complaints against judges and holds hearing to determine if a judge or justice should be admonished, reprimanded, censured, or if the judge’s removal or suspension from office should be recommended to the supreme court. The commission is composed of 11 members. Three members are judges selected by and from the court of appeals judges, superior court judges, and district court judges. Two members are attorneys selected by the bar association, and six members are nonlawyers appointed by the governor. This legislation modified the membership of the Commission to allow one member to be selected by and from the judges of all courts of limited jurisdiction instead of district courts. This would allow a municipal court judge to be a member of the commission. Municipal court judges are subject to the jurisdiction of the commission. It is fair that they be allowed to participate in selection of one member of the commission and that they qualify to serve on the commission if elected.
SB 5477: Improving our criminal sentencing policies and procedures. Our state statutes provide that convicted offenders and those that plead guilty are sentenced by a judge during a sentencing hearing. Most offenders receive sentences within the standard sentence range, but our statutes allowed the judge to impose a sentence other than the standard sentence if the judge finds substantial and compelling reasons that justify a mitigated (shorter) or aggravated (longer) sentence. In relation to aggravated sentences, this procedure was invalidated by the United States Supreme Court in Blakely v. State of Washington. The U. S. Supreme Court held that, because the facts of Blakely’s exceptional sentence were neither admitted nor found by a jury, the sentence violated his Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury under the Constitution of the United States. This complex and controversial legislation amended our Sentencing Reform Act to require that any fact used to support the imposition of an exceptional sentence above a defendant’s standard sentencing range be proven at trial beyond a reasonable doubt. It clarified the intent of the Legislature by recognizing the need to restore judicial discretion in sentencing.
SB 5620: Making sure we have enough “Open Space.” Several years ago, our state’s Open Space Taxation Act declared that it is in our best interest to maintain and preserve adequate open space lands for the production of food, fiber, and forest crops, as well as to ensure the continued preservation of the state’s natural resources and scenic beauty. A statutory scheme was put in place to encourage the preservation of designated open space, farm and agricultural, and timber lands through the creation of a system of tax incentives. Counties are authorized to set open space priorities, adopt an open space plan, and create a “public benefit rating system” for tax assessment purposes. My bill mandates that in adopting open space plans, public benefit rating systems, and assessed valuation schedules, counties must give priority consideration to lands used for buffers that have primarily native vegetation. It’s important that priority consideration be given to buffers, which are very important for maintaining water quality. This legislation provides an incentive for landowners to establish and maintain buffers in native vegetation.
SB 5644: Making treatment more available for people charged with Driving Under the Influence. This bill cured a situation that developed because the Legislature has taken
increasingly strong stands against drunk driving (many of which I proposed or supported). The law assumes that prosecutors will file charges soon after a person is arrested for drunk driving. Unfortunately, particularly in King County and in other counties with a backlog of court cases, this sometimes does not happen. Because of this delay, if a person wishes to seek a deferred prosecution in order to seek treatment, he or she does not know which court to petition for the deferred prosecution. (In order to be eligible for a deferred prosecution, a person must accept the charges and waive their right to trial. They must also admit that alcoholism, drug addiction, or mental problems caused him or her to commit the offense, and must commit to two years of treatment, periodic urinalysis. They will pay the cost of their treatment.)
Deferred prosecution is a proven program that should be allowed to work. The bill provides an incentive for offenders with drinking problems to get into treatment sooner. This legislation made it easier to begin treatment by making changes with respect to the stay of an administrative license suspension or revocation for a person who has been charged with DUI and is seeking a deferred prosecution. One of the benefits of deferred prosecution is that the person does not have to face license suspension or revocation. When a person arrested for drunk driving notifies the DOL of his or her intent to petition for a deferred prosecution, the DOL must stay any administrative suspension or revocation of the person’s license. The stay will be for the shorter of 150 days after criminal charges are filed, or two years after the arrest.
SB 5733: Saving money and improving our court system by increasing the use of arbitration. Arbitration is a nonjudicial method for resolving disputes in which a third party is given authority to decide the case. Arbitration is intended to be a less expensive and time-consuming way of settling problems than taking a dispute to court. Although arbitration is often voluntary, in some cases, arbitration is required by a statute, and the parties have no choice in the matter. Previous to this legislation, mandatory arbitration was required in the superior courts of counties of more than 150,000 population. It applied to cases in which the sole relief sought was a money judgment of $15,000 or less. This bill lowered the population threshold for counties that are required to have mandatory arbitration from 150,000 to 100,000. The optional monetary ceiling for cases that are subject to mandatory arbitration is raised from $35,000 to $50,000. An award by an arbitrator may be appealed to the superior court. This legislation helps to create expeditious and satisfactory settlements to conflicts with a minimum of court costs.
