SB 6253 — Concerning public transportation benefit area governing bodies.

S-4746.2S-4117.1 SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6253 State of Washington 69th Legislature 2026 Regular Session By Senate Transportation (originally sponsored by Senators Krishnadasan, Conway, Dhingra, Hasegawa, Liias, Lovelett, Nobles, Saldaña, Stanford, Valdez, and C.

Wilson)Wilson READRead FIRSTfirst TIMEtime 02/06/26.01/21/26.

Referred to Committee on Transportation.

The legislature finds that these governing bodies have included a nonvoting labor representative since 2010, and that these representatives have made valuable contributions to the governing bodies.bodies and have effectively functioned as full governing body members.

Therefore, in order to recognize the value of the labor representative's input and to ensure that public transportation benefit areas work for and represent the communities they serve, it is the intent of the legislature to ensuremake the labor representative on public transportation benefit area governing bodies isa providedvoting fullmember. participation in the debate and discussions regarding, but not limited to, service plan development, operations, fiscal planning, and boundary and service management.

(1)(a) Within 60 days of the establishment of the boundaries of the public transportation benefit area the members of the county legislative authority and the elected representative of each city p.

1 SSBSB 6253 legislative authority and the elected representative of each city within the area shall provide for the selection of the governing body of such area, the public transportation benefit area authority,authority((, which shall consist of elected officialsofficials)). selected by and serving at the pleasure of the governing bodies of component cities within the area and the county legislative authority of each county within the area.

The governing body shall consist of elected officials and a member from a labor organization.

The elected officials shall be selected by and serving at the pleasure of the governing bodies of component cities within the area and the county legislative authority of each county within the area.

(3)(a) In no case shall the governing body of a single county public transportation benefit area be greater than 11((11)) 12 voting members and in the case of a multicounty area, 17((17)) 18 voting members.p.

Those2 citiesSB within6253 themembers. public transportation benefit area and excluded p.

2Those SSBcities 6253within the public transportation benefit area and excluded from direct membership on the authority are hereby authorized to designate a member of the authority who shall be entitled to represent the interests of such city which is excluded from direct membership on the authority.

(c) There((There is one nonvotingnonvoting)) The remaining member of the public transportation benefit area authority.authority((.

The nonvoting member shallis)) be considered a fully participating member of all authority meetings, and shall be p.

3 SSBSB 6253 providedshall withbe anrecommended opportunityby tothe participatelabor inorganization anyrepresenting authoritythe meetingpublic discussionstransportation andemployees debatewithin on any agenda item, including items in which the authoritylocal ispublic takingtransportation action.system.

TheIf nonvotingthe memberpublic istransportation recommendedemployees are represented by themore than one labor organizationorganization, representingall thesuch publiclabor transportationorganizations employeesshall withinselect the local((nonvoting)) publicmember transportationby system.majority vote.

IfThe the((nonvoting)) publicmember transportationshall employeescomply arewith represented by more than one labor organization, all suchgoverning laborbylaws organizationsand shallpolicies selectof the nonvotingauthority. member by majority vote.

The nonvotingchair memberor cochairs of the authority shall complyexclude withthe all((nonvoting)) governingmember bylawsfrom andattending policiesany executive session held for the purpose of discussing negotiations with labor organizations, issues between the authority.employer and employees, arbitration, and chief executive officer reviews.

The((The nonvotingchair memberor cochairs may attendexclude executivethe sessions,nonvoting exceptmember thatfrom theattending chairany orother cochairsexecutive ofsession.)) theThe authorityrequirement shallthat excludea the((nonvoting nonvotingmember)) memberrepresentative from attendinga anylabor executiveorganization sessionbe heldappointed forto the purposegoverning body of discussinga negotiationspublic withtransportation laborbenefit organizations,area issuesauthority betweendoes thenot employerapply andto employees,an arbitration,authority andthat chiefhas executiveno officeremployees reviews.represented by a labor union.

((The chair or cochairs may exclude the nonvoting member from attending any other executive session.)) The requirement that a nonvoting member be appointed to the governing body of a public transportation benefit area authority does not apply to an authority that has no employees represented by a labor union.

"Consumer price index" means, for any calendar year, that year's annual average consumer price index, for Washington state, for wage earners and clerical workers, all items, compiled by the bureau of labor and statistics, p.

4 SSBSB 6253 price index, for Washington state, for wage earners and clerical workers, all items, compiled by the bureau of labor and statistics, United States department of labor.

5 SSBSB 6253