106 Newhouse Building ● P.O. Box 40404 ● Olympia WA 98504-0404

Report from Olympia |  March 10, 2015

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The 2015 legislative session has just passed the halfway mark. Last week was spent on the Senate floor (working until 8:30 p.m. or later on Tuesday through Thursday), with the full Senate passing legislation to the House of Representatives.

Wednesday, March 11 is the deadline for both the Senate and House to pass their own bills – or they are off the table for the session. Budget-related bills may be considered until the end of the session.

As always, if there is anything I can do for you, please let me know. Thank you for the honor of serving as your state senator.

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden

From the District... ARC of Spokane

Last Wednesday, we received a visit from Caroline Barr and Darci Ladwig with the ARC of Spokane – an organization dedicated to making sure that people with developmental disabilities in our community, and those who care for them, enjoy the highest quality of life possible.

The two were here as part of Education Advocacy Day in Olympia. They shared with me their concerns that special-education services are being forgotten in the debate over basic-education funding. They voiced particular concerns about media and parental reports related to the use of restraints, Tasers and isolation rooms for children with disabilities. They want to make sure that policies at the state level change so that these children are not subjected to such tactics.

Spokane County is home to approximately 7,000 people who have an intellectual or developmental disability, and it is very important that all lawmakers understand the needs and concerns of this community.

If you have plans to visit Olympia, please let us know. We would love to hear from you directly about the issues impacting you and your family.

Legislative Update: Senate advances several key bills

As a legislator, you come into each session with a number of ideas for bills. Not all of these ideas, worthy as they may be, can become law. The process itself is designed to weed out some bills by forcing them to meet a series of self-imposed legislative deadlines.

At this point in the session, several of the measures I introduced this year have survived the first two “cut off” deadlines, and last week the Senate passed five of these measures with unanimous support.

Getting tough on designer drugs       

SB 5673 deals with synthetic cannabinoids, also known as “bath salts.” These designer drugs are  marketed to elude detection, often labeled and sold as herbal potpourri, incense or other legal-appearing products.

One difficulty in determining whether synthetic cannabinoids are present in a product is the length of time needed to analyze it. Currently the product must go through a forensic analysis that may take significant time due to laboratory backlogs. Those who produce these designer drugs often change the chemical makeup slightly in order to avoid coming under a specific prohibition.

This bill would broaden the definition of “synthetic cannabinoid” to include a substance that contains any amount of cathinone or any amount of synthetic cannabinoid. SB 5673 would increase the criminal fines and penalties for selling bath salts, as well as make sellers of bath salts subject to the Consumer Protection Act penalties. It would also give the state pharmacy board authority to update the list of controlled substances by rule-making in order to keep the law up-to-date with new chemical compounds.

Increasing judicial independence

SSB 6019 is in response to a 2014 scandal involving the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, which appeared to be leaning on a judge (Patricia Petersen, pictured right) in order to obtain favorable decisions. This bill allows administrative-law judges to issue final orders that cannot be overturned by agencies and can be challenged only in superior court. And for good measure, the bill makes it clear that state agencies are prohibited from punishing judges with negative job evaluations for decisions they don’t like.

Keeping alcohol and drugs out of the hands of offenders

Senate Bill 5104 deals with giving our courts the option of imposing a prohibition on the use of alcohol and drugs, as a sentencing condition. When the court finds that the offender has a chemical-dependency issue that contributed to his or her offense, the court may order the offender to participate in rehabilitative programs. Currently this only applies to the specific substance that contributed to the specific crime, even if it is clear that there are other substance-abuse problems. Under this bill, if a court finds that any chemical dependency contributed to the offense, the court may order participation in a rehab program, regardless of the particular substance that contributed to the offense and regardless of whether a chemical-dependency evaluation is ordered.

Measure encourages specialty courts

SB 5107 would authorize and fund the establishment of therapeutic courts. Often called problem-solving courts, these alternative courts commonly require intense, judicially supervised treatment with the goal of reducing recidivism.

Some examples of therapeutic courts are the drug courts, DUI courts, mental-health courts and juvenile-gang courts.

Under the bill, defendants are ineligible for participation in a therapeutic court if they are charged with or have been previously convicted of:

• a serious violent offense or sex offense;
• an offense involving firearms;
•  vehicular homicide; or
• an offense alleging substantial bodily harm or death of another person.
  

The bill is scheduled for a hearing March 12 in the House Judiciary Committee.

Lowering court costs

SB 5125 would allow more civil cases to be heard in district court, where the process is streamlined and cases resolve sooner, instead of in more costly superior court. District court also has the benefit of a lower filing fee and quicker trial dates.   

Under the bill, the value of a civil claim, or the amount at issue in the case, is adjusted from $70,000 to $100,000 – a limit will allow greater access to district courts.

You can follow these bills as they move through the House of Representatives and watch live coverage of floor action in both chambers on TVW by clicking here.

Anti-Trafficking Panel in Olympia

Thursday, March 19th | 6 p.m. | Senate Hearing Room 1, J.A. Cherberg Bldg.

On March 19 I will be joining other concerned Washington citizens at the “Ending Global Slavery” symposium in Olympia, which will focus on ending human trafficking. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle and I will be discussing anti-trafficking legislation in Washington.

Human trafficking is no longer an issue reserved for seedy back alleys in far-off countries. Recent estimates show that roughly 500 children are sold for sex every night in Seattle, and recent news reports highlighted the plight of a 16-year-old girl in Spokane who was forced into prostitution, through use of illicit Internet-advertising websites.

The Legislature is always looking at ways to identify and rescue those in sexual slavery. The people of our state deserve whatever protection we can give them from those who view humans as a commodity.

We are united toward giving those in law enforcement and our justice system the tools they need to combat the sex-trafficking industry as it continues to evolve.

Featuring Special Guest: Linda Smith Linda Smith, the founder and president of Shared Hope International, is a leader in the global movement to end sex trafficking. In 1998, while serving in the U.S. Congress, Linda traveled to a notorious brothel district in India where the hopeless faces of women and children forced into prostitution compelled Linda to found Shared Hope International. Linda is the primary author of From Congress to the Brothel and Renting Lacy and co-author of The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking and the DEMAND. Report. Linda served as a Washington State legislator (1983-93), before she was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1994.