Drafter
Clerk 11/15/2005
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AN ORDINANCE related to the support of the King County Law Library; recognizing the need for additional financial support for the King County Law Library; directing the director of the department of judicial administration to reallocate from the current seventeen dollars to twenty dollars the portion of superior court civil filing fees paid to the credit of the library as provided by RCW 27.24.070; amending Ordinance 12383, Sections 2 and 3 and adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 4.
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BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. The primary funding source, which supports the operation of the King County Law Library comes from fees assessed on civil filings in district and superior courts. The filing fee funding mechanism uses a fixed fee formula set by the legislature. The portion of the filing fee paid in superior court designated for the support of the King County Law Library was amended by the legislature in May 2005 under Chapter 457, Laws of Washington 2005 (Second Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5454), Section 16.
B. Filing fee income has failed to keep pace with the growing cost of law library operations driven primarily by escalating legal publication costs which account for half of the library's operating expenditures. Even with stringent collection management practices, the costs of providing a legal collection to support the research needs of the judiciary, prosecutor's office, government officials, practicing bar and members of the general public has increased significantly.
C. Concerned about the failure of the law library's existing funding sources to generate adequate funds to support current operating demands, in November 1995 the board of trustees of the King County Law Library revised the existing borrowing policies and instituted an annual subscriber fee for attorneys, businesses and residents of the county who wish to borrow books from the library.
D. While...
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