King County - File #: 2013-0384

• File #: 2013-0384
• Version: 3
• Type: Ordinance
• Status: Passed
• File created: 8/19/2013
• In control: Law, Justice, Health and Human Services Committee
• On agenda: 10/14/2013
• Final action: 10/14/2013
• Enactment date: 10/24/2013
• Enactment #: 17674
• Title: AN ORDINANCE creating the offense of urinating or defecating in public; adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 12 and prescribing penalties.
• Sponsors: Kathy Lambert
• Indexes: Nuisance, Public Health
• Staff: Curry, Clifton

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
10/14/2013	3	Metropolitan King County Council	Passed	Pass
10/7/2013	3	Metropolitan King County Council	Deferred
9/30/2013	3	Metropolitan King County Council	Hearing Held
9/30/2013	3	Metropolitan King County Council	Deferred
9/30/2013	2
9/10/2013	1	Law, Justice, Health and Human Services Committee	Passed Out of Committee Without a Recommendation	Pass
8/27/2013	1	Law, Justice, Health and Human Services Committee	Deferred
8/19/2013	1	Metropolitan King County Council	Introduced and Referred

Title
AN ORDINANCE creating the offense of urinating or defecating in public; adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 12 and prescribing penalties.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. Public urination and defecation is injurious to public sanitation, indecent or offensive to the senses interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property and is therefore contrary to the public health, safety and welfare.
B. RCW 9.91.025 and K.C.C. 28.96.010 prohibit urination on transit property other than in a public restroom. Under state law violation, such conduct is a misdemeanor, while it is a civil infraction under the King County Code. No other King County Code section expressly prohibits urination or defecation in other public places or makes it an offense.
C. The sheriff's office enforces county code in the unincorporated areas of the county, including both urban and non-urban areas. The areas outside of the county's urban growth boundary are considered rural, nonurban areas.
D. Recent large public events in the rural areas of the county have resulted in numerous complaints of individuals intentionally urinating in public view without regard to those whose property was fouled or to the impact on those viewing the improper behavior.
E. While these behaviors have been reported in the rural unincorporated areas during large public events, the complaints in the county's urban unincorporated areas are much more likely to be associated with individuals with mental disabilities or who lack ready access to housing. As a result, a prohibition in these areas is likely to result in disproportionate enforcement actions against those individuals.
F. Therefore, it is in the public interest to provide an enforcement mechanism to address the existing problem of improper behavior in the unincorporated non-urban areas of the county but it is not now necessary to impose similar sanctions in the urban unincorpora...