booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

endorsement, violent sexual deviants still deemed a high risk to reoffend after completing
their prison sentences would be confined in a “Special Commitment Center” for as long as
it took to ensure public safety – maybe forever. Washington was the first state in the nation
to enact such a law. The plan called for expanded treatment programs, especially those
designed to rehabilitate young offenders. It also provided more assistance for victims. The
Community Protection Act of 1990 was enacted by the Legislature and survived Federal
Court scrutiny several times in the years to come.
Earl Shriner was sentenced to 131 years in prison. Ryan Hade’s story has nothing
approximating a happy ending. He underwent reconstructive surgery and saw counselors
for years. He sometimes became angry or physically ill around the anniversary of the
attack. As he grew older, however, he gained confidence. He went to technical school and
learned the upholstery trade. He loved snowboarding and skydiving. In 2005, he bought
himself a brand new motorcycle – bright yellow – only to be killed in a collision with a
pickup truck a few days later. That’s when the public finally learned his name. The former
“little Tacoma boy” was 23.
The “Tennis Shoe Brigade” Harlow and Ballasiotes helped organize played an
important role in building support for tougher sex offender laws. The Legislature also
authorized law enforcement to notify the public when sex offenders are released from
prison or move from place to place.
* * *
As freeways became rush-hour nightmares and farmland sprouted subdivisions and
strip malls, land-use planning in Washington evolved from a hodge-podge of municipal
zoning regulations to efforts at comprehensive planning. King County, where the voters
had a front row seat for what happens when you pave paradise and put up a parking
lot, led the way. The Evans Administration was in the vanguard, producing the State
Environmental Policy Act and the Shoreline Management Act.
Although environmentalists said it was a watchdog with a muzzle and Booth had
his own misgivings, the Growth Management Act stitched together by the 1990 Legislature
was a landmark. Speaker King and Rep. Maria Cantwell, two agile and ambitious politicians,
were key players. King hoped to become governor, while Cantwell was aiming for Congress.
Gardner appointed a Growth Strategies Commission in 1989 after a bill backed by
the speaker died in the Senate. However, its report wouldn’t be ready until after the 1990
session. Believing the momentum was still there, King deputized Cantwell to coordinate
the work of six committees – each headed by a female legislator – drafting a revised bill. It
was one of the most complex undertakings in modern legislative history.
When the Senate’s amendments to make the act less aggressive proved
unacceptable to the House, Gardner called a special session. A conference committee finally
produced a compromise that won bipartisan approval on the last day, April 1, 1990. Gardner
fully supported the key requirement that the state’s 15 fastest-growing counties adopt
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