Washington State
Land Use Study Commission

Table of Contents (TOC)

I. PREAMBLE

II. PRIMARY GOAL

III. CONSENSUS

IV. COMMISSION CHAIR

V. QUORUM

VI. STEERING COMMITTEE

VII. ADVISORY COMMITTEES

VIII. SOUNDING BOARDS

IX. PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS

X. COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATURE

XI. PREPARATION OF THE COMMISSION AGENDA

XII. FREQUENCY OF MEETINGS

XIII. BUDGET

Operating Proceducres

I. PREAMBLE

The recommendations which follow are made, bearing in mind that membership of the Land Use Study Commission (the "Commission") is broadly based, and reflects the interests of business, agriculture, labor, the environment, neighborhood groups, other citizens, the Legislature, cities, counties and federally recognized Indian tribes. Members sit as individuals; they will, however, be expected to seek out the opinions of their representative groups.

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II. PRIMARY GOAL

The Commission's primary goal shall be the integration and consolidation of the State's land use and environmental laws into a single, manageable statute. In addition to this Primary Goal, the Legislature has requested the Commission to conduct additional studies. In fulfilling its responsibilities, the Commission shall evaluate the effectiveness of the Growth Management Act, the State Environmental Policy Act, the Shoreline Management Act, and other State land use, planning, environmental, and permitting statutes in achieving their stated goals. The Commission may adopt criteria to assist it in reaching its Primary Goal.

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III. CONSENSUS

A. CONSENSUS GOALS

The goal of the Commission is to arrive at all decisions by consensus.

With regard to the reports and recommendations developed by the Commission, the Commission will strive for unanimity. Unanimity should be read here as meaning substantive agreement with these reports and recommendations.

Members should lend their active support to the Commission and its reports and recommendations and build trust between the Commission and their various interest groups.

B. PRINCIPLES OF CONSENSUS

Each member has an obligation to articulate interests, propose alternatives, listen to proposals, and build agreements by negotiating packages of recommendations within reports.

Each member has the right to expect:

(i) adequate time to become informed and discuss issues appropriate to their relative complexity and importance;

(ii) a full articulation of areas of agreement and areas of disagreement, if any; and

(iii) an opportunity for reconsideration on grounds of new information or contravention of established principles and procedures.

When unable to support a consensus, a member has an obligation to advise the Commission that the item at issue is a matter of such principle/importance to the member that it justifies holding up consensus.

If a member advises the Commission that he or she is unable to agree to an item, the Commission has an obligation to:

(i) hear and address interests and proposals pertinent to its Primary Goal when presented by its members;

(ii) creatively seek solutions where disagreements occur;

(iii) accommodate or balance the views of the members while weighing the collective public interests of the matters before it; and

(iv) clearly state the issues in disagreement and the reasons why the disagreement exists.

C. DEFINITION OF CONSENSUS

One definition of consensus is unanimity. In practice, however, where the challenge is a balancing of interests and issues, it is necessary to provide for differing levels of support between members and issues in constructing a viable set of agreements. Factors for the Commission to weigh in crafting agreements are:

(i) hear and address interests and proposals pertinent to its Primary Goal when presented by its members;

(ii) the relationship of the issue in dispute to the total package (set of other issues in a report); and

(iii) the provision of specific assurances that respond to residual concerns.

In putting the consensus principles into practice, it is recognized that many administrative matters (e.g. location, timing of meetings, budget approvals) and other matters which are not central to the Primary Goal of the Commission merit the application of less demanding rules of consensus, and should normally be decided by the Chair after consultation with Commission members and staff.

D. DISAGREEMENTS WITHIN THE COMMISSION

At the full Commission, if areas of disagreement exist, the Chair may, in appropriate limited circumstances, make one further attempt to reach unanimity by referring such areas to a special dispute resolution subcommittee of the Commission established for that purpose. The subcommittee shall report back to the Commission. If the subcommittee is unable to resolve the dispute, the Chair shall resubmit the matter to the full Commission.

Whether the matter has gone directly to the Commission or has been submitted after the dispute resolution subcommittee's report, the Commission, through full discussion, shall endeavor to resolve such areas of disagreement. If, in the final analysis, the Commission is unable to resolve such areas of disagreement, then the Commission shall still report to the Governor and the Legislature, but report the areas of disagreement.

E. DETERMINATION OF CONSENSUS

When the Chair believes that a consensus may have been reached, the Chair shall state what that consensus seems to be and ask for any objections to the statement. If there are not objections raised to the Chair's statement, the Chair shall state that a consensus has been reached on the item. The consensus statement shall be reflected in the summary of the meeting.

F. ABSENCES

When a member is unable to attend a Commission meeting, he or she should make an effort to advise the Chair and other Commission members of any issues on the agenda that are of concern or of special interest to the member.

G. ALTERNATE MEMBERS

An important part of the Commission's decision making is having consistent attendance at commission meetings. However, a member may from time to time be unable to attend a commission meeting. A member may appoint one person to serve as an alternate in the member's absence. Members shall use alternates sparingly. A member shall advise the Chair of his or her alternate and shall notify the Chair in advance of meeting if an alternate will be attending on the member's behalf. An alternate may participate fully in all discussion before the Commission in the member's absence, but an alternate may not take any other action on behalf of the member.

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IV. COMMISSION CHAIR

The Chair of the Commission is the Director of Community, Trade, and Economic Development, or the Director's designee. If the Chair is unable to attend a meeting of the Commission, the Chair shall designate another Commission member to serve as acting chair.

