2019

Legislation in the works for many years finally crossed the finish line in 2019, including many bills supported by Evergreen Public Affairs on behalf of its clients.

We helped pass protections for immigrants in the Keep Washington Working Act, preventing use of state resources to help facilitate deportation. Evergreen was involved in the drafting of the bill and helped shepherd it through the legislature to the Governor’s desk.

At the behest of Evergreen Public Affairs, lawmakers removed the requirement to pass a racially-biased entrance exam for teacher preparation programs. And we helped add millions of dollars in scholarships for both prospective teachers and mental health clinicians

And we successfully pushed for removal of abstinence as the only goal of substance use disorder treatment.

2018: Banning “the Box” – Fair Chance hiring law

Evergreen’s clients also saw School Social Workers recognized in law for the first time with passage of HB 1377 (National Assoc. of Social Workers – WA Chapter); a widening and clarifying of spending authority for Drug Courts in HB 1425 (WA Assoc. of Drug Court Professionals); and strengthening of the law mandating teaching of Native American curriculum (WA Assoc. of Colleges for Teacher Education).

Legislation supported on behalf of the Washington Defender Association and the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will remove a variety of offenses from the list that automatically sends kids to adult court.  A separate bill in the package will expand diversion as an alternative to incarceration for kids accused of a wider range of offenses.

And pro-bono work as part of a broad coalition and on behalf of United Way of King County was successful in mandating high-poverty schools serve breakfast after the bell to start the school day, so kids can concentrate on their school work and not their hunger.

2017: Progress on preventing lock-up
of kids for status offenses.

Legislation supported by Evergreen Public Affairs on behalf of a number of clients added a variety of interventions and supports before kids will be locked up for not going to school. HB 1170.

A bill to move data collection and analysis away from the Professional Educator Standards Board to the more-appropriate Education Research and Data Center, promoted by Evergreen Public Affairs on behalf of teacher preparation programs, was also passed by lawmakers and signed by the Governor. Lawmakers also began a pilot bilingual educator program, another bill supported by Evergreen’s Bob Cooper.

And Legislators appropriated small raises for state-paid public defense and children’s representation attorneys, but not enough to bring them up to par with prosecutors. Still, it was a remarkable achievement in a year when most other state contracts saw no increases.

But the multiple special legislative sessions of the year remained focused on a budget to fund schools under the McCleary decision – a budget ultimately financed with a large statewide hike in property taxes. Most other major legislation was left on the sidelines.

Governor Issues Executive Order to Help Formerly Incarcerated People Return to Communities

2016: Legislation to Address Teacher Shortages Draw on Conversations with Teacher Educators Represented by Evergreen Public Affairs

2015:  Comprehensive restructuring of Therapeutic Courts to Encourage Diversion from the Criminal Justice System

SB 5107 -- passed unanimously by the 2015 Washington Legislature -- rewrites the law governing therapeutic courts (drug court, mental health court, veteran’s court, etc.) to make it easier for local governments to create more such courts. Therapeutic courts divert people from the criminal justice system and address underlying problems that caused their problems instead of just punishing the behavior. 

2014: Juvenile Sentencing Reform, Protecting Drug Court Funding, Helping Immigrants in the Justice System and Suicide Prevention

Legislation negotiated by Evergreen’s Bob Cooper will change the way juveniles are sentenced in Washington – abolishing sentences of life without the possibility of parole for anyone under the age of 16.

[Above: a congratulatory handshake moments after Governor Inslee signed 2SSB 5064 into law]

But 2SSB 5064, signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee on March 28th,  went much further than just responding to Miller. It includes review with the presumption of release for all non-aggravated-murder sentences after 20 years, and a task force to examine the transfer of juveniles to adult courts and other juvenile sentencing laws.

Evergreen also successfully secured funding for the Washington Defender Association to continue its Immigration Project – a highly successful consulting service that helps defense lawyers understand the immigration consequences of criminal proceedings for non-citizens. (Failure to tell clients about those consequences is ineffective assistance of counsel.)

And the firm protected treatment funds for Washington’s drug courts as the legislature combined other chemical dependency treatment dollars with mental health treatment funds and primary medical care dollars.

Finally, Mr. Cooper also helped pass legislation that will mandate – for the first time – that doctors, nurses and other health care professionals receive training so they can detect signs someone might be considering suicide. The training will include how to counsel patients and where to refer them. He had previously helped pass legislation mandating the training for social workers, marriage and family therapists, and other mental health professionals.

