Inquiry of the Week (11/26/01)
Question:
Request for list of Washington cities and counties that have established Martin Luther King Day as a holiday.
Answer:
RCW 1.16.050 identifies the state legal holidays (including Martin Luther King Day) and local government legislative authorities may provide by ordinance or resolution which, if any, of the state legal holidays it chooses to observe. They may, if they so choose, follow the state list; however, nothing requires that a city or county to follow the state schedule.
We do not have a survey on this question, so the information we have is not comprehensive. After reviewing our municipal code collection and information in our files, it appears that the following cities and counties have established Martin Luther King Day as a holiday:
- Algona
- Auburn
- Bainbridge Island
- Blaine
- Benton City
- Bothell
- Bremerton
- Brier
- Burlington
- Burien
- Chelan
- College Place
- Dayton
- Deer Park
- Des Moines
- Entiat
- Everett
- East Wenatchee
- Federal Way
- Ferry County
- Fircrest
- Friday Harbor
- Gig Harbor
- Gold Bar
- Grand Coulee
- Hoquiam
- Issaquah
- Kelso
- La Conner
- Lake Forest Park
- Lake Stevens
- Longview (Floating Holiday/Martin Luther King Day)
- Mercer Island
- Mill Creek
- Mount Vernon
- Naches
- North Bonneville
- Okanogan County
- Olympia
- Pacific
- Pasco
- Pomeroy
- Port Townsend
- Poulsbo
- Prosser
- Puyallup
- Redmond
- Royal City
- Ruston
- Shelton
- Shoreline
- Spokane County
- Stanwood
- Sultan
- Tenino
- Toppenish
- Tukwila
- Tumwater
- Vancouver
- Wapato
- Wenatchee
- Woodland
- Woodway
- Yakima