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V. QUORUM

A quorum exists when eight (8) members of the Commission are in attendance at any meeting.

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VI. STEERING COMMITTEE

With the approval of the Commission, the Chair may appoint a Steering Committee composed of members of the Commission to assist the Chair in managing the operation of the Commission. The Steering Committee may not make decisions for the Commission or take action on behalf of the Commission.

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VII. ADVISORY COMMITTEES

A. CREATION OF ADVISORY COMMITTEES

The Commission may establish one or more advisory committees (the "Advisory Committees") in order to provide a focus on specific subissues related to the Commission's Primary Goal, as stated above. Each of these bodies will pursue the goal of consensus and associated principles as defined above. Recommendations will be forwarded from the Advisory Committees to the full Commission.

B. MEMBERSHIP

The Advisory Committees will be chaired by at least one member of the Commission. One additional co-chair may be added if desirable. Advisory Committees shall also draw on membership outside of the Commission as needed or appropriate to the task.

C. RECOMMENDATIONS

The Advisory Committee shall make recommendations to the full Commission, which will fully consider these recommendations before making its Report and Recommendations to the Legislature. An Advisory Committee does not have the authority to make decisions on behalf of the commission.

D. DISAGREEMENTS WITHIN THE ADVISORY COMMITTEES

Where there is disagreement in an Advisory Committee, its chair or cochairs may request more time or assistance in reaching agreement from the Chair of the Commission. Assistance may include the provision of facilitation or mediation. Where there are unresolved disagreements, these will be reported to the Chair of the Commission, who may have the matter proceed directly to the full Commission.

E. ATTENDANCE AT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETINGS

Members of the Commission may attend any Advisory Committee meeting.

F. ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORTS

An Advisory Committee shall report to the full Commission. In order to develop consistency and to save time, at each Commission meeting, the chair of the Advisory Committee will outline the agenda for the Advisory Committee's meetings and detail the recommended action to be taken from the decisions reached by the Advisory Committee. The intention is that the Advisory Committee will have thoroughly considered all aspects of topics placed before it.

Discussion at full Commission meetings will center around clarification of the Advisory Committee's recommendations, solutions to objections, and the achievement of consensus.

An Advisory Committee is encouraged use the report format attached as Appendix A to these operating procedures when making its reports to the Commission.

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VIII. SOUNDING BOARDS

A. GENERALLY

The Commission may establish one or more "Sounding Boards" consisting of individuals to serve as a focus group that can provide feedback on to the Commission. For example, the Commission may have a Sounding Board for particular user groups of a new consolidated land use statute.

B. LEGISLATIVE SOUNDING BOARD

The Commission will establish a Legislative Sounding Board to review the Commission's work and recommendations. The Chair will invite Legislative Leadership to appoint members to the Legislative Sounding Board. The Chair shall also invite other legislators who have expressed an interest in the Commission's work.

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IX. PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS

Business of the Commission will be conducted in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act and Public Disclosure Act, RCW 42.20 and 42.17. The Commission recognizes the need to keep the public informed. To that end, the following apply:

1. All public statements on behalf of the Commission will be made by the Chair or designate of the Chair;
2. Only reports and documents approved by the Commission are official;
3. Unless exempt under the Public Disclosure Act, all written submissions to the Commission will be accessible to the public;
4. In public discussions, members of the Commission will make it clear that they are expressing their personal opinions and not those of the Commission;
5. Following each Commission meeting, a summary of the topics discussed will preferably be prepared and mailed with the agenda for the next meeting. Agendas and meeting summaries will be made available to the public;
6. Internal working documents prepared for the Commission are for internal use only;
7. Commission staff will be responsible for a document management system to keep the records of the Commission; and
8. The Commission will adopt rules required by the Public Disclosure Act governing public access to and disclosure of the Commission's records.

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X. COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATURE

The Commission will provide annual reports to the Governor and Legislature. The Commission's meeting summaries and agendas for future meetings will be sent to Governor and to members of the Legislature who have expressed an interest in the Commission.

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XI. PREPARATION OF THE COMMISSION AGENDA

The Chair and Commission staff will be responsible for the preparation of the agenda for meetings. Any member of the Commission may submit agenda items through the Chair.

Items for Commission consideration shall be scheduled for discussion at least one meeting prior to their being scheduled for action. Upon agreement of the Commission an item scheduled for discussion may be acted on at the same meeting, subject to review at a subsequent meeting.

The Agenda shall identify items which are scheduled for discussion and those which are scheduled for action at that meeting.

The agenda shall be sent to members of the Commission and others who have expressed an interest in the Commission's business at least one week before a regularly scheduled meeting. The agenda for a special meeting shall be sent to members of the Commission and others required to be notified of the special meeting at least twenty-four hours prior to the special meeting.

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XII. FREQUENCY OF MEETINGS

The Commission will meet at least monthly on the second Tuesday of each month. Special meetings may be called by the Chair. Advisory Committees will meet as required.

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XIII. BUDGET

The Director of the Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development has responsibility for the Commission's budget, approval of expenditures, and contractual arrangements on behalf of the Commission. The Commission will review the budget and make recommendations to the Director as necessary to fulfill the Commission's responsibilities.

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Please send any comments or suggestions regarding this site to landuse@cted.wa.gov .

906 Columbia Street SW P.O. Box 48300 Olympia, WA 98504-8300
voice: (360) 586-1274 fax (360) 753-2950 email: landuse@cted.wa.gov

Last Updated: 6/24/96