In 1970, Ordinance 99092 established the joint Seattle/King County Office of Citizen Complaints, adopting County Ordinance 473. The City paid the proportion of the joint use program equivalent to the ratio of the population within its city limits to that of the total population of King County. The responsibility of the Ombudsman was to investigate complaints from citizens regarding the actions or decisions of the administrative agencies of the City or County.
The Ombudsman was director of the Office of Citizen Complaints and was appointed by the city and county councils. This official had the power to investigate citizen complaints against City and County agencies and was also authorized to subpoena and to administer oaths to witnesses. After investigation, the office made recommendations, although findings and recommendations were not binding on the agency.
The Office stopped receiving City funds in 1982.
Ombudsman annual reports date from to 1971-1978. Reports include an explanation of the Ombudsman's role, an overview of the year's activities, staffing and budget information, case summaries, lists of cases by City and County departments, case statistics, and projects resulting from a high number of complaints regarding a specific issue or other subjects of complaints. There are two reports for 1978; the second deals primarily with criticisms of the Police Department’s disciplinary process.
Additional Ombudsman annual reports are included in the Seattle Municipal Archives Published Documents Collection.
Annual reports are arranged chronologically by year.
Records are open to the public.
[Item and date], Seattle King-County Office of the Ombudsman and Citizen Complaints Annual Reports, Record Series 1802-H5. Box [number], Folder [number]. Seattle Municipal Archives.
Records were originally filed with the City Clerk in the Comptroller/Clerk's Files (CFs) and were removed to create this record series.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.