AN ORDINANCE clarifying Title 6 of the King County Code, establishing a gender neutral code and making technical corrections; and amending Ordinance 1888, Article I, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.01.010, Ordinance 1888, Article I, Section 4, and K.C.C. 6.01.030, Ordinance 1888, Article II, Section 4, and K.C.C. 6.01.080, Ordinance 1888, Article III, Section 1, and K.C.C. 6.01.110, Ordinance 1888, Article III, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.01.150, Ordinance 2287, Section 6, and K.C.C. 6.04.060, Resolution 12714, Section 1, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.04.170, Resolution 12714, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.04.200, Ordinance 7216, Section 6, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.08.042, Ordinance 4270, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.08.090, Ordinance 4206, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.08.100, Ordinance 13548, Section 4, and K.C.C. 6.09.030, Ordinance 13548, Section 13, and K.C.C. 6.09.120, Ordinance 13548, Section 15, and K.C.C. 6.09.140, Ordinance 13548, Section 17, and K.C.C. 6.09.160, Ordinance 1294, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 6.12.020, Ordinance 1294, Section 3,
All right. Well, hold off on approving the minutes and move on to proposed ordinance number 2018 0148. As we have discussed a number of times in this committee and at the full council, the voters of King County previously approved a charter amendment making our county charter gender neutral. And then, since early last year, we've been working to complete that same body of work for the entirety of the King County Code, which has been quite an effort. We've had a number of different updates to the code. This is our fourth and final ordinance before the committee. It would be really cool to complete this work during Women's History Month. That'll be a that would be aggressive. But let's try and and I just want to say, before we even start this one, that staff have just done an incredible amount of work. This has been detailed, very, very large body of work and combed through literally hundreds of pages of code to make this update. So I want to thank Erin Osnes, who's here today. Sam Porter Bruce Ritson, I don't know if he's here. And Russell Peifer, who's just been there. Hello? No, you're waving it. You're waving in somebody else. Not at me. That's not Russell. Okay, Albers, but welcome to you. Anyway, now we'll move on to a briefing by Sam Porter. Welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Staff. The documents for this item are found on page nine of your packet. Proposed ordinance 2018 one for eight as the last, as you mentioned, in a series of four ordinances that would make changes to the King County code, removing gendered pronouns and historically gendered terms wherever possible. The proposed ordinance only includes changes to Title six that pertain to business licenses and regulations. No substantive legal or policy changes are proposed to be made through this process, but other drafting corrections are have been incorporated as proposed by the code advisor. As you know, motion 14680 was passed in July of 2016, directing the Clerk of the Council to develop options for how to apply gender neutral references throughout the King County Code. The same day related ordinance 18316 passed, which placed an item on the November 2016 ballot to amend the King County Charter, as you mentioned, to make the language of the charter also gender neutral. This charter amendment was passed by a majority of the voters in November of that year. This proposed ordinance is consistent with Washington state law that rendered the state law gender neutral over a period of six years. Throughout the code, the series of four ordinances replaced gendered pronouns such as he, him, she or her with the title of the actor in impacted sentences. Table one on page ten of your packet contains a sample of other proposed changes to historically gendered terms in the proposed ordinance before you today. As with the previous ordinances, executive staff have been consulted regarding the proposed changes and their feedback has been incorporated into the proposed ordinance. And that concludes my remarks. All right. Thank you very much. Is there any discussion, comments, questions? It seems that we do have a quorum at this time, so. Councilmember Colwell Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd also like to thank the staff for your work and for councilmember founded Ship to lead in bringing this forward. It's really interesting. I I'm very observant of gender, language and the need for respecting the rights for women and conversely, to be able to be identified in a way that reflects the other gender. And I do notice that people occasionally on Facebook or whatever get upset about this. And I have one constituent who continually makes remarks whenever this topic comes up. And he, you know, he by golly, he is going to use man and he to reflect women and girls all the time and no one's going to stop him. Well, I bring this up only because I think it's important that people understand that in our passing this legislation and it's going into our code throughout it, we're not in any way directing people to speak a certain way or to write a certain way. They can still do whatever they want. This is just reflected in our codes and people. Sometimes you don't get that. But we're not out there as the speaking. Right. You know, the the politically correct way to speak for people. We're here reflecting a need that had arisen in our own code. So I just want to make sure that people understand that. MANCHIN Thank you, Councilmember Carlos, and thank you also for pushing us to do the entire code because we probably would have stopped us with the charter. I mean, this is it's good to get it done. Councilmember Lambert has a question. Thank you. Could you tell me why ears was not an appropriate term? The base of air comes from here. Oh, you got to be kidding me. I'm not kidding you. I wouldn't kid you. And I will say, just as a person who once upon a time studied and practiced just enough a state law to be sound like I know what I'm talking about when I don't. But beneficiaries is a broader, more inclusive legal term as well. It's not errors. I think people think you're just inheriting money beneficiaries or people who might be receiving other kinds of benefits besides just property. So I think it's probably an improvement. Gender. Wiser? No, I'm guessing. So I didn't have the benefit of knowing that nuance. So thank you for saying that. But you could have an error. Is this correct? An error? Who is not necessarily a beneficiary? I don't think so. Beneficiaries a broad term. I mean, somebody, one who benefits from. And you certainly benefit if you inherit somebody's property. But an error, I think, is commonly understood to be somebody who inherits property. Interesting. Well, my other lawyer friends want to dove into this debate. I know your discretion. That's very smart. So I could actually have an error. Say I had a say. I had a child that I chose not. To have. In my will. They would be an error, but they wouldn't be a beneficiary. I don't think that's correct. That's correct. No, but. Right. But it's a it's a decent question, legal counsel, to. Look at this. But we will run this one. Both times and again and be sure. Counsel. Yeah. I'm sorry I missed hearing what the response was to Councilmember. Legal Counsel did review this ordinance, but we will run this question by the minute. I mean, why error? Oh, it was just them. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I would appreciate a motion to move this out of committee today since there's only minor question. And even if we made a change, it would be easily done at full council. Councilmember Lambert, would you like to do that? Should I be happy to? Do you want to with with that recommendation? I don't care. Either way. I think with a recommendation would be good. You know, we can make one last amendment if we need. Okay. Manager I'd like to move ordinance citizen 18 0148 with a duplex recommendation. Okay. This motion is before us. Any final comments or questions? I will just add on to what Councilmember Caldwell says. You know, it's you don't get a lot of those kind of at least I don't get a lot of those kinds of comments from people who object to us making our language more inclusive and respectful. But I like to tell the story of walking down the hallway upstairs where there's pictures of historical pictures of the council over time. And there have always been women council members. And the fact that our codes don't recognize the half of the gender that has sat up here, it's I think if we're not recognized in the code , then how are we doing with the public at large? I think it's just a matter of respect and inclusion, and we're not telling anybody how to live their lives or how to use their own language. I think it's a very positive change and I've supported it all along and I thank you, my colleagues, for supporting it as well. All right. With that, all those and. Oh, sorry, a no amendments. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member. Demovsky Council Member. Dunn Council Member. Gazette Council Member. Cornwall Council Member Lambert I Council Member McDermott. High. Council Member of the Grove. Council Member one right there. Madam Chair, I Madam Chair, voters. Six ayes. No, nos. Three. Excuse two. Thank you. The item will move forward. I'd like to expedite that. No, no. It requires special noticing because there's the regulations. All right, we want expedited. There's legislations that require public notice. So we have to do we have to take a regular path. All right. We'll do our best to try to get it done before the end of the month. But can we go back and approve the minutes of the March 7th meeting? Councilmember Lambert.