FISCAL NOTE FOR NON-CAPITAL PROJECTS

Department:	Contact Person/Phone:	CBO Analyst/Phone:
Law –Criminal Division	Richard Greene

Legislation Title: AN ORDINANCE relating to the City’s criminal code; amending and adding various sections and subsections in Chapter 3.33, Chapter 9.25, Title 12A, Chapter 21.36 and Chapter 25.11 of the Seattle Municipal Code to conform with changes in state law.

Summary of the Legislation:  Amends the City’s criminal code to conform with changes in the corresponding state criminal statutes made by the 2011 Legislature, specifically authorizing Municipal Court to place a defendant convicted of a domestic violence crime on probation for up to five years, reducing the maximum jail sentence for a gross misdemeanor from 365 days to 364 days, requiring a defendant convicted of a crime for which a DNA sample must be collected to pay a fee of $100 and changing the classification of littering in an amount greater than one cubic foot from an infraction to a crime and imposing a litter cleanup fee on a defendant convicted of such a crime.

Background: Many provisions of Seattle’s criminal code are identical to provisions of the state criminal statutes.  When the Legislature amends those statutes, our criminal code usually should be amended to ensure uniformity.  In addition, the penalty for a violation of a city ordinance cannot be greater than the penalty for violation of a corresponding state statute.  This ordinance changes provisions of our criminal code to conform with changes made to the corresponding state criminal statutes by the 2011 Legislature and changes to the penalty provisions.

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__X__ This legislation does not have any financial implications.