Other LanguagesThe legislature may constitutionally enact legislation designating the Tuesday after the first Monday of November of every odd-numbered year as a general state election date on which (1) constitutional amendments, initiatives, referendums and state bond issues (Article VIII, § 3) ready for submission , will be submitted to the qualified voters of the entire state for their approval or rejection; (2) school directors will be elected by the qualified voters throughout the entire state; and (3) city and other public officers specified in RCW 29.13.020 will be elected by the qualified voters entitled to vote on such offices.
The constitutional changes proposed by House Joint Resolution No. 41 (now pending before the legislature) will not affect Article VIII, § 8 (Amendment 45) relating to port district industrial development and promotional hosting.
1. Article 28 of the Washington Constitution (Amendment 78) provides that an independent salary commission shall set the salary for district court judges. With regard to part-time district court judges, the commission has set the salary based on the proportion of full-time work for which the part-time judge is authorized. The county legislative authority determines the proportion of work for which the part-time district court judge is authorized. 2. Prior to 1991 the commission had not established a salary for part-time district court judges. Amendment 78 provides that salaries in effect in 1987 shall remain in effect until changed by the commission. Thus, part-time district court judge salaries were set pursuant to RCW 3.58.020 until 1991 when the commission changed the salary. At that time, the salaries were properly set by the commission. 3. RCW 3.46.060 provides that a nonattorney can seek election as a district court judge under certain circumstances. A nonattorney district court judge can seek reelection if he or she is a registered voter of the district court district, and has been elected and has served as a district court judge. A nonattorney district court judge with these two qualifications can seek reelection even if the population of the district is between 5,000 and 10,000.
The recent enactment by Congress of an amendment to the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 which is designed to establish a nation-wide minimum voting age of 18 years for all primary or general elections held after January 1, 1970, affords no basis in law for removing the proposed state constitutional amendment which is contained in H.J.R. No. 6 from the forthcoming November, 1970 state general election ballot.
Senate Joint Resolution No. 113, proposing a new judicial article to the state Constitution, may be submitted to the voters as a single amendment to the state Constitution.
1.The Commission on Judicial Conduct is not required to make public informal admonishments of judges, unless such informal admonishments arise out of a hearing or proceeding required by law to be public.2.When a judge waives confidentiality as to an investigation by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, the law requires the fact that there is an investigation to be made public; however, the Commission retains authority to determine whether other aspects of the investigation will be kept confidential.
None of the constitutional amendments which were proposed by the 1967 legislature are to be submitted to the voters for their approval or rejection at the November 7, 1967, election; rather all of these measures are to be submitted to the voters at the November 5, 1968, state general election.
(1) In the event of formation of a combined city and county municipal corporation, as provided for by Article XI, § 16 (Amendment 23) of the Washington constitution, such municipality would be a single municipal corporation for purposes of measuring its limitation upon indebtedness under Article VIII, § 6 (Amendment 27) of the constitution. (2) Article VII, § 1 (Amendment 14) of the Washington constitution would require that taxes levied by such a combined city and county municipal corporation ". . . be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of . . ." such combined county and city. (3) The legislature, as part of an act providing for the formation of a combined city and county municipal corporation, could authorize the formation of subsidiary units which would be analogous to the community municipal corporations authorized by chapter 73, Laws of 1967.