King County Council

The Metropolitan King County Council, the legislative body of King County, Washington, consists of nine members elected by district. The Council adopts laws, sets policy, and holds final approval over the budget. Its current name and structure is the result of a merger of King County and the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, better known as Metro, which was a federated county-city structure responsible for water quality and public transportation.

Councilmembers

As a result of a County Charter amendment passed by voters on 4 November 2008 all elective offices of King County are officially nonpartisan; that being said, all current council members have made their party affiliations a matter of public record.

County council

A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.

United Kingdom

County councils were formed in the late 19th century. In the various constituent countries of the United Kingdom councils had different powers and different memberships. Following local government reforms in the 1970s, county councils no longer exist in Scotland or Northern Ireland. In England they generally form the top level in a two-tier system of administration; in Wales they are unitary authorities.

England

In England county councils were introduced in 1889, and reformed in 1974. Since the mid-1990s a series of local government reorganisations has reduced the number of county councils as unitary authorities have been established in a number of areas. County councils are very large employers with a great variety of functions including education (schools and youth services), social services, highways, fire and rescue services, libraries, waste disposal, consumer services and town and country planning. Until the 1990s they also ran colleges of further education and the careers services. That decade also saw the privatisation of some traditional services, such as highway maintenance, cleaning and school meals.

County council (Norway)

A County council (Norwegian: Fylkesting) is the highest governing body of the county municipalities in Norway. The county council sets the scope of the county municipal activity. The council is led by a chairman or county mayor (fylkesordfører). Members of the council are elected for a four-year term through the general local elections. It is common for members of a county council to also hold seats in municipal councils, but very rare that they also hold legislative (Storting) or other government office, without a leave of absence.

History

The county council has its roots in the Amtsformandskabet created in 1837. Starting in 1964, members of the county councils were appointed by the municipal councils. In 1975, the first general elections were held for the county councils.

King County, Washington

King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2010 census its population was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, which is the state's largest city.

King County is included in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. About two-thirds of the county's population lives in the city's suburbs. As of 2011, King County was the 86th highest-income county in the United States.

Etymology

The county was originally named after William Rufus King who was Vice-President when the Washington Territory was created. In 1986, a motion was introduced to change the namesake to Martin Luther King, Jr. No public votes or hearings were taken on the change.

On February 24, 1986, the King County Council passed Council Motion 6461 five votes to four setting forth the historical basis for the renaming of King County in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Because only the state can charter counties, this change was not made official until April 19, 2005, when the Governor signed Senate Bill 5332 into law.

King County (disambiguation)

King County, Washington is a county in Washington State that includes the city of Seattle.

King County may also refer to:

Places

Ships

See also

King County (steam ferry)

King County was a steam ferry built in 1900 which served on Lake Washington until 1908.

Career

King County was the first true ferry to operate on Lake Washington. The ferry was built in 1900 at Madison Park The ferry was launched on March 8, 1900. A mishap occurred during the vessel's launching with a number of notable figures on board, the ferry slid down the ways but rather than floating in the water, became stuck in the mud. The steamer Cyrene had to pull the new ferry free.

King County was placed on the route from Madison Park to Kirkland. The county hired George Bartsch to act as the ferry's captain. When his services weren't necessary for the ferry, Bartsch ran a sideline with his own steamboat towing log rafts on the lake. It was said by some that he spent most of his time doing this, as business was too sparse to justify much operation of the ferry.

Poorly built, King County lasted only eight years, and 1908, the vessel was condemned as unfit for further service. The vessel is also reported to have sunk in May 1907.