2013: FInding funding for clients, streamlining therapeutic courts, Supporting Human Services
and more

Other successes during the session included tightening licensing laws for social workers, setting in motion a standardization of therapeutic courts in the state of Washington, and helping assure compensation when someone is wrongfully convicted and incarcerated.

[pictured above: Bob (left) thanks Governor Jay Inslee as he prepares to sign HB 1213 to strengthen the Social Work Profession. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Tina Orwall (right)]

Budget battles centered on finding an additional $1 billion for K-12 education, but just as importantly, enough legislators demanded that the money not be taken from human services that those programs were maintained. (It would have made little sense to cut the programs supporting students and their families in order to put more money into classrooms where they would not be ready to learn.)

The Drug Courts we represent also came through the legislative session intact.

There has been a huge surge in requests for information on the immigration consequences of entanglements in the criminal justice system, so lawmakers appropriated additional funds for Evergreen client Washington Defender Association to handle those requests through its Immigration Project.

And we successfully supported HB 1178 allowing applicants to teacher preparation programs to use their SAT scores instead of taking an expensive extra test to demonstrate the same knowledge. This will make it easier to recruit quality candidates to the teaching profession by removing an unnecessary test while maintaining high standards.

2012:

Defense, Drug Court, Disability Support Budgets whole; Decriminalizing “driving while poor”
Supporting programs for people who are homeless
Diverting gang-involved young people

In a legislative session that started with a $1 billion deficit, Evergreen Public Affairs worked to make sure both public defense and drug court budgets emerged unscathed. In the end, both budgets remained at current spending levels.

We also worked in coalition with a wide range of allies to maintain Housing & Essential Needs and Medical Assistance supports for people who are disabled.

Other significant legislation supported by Evergreen Public Affairs included a quarter-million dollar appropriation to support gang intervention and prevention programs; and creation of a gang court to divert gang-involved juveniles from the criminal justice system so they can turn their lives around.

2011:

Protecting Immigrants
Only Social Workers to be called Social Workers

Immigrants who commit minor offenses will no longer be subject to automatic deportation under legislation shepherded through the 2011 legislative session by Evergreen Public Affairs. The new law makes a simple change -- reducing the maximum penalty for a gross misdemeanor by one day -- so that federal immigration law won't treat a minor shoplifting more harshly than auto theft.

Despite a state budget shortfall in excess of $5 billion, Evergreen was able to maintain funding for public defense and drug courts throughout the state. And because of the shortfall, we inserted language in the budget telling state bureaucrats to bill the federal government -- like they're supposed to do -- for public participation around decisions affecting the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

And while the Sentencing Guidelines Commission and the Sex Offender Policy Board were reduced in stature due to budget woes, they remain authorized in statute. Also, the Sentencing Guidelines Manual is now established in statute. It has been produced annually for 19 years, but never specifically mandated.

2010: Helping Our Vulnerable Neighbors

During the 2010 legislative session, Evergreen Public Affairs did a great deal of work in major coalitions on two crucial fronts: pushing for additional revenue as part of the budget solution (achieving almost $800 million in new revenue); and working to maintain General Assistance-Unemployable (now called “Disability Lifeline) to continue assistance to our most-vulnerable neighbors.

Also on behalf of the criminal defense bar, we worked with allies to negotiate the tightest-possible language in a proposed constitutional amendment to broaden the denial of bail; then made sure that voter pamphlet arguments explaining the proposal would be written by members of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Washington Defender Association who could explain the implications.

We also supported legislation to assure minors are informed of their constitutional right to a lawyer.

And we worked to successfully defeat a number of bills, including those:

1. Prohibiting pro se defendants from directly questioning witnesses in sex cases (violating the constitutional right to confront an accuser).
   

2. Making a crime of possessing a police scanner during the commission of a crime
   

3. Levying a fee on sex offenders when they register
   

4. Abolition of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission
   

5. Gutting the landlord-tenant act for ex offenders
   

6. Allowing civil judgments against prisoners for assault of a corrections or law enforcement employee
   

7. Making robbery of a pharmacy robbery in the first degree
   

Working for the Washington Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Evergreen Public Affairs made sure so-called “alternative” teacher preparation programs allowed in ESSB 6696 are required to meet all requirements and standards of established colleges and schools of education.

We worked to ensure performance-based assessments of teaching candidates would be based on research-based methodology.

And we made sure that, while some schools are required to submit a proposal to offer a different structure for teacher preparation programs, that those plans do not have to be implemented without additional funding.

