Drafter
Clerk 11/19/2025
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AN ORDINANCE that adopts the 2026-2027 Biennial Budget and makes appropriations for the operation of county agencies and departments and capital improvements for the fiscal biennium beginning January 1, 2026, and ending December 31, 2027; and establishing an effective date.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. To the extent that the executive considers any proviso or expenditure restriction included in the 2026-2027 biennial budget to be unduly burdensome, the executive should notify the council as soon as possible if the executive anticipates any difficulty in responding to proviso or expenditure restriction direction in the budget and is encouraged to transmit a supplemental budget in the first quarter of 2026 proposing revisions to the content, deadlines, and restricted amounts.
2. It is the council's assumption that various new full time equivalent and term limited temporary positions paid for by the general fund or general fund overhead in the following appropriation units will be hired on July 1, 2026: adult and juvenile detention; jail health services; judicial administration; superior court; prosecuting attorney; county auditor; office of performance, strategy, and budget; office of emergency management; and human resources. Should the executive or a separately elected official determine a business need exists to hire those positions sooner than July 1, 2026, the executive or separately elected official may do so and request any additional funding necessary in a future supplemental budget.
3. In 2024, the Washington State Bar Association ("the WSBA") Board of Governors adopted revised standards for indigent defense services ("the WSBA Revised Standards") and recommended that the Washington state Supreme Court ("the Supreme Court") incorporate the WSBA Revised Standards into the court rules governing indigent defense standards. On June 9, 2025, the Supreme Court issued interim order In re Standards for Indigent Defense Implem...

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