The 2016 Snohomish County Charter Review Commission will hear public comments Wednesday about twelve proposals to amend the County Charter.
The commission will meet Wednesday at the County Council chambers at 6 p.m. to hold a public hearing on twelve proposals to amend the Snohomish County Charter.
The twelve proposals from the commission include enlarging the county council from five to seven members, changing the date of county elections to even-numbered years, making the county prosecutor a nonpartisan office and requiring evening council meetings outside the county seat and evening meetings for certain public hearings.
Other proposals to be presented at the public hearing are adding an office of public advocate to the charter, revising the county redistricting process, revising procedures for appointment and confirmation of chief executive officers, amending the deadline for executive presentation of proposed budgets, revising the nondiscrimination language and eliminating gender-specific terms in the charter, adding a human rights commission to the charter, adding a Paine Field airport commission to the charter, and modifying the procedure of land-use appeals from the hearing examiner.
Charter Review Commission Chairwoman Jennifer Gregerson said last week that commissioners believe it is important to hear from the public about the structure of county government.
The Commission expects to take action next week on whether to recommend changes to the County Charter that will appear on the November 2016 ballot. The Commission will also receive public comment on June 29 on these proposals.
The commission received forty-two proposals from the public to amend the Charter from January through April. Each proposal presented at next week’s public hearing received at least eight votes from Commission members.
The commission includes 15 members — three from each of the county’s five council districts. Representatives from District 3, including Lynnwood, Edmonds and Woodway, are Natalia Fior, Carin Chase and Marko Liias. Representatives From District 4 — including Mountlake Terrace, Brier and Mill Creek — are Ed Barton, Cheryl Stanford and Bob Terwilliger, who is vice chairman of the commission.
Snohomish County is one of seven charter counties in Washington state. The Snohomish County Charter was adopted in 1980 and amended in 1986, and every ten years after that.
In the November 2015 general election, Snohomish County voters elected the fifteen members. The Charter Review Commission members serve an unpaid one-year term that started in January.
Final recommendations will be sent to the Snohomish County Council and then submitted to the County auditor by Aug. 2 to be placed on the November general-election ballot.
Next week’s meeting will be in the County Council chambers on the eighth floor of the County Administration Building, 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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