SB 6014: Strengthening our state’s ability to deal effectively with disasters. A series of man-made and natural disasters have caused communities around the country to devote more resources to planning for both types of disasters. In the event of such a disaster, there are special provisions regarding injuries suffered by volunteers, citizens who are commandeered, and for emergency relief workers, yet there are little to no provisions for non-governmental employers or their workers who want to assist with relief efforts in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster. This bill mandates that when a worker of a non-governmental employer is injured or develops an occupational disease due to an exposure while employed in response to a request for assistance in the life and rescue phase of an emergency, the cost of workers compensation benefits is reimbursed from the disaster response account to the appropriate workers’ compensation fund, or to the self-insured employer. First responders such as police officers can’t respond to disasters alone. The labor, equipment, and expertise of the private sector are critical and provisions to protect such employers are vital. This legislation helps to make sure that we get the help we need in case of a disaster.
SB 6595: Making sure that corporations are held accountable. This legislation amends provisions of the Business Corporations Act relating to the authorization, procedures, and legal effect of a voluntary dissolution of a corporation. For example, it corrects some unclear statutes that had resulted in corporations that had “dissolved” not being held accountable for actions taken before their dissolution.
SB 6630: Protect the community and people with disabilities. This legislation creates the Community Protection Program to provide a voluntary, structured, therapeutic environment for persons who have developmental disabilities and who constitute a risk to others. In 1996, the Legislature began providing funding to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to create and run a program for persons over the age of 18 with developmental disabilities who have demonstrated violent or sexually violent behaviors. The program exists through budget proviso and through Division of Developmental Disabilities policy but was not set out in statute. I forged an agreement with state agencies and the community groups who work with people with disabilities to establish the program in the statute, giving gives participants stronger due process rights. It also clarifies the duties and responsibilies of healthcare providers and the Department of Social and Health Services.
2003-2004 Legislature
The Republicans held the majority this biennium, and the job of Democrats was to hold the line as much as possible. I served as the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and served on the Senate Land Use and Planning Committee.
SB 5602: Improve our state’s Growth Management rules.
This bill requires local governments planning under the Growth Management Act to ensure that
comprehensive plans or development regulations provide a sufficient capacity of land
suitable for development to accommodate allocated housing and employment growth.
2001-2002 Legislature
In the 2001-2002 Legislature, I was responsible for nine bills. I was elected by my colleagues to be Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is where seven of the nine originated. I also served on the State and Local Government Committee and on the Ways and Means Committee, the Senate’ s primary fiscal committee tasked with developing operating and capital budgets and tax and pension policy.
SB 5331 expands the freedom of small businesses to employ debt-collectors to collect debts from other businesses, just as they already do from consumers. (It does not expand the use of collection agencies against consumers.)
SB 5369 was a piece of legislation long sought by women’s groups. It made it much easier to collect back child-support from “deadbeat dads,” by expanding the jurisdiction of Superior Courts to hear child-support cases, whether or not stemming from a divorce.
SB 5491 streamlined the procedure used in appealing a District Court judgment in a “small claims” case to Superior Court. Instead of allowing a new trial in a small claim, the new law allows the Superior Court to enter its decision based on a review of the testimony and written evidence introduced in the District Court.
SB 5790 re-defined the felony offense of Vehicular Assault, in more specific language that satisfied the courts, the prosecutors, and the defense lawyers. The old law had been the subject of several appeals claiming that it was vague, and therefore unconstitutional.
SB 6076 answered a request from the rural counties, whose law-enforcement budgets have been stretched thin by the recent economic decline and the truly asinine tax-cutting initiatives. It allows State Fish and Wildlife officers, acting in the course of their duties, to make arrests for violations of all state laws, not just the wildlife laws. This reduces the need for more police, which rural cities and counties can ill afford.
SB 6292 requires District and Municipal Court judges to be attorneys admitted to the bar, except in small counties with populations less than 5,000. Even in those counties, an exam similar to the bar exam must be passed. Previously, the Justice of the Peace system had been in effect, in the sense that the JP’s had been “grandfathered” as judges without a testing requirement, and those judges were not required to have legal training. This upgrades the ability and expertise of our courts.
SB 6293 allows the Municipal and District Courts to use video for witnesses located outside the court’s jurisdiction at the time of trial. As the King County Jail closes its doors to misdemeanor arrestees scheduled to appear in Seattle Municipal Court, and the City is forced to contract with adjacent counties, there will be trials in which the defendant is in custody elsewhere.