And on behalf of the National Association of Social Workers, Washington Chapter, Evergreen Public Affairs was a strong voice in the successful efforts to soften cuts across a variety of health, mental health, chemical dependency and child care programs.

2009: Restoring Voting Rights, & More

Evergreen also worked in concert with the American Civil Liberties Union of WA and others to pass a more expansive restoration of voting rights as well -- restoration that kicks in when someone is no longer in the custody of the Department of Corrections. HB 1517  creates a definitive demarcation as to whether or not someone with a felony conviction is or is not eligible to vote and will affect an estimated 40,000 people. 

Public participation in decisions about the cleanup of the most-contaminated site in the western hemisphere -- the Hanford Nuclear Reservation -- will now be financed by the polluter: the federal government. Before a provision was included in the 2009-2011 biennial budget mandating that the feds be charged for the costs, such public participation grants were paid for out of a general pool of funds for such grants that was mostly made up of a fee paid by oil companies. Evergreen Public Affairs promoted the change on behalf of Heart of America NW, the leading watchdog over Hanford cleanup for more than 20 years.

Evergreen was active in the debate over education reform, successfully lobbying provisions related to data collection and teacher preparation mandates on behalf of the Washington Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Other issues successfully supported and lobbied by Evergreen Public Affairs in the 2009 session included:

•Funding for the Office of Public Defense

•Changes to child support enforcement to encourage partial payment if that is all that can be paid

•Working to keep people connected to support and health care -- especially mental health care -- when released from custody (from legislation introduced in 2008)

•Credit for time in chemical dependency treatment for those sentenced to jail (also from legislation introduced in 2008) and

•Revision to the definition of what constitutes a felony property crime -- the first time the threshold has been changed in 34 years.

2008: Protecting Whistle-blowers

Whistle blowers who expose wrongdoing to the head of their agency, the designee of the attorney general, and through several other reporting channels will now be covered by legal protections against retaliation. 

Legislation passed this year exploring the future of teacher education will include the voices of Evergreen client the WA Association of Colleges for Teacher Education as those discussions move forward. Redundant legislation that would have needlessly increased bureaucracy in teacher preparation was dealt with in a positive way on WACTE's behalf.

The Washington Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and Washington Defender Association, Evergreen clients, saw one of their long-time legislative goals enacted into law: an exception to the requirement for an ignition interlock on an employers' vehicle for people penalized for driving while intoxicated 

Evergreen also helped remove the "sunset" clause that would have terminated the Office of Public Defense as a state agency as a partner with OPD on behalf of WACDL and WDA.

And while legislation cracking down on criminal street gangs was stripped of the prevention elements all agreed are so crucial in addressing the problem, the governor -- at the behest of WACDL/WDA and others -- directed agencies to begin that work anyway as she signed the bill.

The push to accelerate cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation -- the most-contaminated place on earth outside of Chernobyl -- was also kept before the legislature on behalf of Evergreen client Heart of America Northwest.

And Evergreen supported, among other legislation,  the enactment of a "working families tax credit" as part of its pro-bono work on behalf of United Way of King County.

Education & More in the 2007 Session

The member Colleges and Schools of Education will be full and active participants in:

-- Shaping the overhaul of teacher certification;

-- Designing and implementing a  "Leadership Academy" to prepare future education leaders;

-- Guiding the design and implementation of standardized data systems for future analysis of the results of K-12 education; and

-- Cementing the “First People’s Language, Culture, and Oral Tribal Traditions” teaching endorsement in state law.

Evergreen, on behalf of WACTE, also supported: simple majority approval for school levies; bonuses for teachers with National Board Certification; recognition of guidance counselors in state law; and a variety of other improvements for K-12 education.

Evergreen's work on behalf of Heart of America Northwest -- the region's leading advocate for cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation -- has also led to upcoming meetings between high-ranking Washington officials and the U.S. Secretary of Energy and others over the future of Hanford.

Cleanup is years (if not decades) behind schedule. The federal government is in violation of agreements on the work that is supposed to be done. And the state enters negotiations over future cleanup in a strong position to push for additional action and spending to clean up the most-contaminated place in the western Hemisphere.

Pro Bono work during the session included advocating for increased funding for the Housing Trust Fund on behalf of United Way of King County, which succeeded in raising the fund from $100 million to $130 million, and support of other efforts to end homelessness.

