Minimal attendance made for a brief legislative briefing hosted by the Washington Chamber of Commerce Saturday.

This was the third of four monthly Zoom events being held during the current state legislative session, and six people were in attendance, including District 39 State Senator Kevin Kinney (D) and District 84 State Representative Joe Mitchell (R). The two lawmakers gave updates on what they’re currently working on in the state capitol and answered a few questions from the public. Kinney commented on bills recently passed in the Senate that would cut state funding to cities that reduce their police budgets and would increase penalties for protest-related offenses. Kinney voted in favor of the police budget bill and in opposition of the protest bill. A retired lieutenant for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Kinney voiced his disapproval of some of the bill’s language including that law enforcement would be required to detain people for 24 hours if they’re arrested for alleged protest-related crimes, “I did not vote for this bill because of the penalty parts of this, when you’re taking a person that commits normally on a scheduled violation of criminal mischief from a simple misdemeanor directly to a felony, I did not like that.”

Mitchell commented on perceptions of whether Republican lawmakers still believe in “local control” as it relates to municipalities or school districts, “The role that state legislature is to work for all people of the state, and so if there’s local entities that are stepping out of line then we’re elected as a state position for a reason to be able to have oversight on those folks.”

The Washington Chamber’s final legislative briefing will be on Saturday, April 17th at 10 a.m. through Zoom, and is free and open to the public.