Legislative Issues
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Washington
Association of Professional Guardians
Legislative
Watch by Sylvia Curry 3-10-08
Notes
added by Tom O'Brien
My initial research identified eleven bills in the
Legislature related to Guardians. The one establishing the OPG passed last
year. There were a few that I found to be potentially detrimental to CPGs
but they had only crossed over from last year and hadn’t gone past the
first reading in the house of origin. That is usually the end of a bill
but I kept watching. If we had an active Legislative group, they would
have been alerted. As it was, the bills died.
However, the bills do indicate potential problems and will
probably be back in some form in future years so I believe it is important
for WAPG to know what they were and who introduced them and try to educate
the Legislators who did introduce them.
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Sponsoring
Legislators districts
Rep
Marilyn Chase of the 32nd district shoreline,
Lake Forest Park
Rep
Ruth Kagi of the 32nd district Shoreline Lake Forest
Park
Sen
Ken Jacobsen of 46th district greenwood, Northgate,
Lake City Laurelhurst
Sen. Adam Kline of the 37th Lake Washington from Madrona to
Renton
Sen.
Pam Roach of the 31st district pierce/king county line
Bonney
Lake
Enumclaw
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HB 2278 was introduced by
Representative Maralyn
Chase of the 32nd district. It said that petitions are not to
disclose SSN, Medicare number or financial account number. It
also said the hospitals and long term care facilities may not
petition for guardianships.
This bill will be reintroduced in the next
session. It is not at all obvious why hospitals should be barred
from filing petitions.
Read the Bill: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/2278.pdf |
HB 3124 was introduced by Representative
Ruth
Kagi of
the 32nd district. It wanted to allow family members of
an AIP to testify and present evidence at any petition hearing.
This bill appears to be based on a belief that
family have difficulty being heard at court. It gives family a
special status at hearings and is different from present practice
only in that small minority of cases in which an obsessed family
member will have a legislated right to prolong proceedings
Read the bill http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/3124.pdf |
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SB 5016 was introduced by
Senator Ken
Jacobsen
of 46th district. It requires Professional Guardians to
comply with the CPG Board ethical opinion on filing petitions.
Read the bill: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5016-S.pdf |
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SB 5018 was introduced by
Senator Ken
Jacobsen of the 46th district, Senator Adam
Kline of the 37th
district and Senator Pam
Roach of the 31st district. Restricts a CPG
in a given case to one of the following roles: Guardian, attorney
for IP or GAL.
It is not clear
why the bill limits the restriction to CPGs. In any case it would
mostly apply to the minority of CPGs who are also lawyers. It
allows dual representation in extraordinary cases, a real world
example of which is hard to imagine.
Read the bill http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5018-S.pdf |
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SB 6632 was introduced by Sen.
Pam
Roach of the
31st district and Sen. Ken
Jacobsen of the 46th
district. This is the one the CPG Board said WAPG should be
concerned about. It asks that the court in appointing a Guardian
consider otherwise qualified persons: current Guardian (note –
if this is a new appointment, how is there a current Guardian);
nominated Guardian by AIP; PoA by AIP; spouse, adult child,
parent, adult brothers, adult with who resident lived for six
months. This seems to basically say that no CPG would be appointed
as a Guardian!!
This is a highly destructive bill that for the
world appears intended to benefit abusers
Read the bill: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/6632.pdf |
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