2006

March 9, 2006

(Olympia, WA) Asking congress to allow the state to make medical decisions and removing duplicative requirements in a proposed scholarship program were among the accomplishments of Evergreen Public Affairs during the recently-ended legislative session.

Committees in both the House and the Senate voted to approve a memorial to congress asking that local doctors -- not the federal Drug Enforcement Administration -- be allowed to decide if marijuana is an appropriate therapy for chemotherapy patients, people suffering from glaucoma, those with chronic pain and others. Unfortunately, time ran out in the short legislative session, and it was never brought to the floor for a vote.

Other legislation supported during the session included scholarships for mathematics and science teaching candidates, as well as scholarships for classroom aides in bilingual and special education who want to become teachers. Both were funded in the state budget -- with duplicative requirements for colleges removed from the math/science teacher scholarships.

Evergreen Public Affairs also successfully advocated that the Washington Department of Ecology change its policy on nuclear waste disposal at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. State Ecology Director Jay Manning recently implemented the "Hanford Waste First" policy in making decisions about what the state would allow to be disposed of at the site.

2005

Recognizing Military Service

May 3, 2005

The bill was prompted by the case of Col. Michael Pierce (pictured with Governor Gregoire), a 29+ year employee of the Grant County Public Utility District, who had intended to retire soon when he was activated in the Army Reserve. When he tried to retire, the state told Col. Pierce that he would have to have an honorable discharge and go back on the payroll at the PUD.

SHB 1938 allows members of the military "actively serving honorably" to receive the service credit without going back to work, since military call-ups are routinely being extended well beyond the initial tours.

 

Increasing Access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and WorkFirst

April 22, 2005

(Olympia, WA) The state of Washington will increase access to help for people struggling to overcome felony drug convictions with Governor Gregoire's signature on Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5213. Evergreen Public Affairs, on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, was able to garner votes of 47-2 in the Senate and 77-17 in the House to deliver the bill to the Governor's desk.

The new law, which goes into effect on September 1, 2005, exercises a state option in federal law to not exclude drug felons from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and associated programs.

When implemented, the law will also give people struggling to overcome a drug conviction access to the WorkFirst program, where the  motto is "A Job, A Better Job, A Better Life."

(Pictured, left to right, Bob Cooper, Evergreen Public Affairs; Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Whatcom County, prime sponsor; Rep. Bill Hinkle, R, Cle Elum; Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D- Seattle; and Governor Christine Gregoire as she signs ESSB 5213 into law.)

 

2004

March 22, 2004

(Olympia, WA)  Governor Locke today signed Engrossed Senate Bill 6411, restoring food stamp eligibility to people whose records include drug felony convictions, which will help thousands of people in recovery who are putting their lives back together. Evergreen Public Affairs pushed this bill through the legislative process on behalf of Washington Citizen Action.

The bill also

1.   Extends transitional Food Stamp benefits to families leaving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as they make the transition to self-sufficiency;
   

2.   Simplifies reporting for families receiving food stamps while reducing the state's chances for errors that can prompt fines to be levied on the state by the federal government;
   

3.   Extends the mandate that schools participate in the National School Lunch Program if 25% or more of their students qualify for free or reduced-price meals; and
   

4.   Mandates schools offering academic, remedial or enrichment programs in the summer offer the federal Summer Lunch program to both students and the wider community if half or more of students in the school qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
   

A coalition of organizations promoted the legislation, which was crafted in partnership with Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle) and sponsored by Sen. Dale Brandland (R-Bellingham).  Evergreen Public Affairs, representing Washington Citizen Action, helped lead the effort.

Other legislative successes for Evergreen Public Affairs, on behalf of Washington Citizen Action and in coalition with a wide variety of partners, included:

1. Highlighting the subsidy provided to some employers by the state when the state pays for a company's workers' health care -- leading to an uneven playing field for responsible businesses;
   

2. Moderating premiums on children's Medicaid coverage for families earning less than a living wage;
   

3. Defeating a proposed limit on General Assistance Unemployable -- a cash assistance program for people suffering physical and mental health problems that prevents them from holding a job;
   

4. defeat of caps on jury awards in medical malpractice and other liability cases;
   

5. inclusion of the Patients' Bill of Rights in legislation authorizing Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements providing health care coverage for thousands of Washington workers; and
   

6. raising the level of debate over corporate accountability for tax breaks.
   

Bob was cited many years ago for “Outstanding Competence”
by Dr. Lawrence J. Peter, author of “The Peter Principal”
-- find out how you can put this competence to work for you!