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Background

The King County Charter specifies the process by which the County Council appoints an independent Districting Committee to redraw boundaries. The Council appoints four people to represent each of the two major political parties. Those four then choose a fifth member to serve as committee chair. The Committee selects an expert consultant to serve as its districting master and provide opportunities for public input into the proposed district boundaries.

The Districting Committee is to meet, hold public hearings, and file a new districting plan, a map of the county designating nine new council districts of equal population.The Districting Committee, not the County Council, adopts the final districting plan, which is filed with the Clerk of the Council.

State law requires the Districting Committee to use the most recent U.S. Census to draw new district boundaries. By statute, the boundaries of each district shall correspond as nearly as practical with the boundaries of existing municipalities, election precincts, census tracts, recognized natural boundaries, and communities of related and mutual interest; shall be drawn to produce districts with compact and contiguous territory; shall be composed of economic and geographic units; and shall be as nearly equal in population as possible. Population data may not be used for purposes of favoring or disfavoring any racial group or political party.

The last redistricting process of 2001 took more than ten months from start to finish. The Council initiated the process of appointing a districting committee on January 29, 2001, and identified and confirmed the four Council appointees on March 26. The Council appointed a districting master to assist in the technical work on June 18. The Districting Committee worked through the year with the census data to draw proposed maps and negotiate changes, and submitted its final Council Districting Plan and map on December 3, 2001.

The King County Charter was adopted in 1969 by voters who ratified the document written by a panel of Freeholders that established home rule for King County. That Charter created the system of an elected Council and Executive. Voters merged the old Metro and King County Councils in 1992, abolishing the 45-member Metro Council and slightly increasing the size of the County Council to increase citizen representation on the Council, as well as to recognize the increased size and workload of the newly-merged government.

The Metropolitan King County Council provides budgetary authority and policy oversight for both Metro's transit and wastewater treatment services and the county' s criminal justice, public safety, public health, solid waste, roads, records, elections, licensing, and general government services.