AN ORDINANCE relating to prosecuting violations of domestic violence and other protection orders to make the Seattle Municipal Code consistent with state law; amending Section 12A.09.020 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
Agenda Item two Union Council Bill 120363. An ordinance relating to prosecuting violations of domestic violence and other protection orders to make the Seattle Municipal Code consistent with state law. Amending Section 12 .8.09.020 about Seattle Municipal Code. Thank you. I move to pass counts bill 120363. Is there a second second? Thank you. It has been moved in, seconded to pass the bill. Councilmember Herbold as sponsor of the bill. Please take it away. Thank you so much. As noted in the central step update from Asha Venkataraman yesterday, this legislation is time sensitive. If the change is not made, the city attorney's office cannot prosecute misdemeanor violations of domestic violence and other orders. While these misdemeanors could, in theory, be referred to the King County prosecutor because of their enormous backlog of cases and the emphasis of the King County prosecutor on filing felony cases, the city attorney's office, domestic violence personnel feel that these misdemeanor charges would not be filed if not for the action before us today. So there are three key aspects of the bill. Just as background, in 2019, Ordinance 12 5881 was enacted to adopt certain state criminal statutes, and it repealed identical municipal code criminal sections effective July 1st this year. One of those statutes that had been adopted by reference was repealed and its provisions were transferred to another state statute. So the substance of the state statute remain primarily the same, and the RTW code numbering was changed. So the first aspect is that this ordinance would reflect those numbering changes. Secondly, the ordinance would adopt by reference a part of state law that reflects enforcement and penalties for specific types of extreme risk protection order violations which the city attorney's office, if adopted, could prosecute. And then lastly, it would adopt by reference a section of the CW, which details how the city attorney's office prosecutes specific violations of anti-harassment protection orders already within its authority to prosecute under municipal code. So in order to ensure that the violations of domestic violence and other court orders can be prosecuted by the City Attorney Municipal Court, our code needs to be amended to reflect this RTW change as well. Thank you. And I will try to answer any questions if there are any. Otherwise, I hope you can support me in voting for this bill. Thank you. Councilmember Herbold, colleagues, any questions? Any comments? Questions or comments. Council Member Harold, do you have any closing remarks that you saved? Seeing none. Will the clerk please call the role on the passage of the bill? Councilmember Herbold. Yes. Councilmember Lewis. Yes. Councilmember Morales. Yes. Councilmember Mosquera i. Councilmember Nelson, I. Councilmember Peterson. Yes. Councilmember Salinas. Yes. Council President Pro Tem Strauss. Yes. Eight in favor and unopposed. Thank you. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Or the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf. Item number three with a click please read item number three into the record. The Report of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee Agenda Item three Council Bill 1203.