SB 6401 was filed at the request of low-income housing advocates, as a way to give notice to the public when owners or developers of “Section 8” low-income housing prepare to allow their federal designation to expire. They must give notice a year ahead to the city or county clerk, which makes it a public document. These documents may be obtained by non-profit or other groups interested in maintaining low-income housing, who may then offer to purchase the property or make other arrangements to replace the soon-to-be-lost units.
SB 6748, filed in response to a request from the South Seattle Crime Prevention Council, makes it easier to remove abandoned “hulk” vehicles from neighborhoods. These hulks are typically bought at auto-auctions, by mechanics looking for one or more parts to use in repair work, and then are stripped and abandoned. The new law requires that the buyer register his name and the vehicle’s identification number with the Dept. of Licensing on a verified form. This information is made available to the police by radio, so the owner of a hulk can be identified and fined heavily. The South Seattle Crime Prevention Council is encouraged by the results.
1999-2000 Sessions
When we Democrats took the majority of the Senate in the 1999-2000 sessions, I was made Vice-Chair of the Judiciary Committee, by vote of my Democratic colleagues. It was both an honor and a challenge, since the Committee is responsible for legislation dealing with our courts, the criminal justice system, the laws regarding civil liability, and the civil liberties guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions. I also served on the Labor and Workforce Committee, which considered legislation regarding collective bargaining, the workers’ compensation and the unemployment insurance systems, workforce development, and an array of business issues.
SB 5152, filed in 1999 but passed in 2000, amends the definition of “public employee” for determining the right of collective bargaining. Among other changes, it allows prosecuting attorneys to bargain collectively. I filed it in response to a situation in which the Spokane County Prosecutor had claimed the right to fire several deputy prosecutors without so much as a hearing.
SB 5442, passed in 1999, was a way to help fund the Housing Trust Fund, which is used to finance low-income housing. It uses the interest on realtors’ trust funds, the money deposited by buyers while waiting for escrow transactions to close. The interest is aggregated statewide, and paid to the Fund for use in low-interest loans to developers of low-income housing.
SB 5509, also in the 1999 session, was a legislative triumph. It creates a right of Holocaust survivors to make claims on their life and/or property insurance, claims which were routinely denied by European insurance companies in the postwar years. It operates directly against the American insurance companies which, like most insurers worldwide, are subsidiaries of the seven European insurance conglomerates. It allows the Insurance Commissioner to deny a license to any US-based subsidiary unless the European parent company publishes the names of its policyholders of unclaimed European policies. (The bill is explained in greater detail, under the page on Legislative Accomplishments.)
SB 5671, another 1999 bill, repealed almost all of the pre-World War I laws against the I.W.W. (the “Wobblies,”) laws which had prohibited free speech and the right of assembly to all persons who identified themselves as members of “an anarchist organization,” which term was applied to the I.W.W. The old law also had sections which prohibited acts of “industrial sabotage,” but these sections were considered duplicative of other laws and therefore unnecessary by the Prosecutors, who supported the bill.
SB 5672, a 1999 amendment to the Whistleblower Act, was filed in response to the difficulties of state employees who had reported inefficiency, waste, or other wrongdoing on the job, and had been disciplined or fired for their efforts. Most of these were employees who had reported violations of environmental laws by the Department of Ecology, the Department of Natural Resources, and the State Parks. The bill makes it necessary for the agency to prove that the discipline was due to some other cause, by reversing the burden of proof. In other words, when a State employee who has been active in reporting fraud, waste, legal violations, or mismanagement by a State agency suddenly finds himself or herself facing discipline, it’s no longer the employee’s burden to prove that he or she was disciplined for “blowing the whistle,” but rather the agency’s burden to show that the discipline was for some separate reason. In the years since this became law, State employees and their advocacy organization report greater freedom in speaking out about environmental violations.
SB 5954 clarifies the right of a state assistance recipient in the event of an injury which leads to the recipient’s claim or lawsuit. He or she can recover from the wrongdoer, but must pay the state back for a portion of the benefits received.
SB 6351, passed in 2000, helps fight court congestion, an increasing problem as counties fall behind in funding the Superior and District Courts. It expands the types of civil motions that may be decided by Court Commissioners, in lieu of Judges. This frees up the Judges to hear trials, and thus increases the efficiency of the Courts.
1998: Committees? Ways and Means?
SB 6142, passed while the Democrats were in the minority, creates an administrative process by which a DUI results in the revocation of a driver’s license. It has proven effective in convincing an increasing percentage of defendants to seek alcohol treatment in order to get their licenses back. A couple of days in jail isn’t enough of a “hammer” to force that change in behavior, but the prospect of losing a license for 90 days is quite adequate.
