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Council revises city code to remove council confirmations of terminations after legal review

3262512 · May 10, 2025

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Summary

Council adopted an ordinance amending city code to remove or revise language that had allowed council confirmation of terminations; city attorney said legal analysis and municipal-attorney guidance recommend the change to avoid separation-of-powers conflicts.

WENATCHEE, Wash. — The City Council voted to revise chapter 1.06 of the Wenatchee City Code to remove language allowing council confirmation of personnel terminations after the city attorney said state-law interpretation and municipal-attorney guidance advised against that practice.

Danielle Marchant, the city attorney, explained that a 2023 reorganization of Title 1 included language permitting the council to confirm terminations in addition to confirmations of appointments. Marchant said the Washington statutes (RCWs) explicitly give the mayor appointment and removal authority while permitting council confirmation of appointments; the statutes are silent on confirmation of terminations. She said the Municipal Attorneys conference presentation she attended opined that confirmation of terminations by council would create an implied separation-of-powers conflict and posed legal risk.

Marchant recommended revising the code to remove the confirmation-of-termination language and to clean up an unrelated cross-reference inadvertently misplaced during the 2023 reorganization. The council adopted Ordinance 2025-04 on a motion; the transcript records a voice vote with no roll-call tally.