A. 
The Board of Cowlitz County Commissioners hereby adopts as the official statement of all county laws of a general and permanent nature the "Cowlitz County Code" as initially compiled and codified at the direction of the Board of County Commissioners by Richard W. Stone of Bellingham, Washington. The Cowlitz County Code may be cited by the abbreviation "CCC."
B. 
The initial adoption included all regulatory and penal enactments and certain administrative enactments of the Board passed through May 12, 1977. Such enactments of a general and permanent nature adopted after May 12, 1977, remain valid and subsist in the law of Cowlitz County.
C. 
Copies of the Code shall be available for public inspection at the office of the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners and at such other locations as the Board may direct.
(Ord. 5366 § 1, 8-3-1977; Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
From time to time as it is deemed appropriate by the Board, enactments passed by the Board shall be edited into codified form and incorporated into the Code. Such enactments shall take effect according to their own terms or other law, whether or not they have yet been incorporated into the Code.
(Ord. 5366 § 2, 8-3-1977; Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
The Code is adopted pursuant to the authority granted by Article XI, Section 11 of the Constitution of the State of Washington, which grants the power to make such regulations as are not in conflict with general laws.
(Ord. 5366 § 3, 8-3-1977; Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
The Code shall be known as the "Cowlitz County Code." The contents of the Cowlitz County Code shall be received in any legal proceeding without further proof as prima facie evidence of the ordinances, resolutions, or other general and permanent enactments of the Board. In event of any omissions or other inconsistencies between the provisions of the Code and the original enactments upon which it is based, the original enactments shall control. The adoption of the Code does not repeal, amend, or otherwise modify any enactment of Cowlitz County, nor does this adoption affect any rights, obligations, duties, or other events arising out of or connected with the original enactments. Reference to a Code chapter or section in any enactment of the Board or in any legal or other proceeding may be construed as a reference to the original enactment, or section or part of the original enactment. Reference to the Cowlitz County Code includes any enactments incorporated into the Code after the initial adoption. Reference to an ordinance, resolution or other enactment, or section or part of an enactment which has been codified may be construed as a reference to the corresponding chapter, section, or part of the Code.
(Ord. 5366 § 4, 8-3-1977; Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
Codifier's notes, title and chapter headings, and other editorially revised or added material shall not be construed as part of the laws of Cowlitz County. Such material shall not be deemed to govern, limit, modify, or in any manner affect the scope, meaning, or intent of any of the enactments contained in the Code.
(Ord. 5366 § 5, 8-3-1977; Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
"Codifier" shall mean the Prosecuting Attorney, or any law publisher employing competent lawyers deemed by the Board of County Commissioners qualified to compile the statutory law of Cowlitz County as enacted by the Board into a code or compilation of laws by title, chapter and section, without substantive change or alteration of purpose or intent.
(Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
New titles, chapters or sections added to the Cowlitz County Code, as the result of resolutions, ordinances or other like documents enacted since the last compilation of such documents in the County Code, shall be numbered in harmony with the general numbering system of the County Code, and shall bear such respective numbers in accordance therewith as may be assigned by the official or agency as may be expressly authorized by ordinance or resolution so to do.
This section shall not prohibit or prevent the administrative and ministerial correction by the Clerk of the Board or the Codifier of any number of any sections of the Code as a consequence of a scrivener's error or as may be found clearly to be incorrectly numbered or incorrectly correlated with other sections as to numbering.
(Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
Subject to such general policies as may be promulgated by the Board of County Commissioners and to the general supervision of the Board, the Codifier shall:
A. 
Codify for consolidation into the Cowlitz County Code all resolutions, ordinances and other official documents of a general and permanent nature heretofore or hereafter enacted by the Board of County Commissioners and assign permanent numbers to all new titles, chapters, and sections so added to the Code.
B. 
Edit and revise such official documents for such consolidation, to the extent deemed necessary or desirable and without changing the meaning of any such resolutions or ordinances, in the following respects only:
1. 
Make capitalization uniform with that followed generally in the Revised Code of Washington.
2. 
Make chapter or section division and subdivision designations uniform.
3. 
Substitute for the term "this resolution," "this ordinance," or the like document where necessary, the term "section," "part," "code," "chapter," or "title," or reference to specific section, chapter, or title numbers, as the case may require.
4. 
Substitute for reference to a section of a resolution or ordinance, or similar document, the proper Code section number for reference.
5. 
Substitute for "as provided in the preceding section" and other phrases of similar import, the proper Code section number references.
6. 
Substitute the proper calendar date for "effective date of this resolution or ordinance," date of passage of this resolution or ordinance, and other phrases of similar import.
7. 
