By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — A proposed amendment to the state’s Constitution came one step closer last week to consideration by voters in November.
The amendment, which would give judges the authority to deny bail to anyone determined to be a public safety risk, passed the House of Representatives in an 80-17 vote on Friday and will be voted on by the Senate.
Currently, only a person charged with a capital offense can be denied bail.
If the bill, House Joint Resolution 4220, passes the Senate, it will have to be approved by voters as part of the November general election for the Constitution to be amended.
The legislation is in response to the killings of four Lakewood police officers last year.
Van De Wege co-sponsor
Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, one of three North Olympic Peninsula representatives, co-sponsored the bill.
“It will make people safer, I hope,” Van De Wege said. “It will make society safer.”
Van De Wege and the Peninsula’s other representative in the House, Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said shooter Maurice Clemmons — who posted bail for a child rape charge shortly before the killings — would have qualified for having bail denied under this legislation.
“This guy was clearly going to do harm,” said Kessler, the House majority leader.
Kessler, who voted for the bill, said she doesn’t think judges would abuse the additional authority.
“It’s a pretty high threshold,” she said.
Kessler and Van De Wege represent the state’s 24th Legislative District — which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and a portion of Grays Harbor County — along with Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
Hargrove co-sponsored a similar bill, which would allow judges to deny bail to anyone charged with a crime that could come with a life sentence, in the Senate.
It is still making its way through the committee process.
Last week, the House also passed three other bills that are in response to the police killings.
They must be approved by the Senate before becoming law.
Felony charge
The bills, which Kessler and Van De Wege voted for, would require a judge to authorize the release of someone on bail if they are charged with a felony, make it a felony to help relatives run from the law and boost payments to family members of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty.
Another bill intended to keep some of the more violent criminals behind bars, introduced by Hargrove, would allow for anyone who assaults a police or corrections officer while on parole to be held in jail for up to a year.
Currently, they can be held for up to 60 days.
Hargrove introduced another bill this session that would create a panel to supervise the release from state mental hospitals of people who were found not guilty by reason of insanity.
It was amended Friday to allow the most dangerous of them to be held in prison.
Hargrove said they would still receive due process.
He said the change was made to the bill because state mental hospitals can be ill-equipped to handle the most violent of patients.
“They are simply not capable of handling somebody that takes that kind of security,” Hargrove said, adding that they would still be categorized as not guilty.
Last Thursday, the majority Democrats made good on their promise to introduce a bill that would suspend Initiative 960. The suspension would allow the Legislature to raise new taxes without getting two-thirds approval.
Senate Bill 6843 was introduced Thursday.
The Peninsula’s three representatives have said they would support a suspension in order to help resolve a $2.6 billion budget deficit.
A tax-raising bill was also introduced last week.
House Bill 3176 would raise revenue by, for example, placing a cap on the first-mortgage tax deduction, creating an airplane excise tax and repealing the nonstate-resident sales tax exemption.
One of Hargrove’s bills introduced last month would give counties the authority to raise sales taxes to fund criminal justice programs without voter approval.
The Legislature may be feeling additional budget woes next year due to a state superior court judge’s ruling that the state is not meeting its constitutional mandate to fund basic education.
Kessler said the state may have to spend between $1 billion and $2 billion a year to comply with the ruling.
Last week, the Senate passed a bill that would make it a primary offense to talk on a cell phone without a hands-free device while driving.
Senate Bill 6345 passed in a 33-15 vote, with Hargrove opposed.
It must be passed by the House to become law.
Last Friday was the deadline for bills not related to the budget to get out of their first committee for this year’s session.
A few of the bills introduced by the Peninsula’s representatives that have died in committee so far would have expanded the state’s worker training benefits program and created a public records office.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
