Below are links to materials from each of the past Charter Review Commissions. You will notice how the documents have changed with new technologies since the charter was first adopted. Most of the files are copies including copies obtained from the King County archives. The copy machine was probably the technological wonder for the Freeholders staff in the mid-1960's. The Freeholders seem to have abandoned the use of mimeographed copies. In the 1970's, The charter review commission documents were produced on electric typewriters and a copy machine. One does notice an improvement in the quality of the copies by the mid-1980s. The 1987-88 Charter Review Commission documents were the first to be produced on a desktop computer which made it easier to produce more originals and the copies are much clearer. The 1996-97 charter review commission was one of the first county citizen committees to do its work electronically with documents produced on desktop computers and distributed by e-mail and fax (although about 200 printed copies of material were made and distributed for each full commission meeting). The commission meeting agendas and reports were finally put on King County's website. The 2007-2008 Commission was the first commission to use a website as its main source of communication.

2007-2008 Overview

The 2007-2008 King County Charter Review Commission convened in February 2007 and met for over a year, holding a total of 55 meetings to study charter issues and confer with the public:

• 2007-2008 Meetings and Materials
• 2007-2008 Public Hearings
• 2007-2008 Committees and Issue Papers
• 2007-2008 Commissioners
• 2007-2008 Proposed Charter Amendments

In June 2008, the Commission released its Final Report and Recommendations, recommending 12 amendments to the county charter.

To avoid overloading the ballot with too many amendments in one year, the Commission proposed a schedule for phasing in the amendments over three general elections (2008, 2009, and 2010).

The County Council placed five amendments on the November 2008 ballot:

• Anti-Discrimination
• Charter Amendment by Citizen Initiative
• Regional Committees
• Qualifications for Elected Officials
• Budget Timeline

The Commission supported that the County Council take action on the following amendments in November 2009 and 2010:

• Open Space Protection (originally recommended for 2008, now for 2009)
• Unincorporated Areas Representation (recommended for 2009)
• Elections Deadlines (recommended for 2009)
• Budget Allotments (recommended for 2010)
• Commission Procedures (recommended for 2010)
• Transitory Provisions (recommended for 2010)

This table shows the outcomes for the Commission's 12 proposal amendments.