The King County Council was established in 1969 when County voters adopted the County Charter. Under the Charter, the Council is the policy determining body of the county and exercises its legislative authority by adopting ordinances, which have the force and effect of law, and motions, which make declarations of policy that do not have the force of law.

How to use the archive

Ordinances and motions are assigned a proposed number when they are filed with the Clerk of the Council. After adoption, ordinances and motions are assigned an enacted number. There are separate series of enacted numbers for ordinances and motions.

The archive below contains PDFs of all enacted  ordinances and motions since 1969. If you would like more information about a particular piece of legislation adopted in or after January 2000, please visit the Legislative Search page, where you can search by number or keywords, and can view the legislation, staff reports and other information.

All enacted ordinances and motions have been scanned and archived below. They can be searched by the ordinance or motion number using your browser's search function (using your keyboard type control + f (pc), or command + f (Mac)), or by scrolling through the results below. For example, a search for "12345" will highlight both a Motion and an Ordinance that have that enacted number. If you have questions or cannot find the legislation you are looking for, please contact us and someone in the Clerk's Office will be happy to assist you.

If links are not displaying below, you may access the materials at https://aqua.kingcounty.gov/council/clerk/OldOrdsMotions/