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Law & Justice
Attorney General Proposes Significant Government Liability Reform
Earlier this fall, Attorney General Rob McKenna released a Seattle University Law Review article that reviews the history of legislative and court actions that have shaped and expanded the scope of governmental liability since the waiver of sovereign immunity in 1961.
Based on that article, he has drafted legislation that calls for significant reforms focused on immunity for governmental activities, particularly in the areas of offender supervision, transportation and social and health services. The bill also calls for retaining governmental liability for activities that are comparable to private business.
We are now in the process of reviewing the legislation and intend to put together a workgroup of city attorneys to advise AWC on bill language and impacts. However, the draft bill is consistent with AWC’s liability reform priority that was recently adopted by the AWC Board, and AWC will be an active supporter of the bill in the 2006 session.
For more information on this issue, contact Tammy Fellin at tammyf@awcnet.org or Sheila Gall at sheilag@awcnet.org.
To view the cover letter to article from the Attorney General and the full text of SU law review article, visit www.awcnet.org/lawjustice.
Sex Offender Management Task Force
As reported in previous Bulletins, the new law created under SHB 1147 defines a community protection zone (CPZ) as the area within 880 feet from any public or private school and prohibits certain sex offenders from living there.
It also established the Sex Offender Management Task Force and directed its members to study the effectiveness of the law and other issues related to community sex offender management. The Task Force has finished its work and is now preparing their final report and recommendations.
We are aware that several cities are awaiting the outcome of this task force before they consider following the lead of Issaquah and Monroe in passing ordinances that create stricter local CPZs. According to committee staff, the report should be ready for public distribution in a couple of weeks. AWC will make it available on our website when it is ready.
We expect the task force is going to recommend new legislation that would preempt local control on this issue but could recommend that the current law (under SHB 1147) be strengthened. AWC provided comments to the task force in which we called for restrictions to be imposed statewide, which may take pressure off local communities from enacting their own restrictions. However, we also stressed that cities must retain the authority to enact ordinances that are different from the state law, if necessary. For the full text of AWC’s comments to the task force, go to www.awcnet.org/lawjustice.
There is also other pressure on the Legislature to preempt local control on this issue. The Attorney General is also expected to propose a bill to address sex offender management issues. We understand that this proposal will include preemption.
Inmate Medical Costs
In the August Bulletin, we reported that a then-new Attorney General’s Opinion (AGO) said that cities must pay the pre-conviction medical costs of felony prisoners if they were arrested by city police. While it is questionable if this AGO changed much, it appears that it has served as a reminder for some jurisdictions, especially counties, that operate their own jails - some are now requiring the arresting agencies to pay for these medical costs.
Jail inmates’ medical needs can be significant - from broken bones to organ transplants. These are significant pressures on a city budget, and for a city with a very small budget, it can be extremely serious.
AWC is working on legislation that would expand the use of the Extraordinary Criminal Justice Account, which currently only provides funding to counties for extraordinary costs of prosecution incurred in felony cases. The bill would create a separate account to cover extraordinary medical costs for jail inmates and would allow cities to apply for the funds as well as counties.
AWC is seeking information about how your jurisdiction addresses inmate medical costs.
- Does your city contract with another city or county for jail services?
- Do you reimburse the jail provider for some or all medical costs?
- Are medical costs factored into your regular contract fees?
- Whichever way they are covered, do you pay for medical costs of misdemeanor and/or felony inmates?
Please contact Meagan Eliot at meagane@awcnet.org with your city’s information.
Court Update
On November 2, the House Judiciary Committee convened a work session at the Kirkland Municipal Court. The purpose of meeting at that site was to examine the structure of a community court – one that contracts with several neighboring cities to provide court services. Kirkland provides court services through an interlocal agreement with Medina, Clyde Hill, Yarrow Point, and Hunts Point. The committee is reviewing the various lower court structures to determine if there are efficiencies that may be gained with these innovative arrangements.
Cities’ authority to contract together for court services, as Kirkland and 32 other cities currently do is being challenged. In Medina v. Primm, the plaintiff is asserting that Medina may not a have traffic infraction written in the City of Medina adjudicated outside its corporate boundaries. The city prevailed at the lower court, but will again have to defend this practice before the appeals level sometime in 2006.
Legislation to explicitly authorize this structure is currently being considered jointly by the Administrative Office of the Courts and AWC.
On December 7, AOC and AWC representatives met to hopefully hammer out some agreement to clarify this authority. It appears as if AOC may now support some concept of cities contracting together because it is consistent with their longer-term goal of regionalizing the court system. The current proposal from AOC would require those cities that contract together to elect their judge, and take on civil and small claims cases – expanding their caseload to be concurrent with the district court. While such conditions will not be agreed to by AWC, we continue to meet with the hope of crafting some small proposal to which both sides may agree. If such an agreement is reached, we believe it would find support in the legislature.
New Public Defender Services Available
The Office of Public Defense has hired two attorneys to assist cities and counties with public defense contracting - Terry Mulligan and George Yeannakis, both of whom have extensive experience as public defenders. As you negotiate contracts with public defenders in private firms, we encourage you to use Terry and George as resources.
Contact information:
Additionally, some money was appropriated last year to fund a technical assistance attorney to assist public defenders in misdemeanor cases. That attorney, Magda Baker, has started on staff at the Washington Defender Association (WDA).
Magda is available to respond to technical assistance requests at magda.baker@defensenet.org or (206) 623-4321.
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