Strike out figures where merely a repetition of written words, and substitute, where deemed advisable for uniformity, written words or figures.
8. 
Rearrange any misplaced statutory material, incorporate any omitted statutory material, correct manifest errors in spelling and manifest clerical or typographical errors, or errors by way of additions or omissions.
9. 
Correct manifest errors in references, by title, chapter, or section number, to other resolutions or ordinances.
10. 
Correct manifest errors or omissions in numbering or renumbering of Code sections.
11. 
Divide long sections into two or more sections to conform to such logical arrangement of subject matter as may most generally be followed in the Code when to do so will not change the meaning or effect of such sections.
12. 
Change the wording of section captions, if any, and provide captions to new titles, chapters and sections.
13. 
Strike and codifier-note any provisions that are manifestly archaic or unlawful.
C. 
Create new Code titles, chapters, and sections of the Cowlitz County Code, or otherwise revise the title, chapter and sectional organization of the Code, all as may be required from time to time to effectuate the orderly and logical arrangement of the provisions of the Code. Such new titles, chapters, sections, and organizational revisions shall have the same force and effect as the titles, chapters, sections and organizational revisions originally designated and recognized in the Cowlitz County Code.
(Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
The Codifier may omit from the Code all titles to resolutions or ordinances, enacting and repealing clauses, preambles, declarations of emergency and validity and construction sections unless, in a particular instance, it may be necessary to retain such to preserve the full intent of a resolution or ordinance. The omission of validity or construction sections is not intended to, nor shall it change, or be considered as changing, the effect to be given thereto in construing county legislation of which such validity and construction sections were a part.
(Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
A. 
Documents prescribing general and permanent laws shall be amended by section. The amendatory document shall set forth in one of its sections the entire text of the section of the document which is to be amended. The section set forth shall be from the original document and not from the County Code.
B. 
Whenever words or punctuation are added or deleted from a section of a document, the style and format for adding to, amending or repealing sections, or parts thereof, shall be that of "underline" and "strikeout" styles utilized in session laws of the state of Washington:
1. 
The deletion of material shall be shown by placing parentheses around the material to be deleted with a dashed line through the same; and
2. 
The addition of material to a section shall be shown by the placing of a solid line under all material which is to be added.
C. 
Entire documents, or sections thereof, may be repealed by reference.
D. 
The addition of entirely new sections need not be shown with a line under the material in the new section if accompanied by a prefatory explanation designating the section as new in its entirety.
E. 
Prefatory explanations shall accompany all sections which amend or repeal existing document sections, or which add new sections, and shall identify:
1. 
Whether a section is added, amended or repealed;
2. 
The title or official short title of the document(s) affected;
3. 
The number of the document affected;
4. 
Any documents, by number and section, previously amended;
5. 
New section numbers;
6. 
The Cowlitz County Code section affected as a result of the document change, and the corresponding change in the CCC section statutes;
7. 
Enactment date of affected documents;
8. 
Code chapters and titles shall be amended and added, or repealed, respectively and substantially as follows:
"Section X.XX.XXX is hereby (amended/added) to read as follows:"
"Section X.XX.XXX is hereby repealed in its entirety."
F. 
Amendatory sections, or sections which either add new sections to existing codes or which repeal existing sections, shall be numbered consecutively, e.g., "Section 4."
G. 
Notices of hearing published in the newspaper may differ in showing amendments, additions and deletions as deemed necessary by the Clerk of the Board for publication purposes.
(Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
Generally, those documents which simply are an expression of the opinion or mind of the Board of County Commissioners concerning some particular item of business or matter of administration coming within its official cognizance shall be passed as resolutions, except as required differently by state law. Generally, those documents which create, amend or repeal permanent and general laws shall be passed as ordinances. If a document which creates, amends or repeals permanent and general laws is passed as a resolution, or if the document should have been an ordinance, it shall have the same force and effect as if it were passed as an ordinance if the document is passed with all the formalities, including public hearing(s), required for enacting ordinances. If a document which creates, amends or repeals permanent and general laws is passed as an ordinance, or if the document should have been a resolution, it shall have the same force and effect as if it were passed as a resolution if the document is passed with all the formalities required for enacting resolutions. All resolutions or ordinances which prescribe a permanent rule of conduct of government and which are of a legislative nature shall be published in the Cowlitz County Code. All resolutions which deal with matters of a special or temporary character, and which are nonlegislative in nature, shall not be printed in the Cowlitz County Code.
(Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)
Unless a different criminal penalty is otherwise prescribed, the violation of any building code, animal control, land use, public health or nuisance ordinance or resolution shall be a misdemeanor, and each crime punishable by a fine of not more than $250.00, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 90 days, or both.
(Ord. 13-129, 11-19-2013)