PREFACE

The Seattle Municipal Code is a codification of the general and permanent ordinances of The City of Seattle, Washington. The ordinances were compiled, edited, and indexed by the editorial staff of Book Publishing Company under the direction of Thomas A. Carr, City Attorney, pursuant to the authority found at RCW Chapter 35.21. In September 2003, the contract for supplementation of the Code was awarded to Municipal Code Corporation, Tallahassee, Florida to act as the City's official codifier. The Code is printed in four volumes.

The Code is organized by subject matter using the following divisions: "Title," a broad subject-matter classification; "Chapter," generally containing a specific ordinance and its amendments; and "Section," usually corresponding to individual sections of ordinances. Each section has been assigned a three-factor decimal number which designates its Title and Chapter placement; thus, Section 18.12.050 is Section .050, located in Chapter 18.12 of Title 18. In most instances sections are numbered by tens (.010, .020, .030, etc.), leaving nine vacant positions between original sections to accommodate future provisions without disturbing the numbering of existing provisions. Similarly, Chapters and Titles are numbered to allow for internal expansion. Occasional use is made of divisions entitled "Subtitle" and "Subchapter" where further classifications are necessary within a Title or Chapter. These divisions are noted in the text of the Code with Roman numerals, but the numerals are not incorporated into the individual section numbers.

In parentheses following each section is a legislative history identifying the specific sources for the provisions of that section. This legislative history is complemented by an Ordinance Disposition Table, following the text of the Code, listing by number the ordinances included in the Code, their subjects, and the Chapter(s) where they appear in the codification.

Footnotes and headnotes appear throughout the Code in several forms:

Statutory references direct the user to applicable provisions of the Revised Code of Washington and the Charter of The City of Seattle.

Cross-references give the location of related provisions within this Code.

Editor's Notes provide explanatory information such as passage dates of ordinances and notations on editorial changes.

Cases (annotations) include citations to federal and state court decisions construing or interpreting the Charter and ordinances, together with a brief statement of their holdings.

Severability clauses, when part of a codified ordinance, appear in footnote form rather than as a Code section.

A subject-matter index of the Code and Charter, with complete cross-referencing, is located at the end of the Code and is referenced to specific Code provisions by their individual section numbers.

This supplement brings the Code up to date through Ordinance 123441, passed November 15, 2010.

Municipal Code Corporation P.O. Box 2235 Tallahassee, FL 32316-2235 850-576-3171