Cities partner with legislators to meet specific needs.

By Kaya Williams

Rockford’s deputy town clerk, Jennie Hagen, remembers the exact moment that inspired local leaders to pitch a bill that would change state law.

It was mid-August 2022. A burst of hail and wind had whipped through Rockford, a community of about 600 residents in Spokane County, so hard and so fast that it left a trail of downed trees and debris in its wake.

“The town looked like a hurricane had come through it,” Hagen recalls.

Local contractors were hired to help Rockford crews clean it all up. That created a conundrum when winter arrived because one of the town’s snow removal contractors who had responded to the emergency also served on the Rockford Town Council. As a municipal officer, he was subject to state regulations limiting how much money he could earn contracting with the town.

“When November came around and snow started to fall, we could hardly have him work because he had already worked so much in August and September helping clean up after the storm,” Hagen says.

The state’s earnings limit of $1,500 per month or $18,000 per year hadn’t been updated since 1999 and didn’t reflect the cost of inflation (in 1999, $1,500 had the buying power of $2,917 today). Given the modest salary of a Rockford councilmember ($34,173 per year), most elected officials rely on outside work to augment their incomes. In a small town like Rock-ford, it’s hard enough to find locals who are willing to serve on the town council, much less those who are qualified to operate a front-end loader.

The town reached out to its legislators for help. Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, agreed to sponsor the bill, which Hagen drafted. Councilmember Micki Harnois testified in support of the bill.

The resulting legislation (HB 1577), which was unanimously passed by the state House and Senate later that spring, doubled the allowance for beneficial contracts with a municipal officer to $3,000 a month or $36,000 a year, limited to cities and towns of 5,000 people or less.

While the change was a response to a very specific set of circumstances in Rockford, Hagen says the legislation will help small cities and towns across the state facing similar challenges. She encourages other cities to be proactive and submit comments on a bill if it might impact them—positively or negatively.

When pitching an idea to legislators, it helps to start the conversation early, says David Vorse, the City of Castle Rock’s public works director.

“Engage them and take time to educate them,” Vorse says. “Make sure they understand what the problem is.”

That’s exactly what Castle Rock did with SB 5365. The community was looking for different ways to fund public libraries outside of an excise tax that’s hard to pass by voters or a tight general fund that’s focused on other priorities. One alternative Castle Rock considered: including space for a library inside a community center, supported with money from a parks and recreation district—provided state law would allow it.

Existing legislation permitted funding to support recreation facilities like a community or senior center, but it didn’t specify whether libraries could be part of those plans. Considering today’s libraries have expanded beyond centers for reading and peaceful study to become hubs for gathering and play, their inclusion seemed like a natural fit.

When someone used to say the word ‘library,’ all they’d think of is it being very quiet and only having books. Libraries are far, far from that now. They’re very, very much a community center.
– David Vorse, City of Castle Rock Public Works Director

“When someone used to say the word ‘library,’ all they’d think of is it being very quiet and only having books,” Vorse says. “Libraries are far, far from that now. They’re very, very much a community center.”

Partnering with bill sponsor Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, Vorse drafted the clarifying language and testified in support of the bill, which passed unanimously through both chambers in April and was signed into law in May. State law now allows parks and recreation districts to fund community centers that include space for a public library so long as the library takes up less than half of the center’s usable space. Castle Rock is still weighing its options for library funding going forward, but Vorse is counting this as a win—and not just for his city.

“I heard legislators say, ‘Oh man, this would be a great thing for communities in our area, too,’” he says.

For more information: rockfordwa.com; ci.castle-rock.wa.us.