Olympia did NOT create its Home Fund via voter initiative.
The City Council approved an ordinance, and referred it to the voters for consideration. That is a referendum, not an initiative.
There IS a city initiative process. It has been used twice. The City initiative process is different from the State initiative process in that the City can choose to enact the language of an initiative RATHER than refer it to the voters.
The first one was for the designation of the area between 4th and 5th Avenues for development into a park. That measure was then approved by the City Council, eliminating the need for a public vote.
The second City initiative was to create a fund to pay for community college tuition and fees. Signatures were collected, but voters declined to approve it and it went away without a trace.
There is no initiative process for the County. We could include that in a County Charter, but we have never approved a charter, so we operate at the County level under the default form provided by state law.
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