Commission reviews major proposed changes to rules and procedures; more edits due in March

Commission staff presented an updated draft of the commission's rules and procedures at the Feb. 14 meeting, and commissioners spent significant time discussing a suite of administrative, governance and accountability changes.

Key proposals reviewed included new steps for election of chair and vice chair when a vacancy occurs; clarified quorum language and the effect of abstentions on quorum and majority calculations; an explicit recordkeeping requirement encouraging use of agency devices and defining what commissioners must retain; and expectations that commissioners record "total time" in the department's payroll system in alignment with OFM guidance classifying commissioners as Class IV groups for payroll processing.

Commissioners discussed a new self‑governance procedure that lays out escalating steps for addressing commissioner conduct: (1) face-to-face commissioner-to-commissioner discussion; (2) chair + vice chair meeting; (3) executive committee involvement; (4) full commission executive session to receive complaints and evaluate charges under RCW; and (5) a public letter to the governor following a public vote (a nuclear option several commissioners described as a last resort). Several commissioners asked for clearer wording to make the steps iterative and to add explicit mechanisms for staff to report concerns via the director.

Other notable sections covered remote voting rules (remote participation permitted only for fully remote meetings or with chair approval for illness or unsafe travel), a new "promoting civility" statement to be read at public-input periods, and clarified scope and composition of the executive committee (chair, vice chair, two longest-serving commissioners).

On the auditing/accountability side, staff said commissioners must report total hours worked in the department's total-time system so payroll and auditing requirements align with OFM guidance. Staff offered assistance and a process option: commissioners may email hours to the executive assistant if they cannot enter them directly.

Commissioners endorsed many clarifications, requested editorial fixes, and asked staff to bring a revised draft back at the March meeting after executive-committee review. No final rule changes were adopted at the session.