Proposition 15
(Drafting of Ordinance Amendments)
Ballot Title
Shall the Seattle City Charter be amended to allow for the re-enactment or amendment of uncodified ordinances by setting forth in full the section or subsection being amended, as is already permitted by State law for ordinances that have become part of the Municipal Code; and shall Article IV, Section 9 of said charter be amended accordingly?
Voter-Pamphlet Explanation
The Charter as it Exists Now
Section 9 of Article 4 of the Charter concerns the amendment of City ordinances. It specifies that no ordinance is to be revised, re-enacted or amended by reference to its title alone. Section 9 requires instead that the ordinance to be revised or re-enacted or ordinance section to be amended "shall be re-enacted at length as revised or amended." This means that the entire ordinance or ordinance section to be changed or re-enacted must be re-produced as part of the new ordinance that changes or re-enacts it.
Unlike this Charter requirement, however, state law currently requires only that the particular section or sub-section of a so-called "codified" ordinance to be amended be set forth as part of the new ordinance that amends it. ("Codified" ordinances are those that have been published as part of the Municipal Code.) This state law allows the City of Seattle to amend codified ordinances in this relatively streamlined fashion and expressly overrides the Charter's more cumbersome requirements.
However, the state law does not apply to so-called "uncodified" City ordinances (those that have not been published as part of the Municipal Code). Thus, these ordinances are still subject to the Charter's requirement that the entire ordinance or ordinance section to be changed or re-enacted be re-produced as part of the new ordinance that amends or re-enacts it.
The Effect of the Proposition if Adopted
Section 9 of Article 4 would be amended so that all City ordinances, codified and uncodified, could be amended by setting forth the section or subsection being amended.