Skip to main content
Loading…
This section is included in your selections.

For the purpose of this chapter:

(1) "Action" means any decision, determination, finding, ruling or order; and any grant, payment, award, license, contract, transaction, sanction, or approval, or the denial thereof, or failure to act with respect thereto;

(2) "Appearance of Fairness" means that Doctrine applied by Washington State Courts and chapter 42.36 RCW to quasi-judicial actions;

(3) "Appointed official" means the chief deputy of any elected official, the chief officer or director of any office or department who is appointed by the executive or county council, any quasi-judicial officer and the members of the planning commission, the board of equalization, the boundary review board, and the ethics commission;

(4) "Compensation" includes payment in any form for real or personal property or services of any kind; PROVIDED, That "compensation" shall not include per diem allowances or payments made by a governmental entity to reimburse a public official for expenses incurred while the official is engaged in the official business of the governmental entity.

(5) "Contribution" means a loan, gift, deposit, subscription, forgiveness of indebtedness, donation, advance, pledge, payment, transfer of funds between political committees, or transfer of anything of value, including personal and professional services, for less than full consideration, but does not include interest on moneys deposited in a political committee’s account, ordinary home hospitality and the rendering of personal services of the sort commonly performed by volunteer campaign workers, or incidental expenses personally incurred by volunteer campaign workers not in excess of $50.00 personally paid for by the worker. Volunteer services, for the purposes of this chapter, means services or labor for which the individual is not compensated by any person. For the purposes of this chapter, contributions other than money or its equivalents shall be deemed to have a money value equivalent to the fair market value of the contribution. Sums paid for tickets to fund-raising events such as dinners and parties are contributions; however, the amount of any such contribution may be reduced for the purpose of complying with the reporting requirements of this chapter, by the actual cost of consumables furnished in connection with the purchase of the tickets, and only the excess over the actual cost of the consumables shall be deemed a contribution;

(6) "County employee" means any person, other than an elected or appointed official and judge or employee of superior and district courts, who is employed by the county or any elected or appointed official in their official capacity;

(7) "Elected official" means any person elected at a general or special election to any county public office, and any person appointed to fill a vacancy in any such office, except judges of the superior or district courts or precinct committee officers;

(8) "Ethics" means principles of conduct governing an individual or a profession; standards of behavior;

(9) "Ex-parte communication" means any communication, written or oral and relating to a quasi-judicial action between an elected or appointed official and only one party to said action without the presence of other parties to the action;

(10) "Gift" or "Thing of Value" means anything of economic value, but shall not include campaign contributions regulated by the provisions of chapter 42.17A RCW; informational materials exclusively for official or office use; memorials, trophies, and plaques of no commercial value; gifts of $50.00 or less for bona fide, nonrecurring, ceremonial occasions; or any gifts which are not used and which within 30 days after receipt are returned to the donor or donated to a charitable organization without seeking a tax deduction;

(11) "Immediate family" means the spouse, children, parents and siblings of an elected or appointed county official or county employee and shall include the children, parents and siblings of the spouse of any official or employee;

(12) "Individual" means a single natural person as distinguished from a partnership or corporation;

(13) "Lobby" and "lobbying" each mean attempting to influence the passage or defeat of any legislation by the Snohomish County council, or the adoption or rejection of any rule, standard, rate, or other enactment of any county agency. Neither "lobby" nor "lobbying" includes an association’s or other organization’s act of communicating with the members of that association or organization;

(14) "Lobbyist" includes any person who lobbies either in his own or another’s behalf;

(15) "Lobbyist’s employer" means the person or persons by whom a lobbyist is employed and all persons by whom he is compensated for acting as a lobbyist;

(16) "Natural person" means an individual human being as distinguished from a partnership, corporation or other association;

(17) "Organized group" means any political committee (other than groups created for the purpose of a single specific candidate for his/her own campaign), political party, or any special interest group; PROVIDED, That after December 31, 1995 "organized group" shall mean political action committees (including political parties) who have filed with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, provided that groups created solely for the purpose of campaigning for the election of a specific candidate shall not be an organized group for the purposes of this chapter;

(18) "Person" means:

(a) An individual;

(b) A partnership, limited partnership, public or private corporation, or joint venture;

(c) A nonprofit corporation, organization, or association, including but not limited to, a national, state, or local labor union or collective bargaining organization and a national, state, or local trade or professional association;

(d) A federal, state, or local governmental entity or agency, however constituted;

(e) A candidate, committee, political committee, bona fide political party, or executive committee thereof; and

(f) Any other organization or group of persons, however organized;

(19) "Quasi-judicial actions" are those actions of the legislative body, planning commission, hearing examiner, zoning adjuster, board of adjustment, or other appointed or elected board which determine the legal rights, duties, or privileges of specific parties in a hearing or other contested case proceeding. Quasi-judicial actions do not include legislative actions adopting, amending, or revising comprehensive, community, or neighborhood plans or other land use planning documents or the adoption of area-wide zoning ordinances or the adoption of a zoning amendment that is of area-wide significance.

(20) "Transaction with the county" means to participate in any proceeding, application, submission, request for ruling or other determination, contract, claim, case or other matter which the appointed official believes, or has reason to believe is, or will be, (1) the subject of county action; (2) one to which the county is or will be a party; or (3) one in which the county has a direct and substantial financial or proprietary interest. (Added by Ord. 91-084, July 1, 1991; Amended by Ord. 92-007, Feb. 19, 1992; Amended by Ord. 92-132, Nov. 18, 1992; Amended by Amended Ord. 95-056 § 1, July 19, 1995, Eff date Oct. 25, 1995; Amended by Ord. 97-061 § 1, July 9, 1997, Eff date July 20, 1997; Amended by Ord. 02-038, Sept. 4, 2002, Eff date Jan. 1, 2003; Amended by Ord. 03-067, June 18, 2003, Eff date June 30, 2003; Amended by Ord. 21-013, Mar. 17, 2021, Eff date Apr. 2, 2021).