The county legislative authority, or the county legislative authorities jointly, shall set the date, time, and place for one or more public meetings on the proposed consolidation, and name a person or persons to chair the meetings. There shall be at least one public meeting in each county in which one or more of the cities proposed to be consolidated is located. A county legislative authority may name the members of the boundary review board, if one exists in the county, to chair one or more of the public meetings held in that county. In addition to any meeting held by the county, a boundary review board, if requested by a majority of the county legislative authority, may hold a public meeting on proposed consolidation of cities. The meeting shall be limited to receiving comments and written materials from citizens and city officials on the proposed consolidation of that portion of cities located in the county which the boundary review board serves. The record and proceedings of the boundary review board are supplemental and advisory to the consolidation of cities. If a boundary review board meets pursuant to this section, the boundary review board may include, as part of its record, comments pertaining to the probable environmental impact of the proposed consolidation. The record of the meeting and advisory comments of the board, if any, must be filed with the county legislative authority no later than twenty days before the date of the election at which the question of consolidating the cities is presented to the voters. The boundary review board shall not have any authority or jurisdiction on city consolidations under chapter 36.93 RCW. A public meeting shall be held at each specified date, time, and place. The public meetings of the county or the boundary review board shall be held at least twenty but not more than forty-five days before the date of the election at which the question of consolidating the cities is presented to the voters.

At each public meeting, each city proposed to be consolidated shall present testimony and written materials concerning the following topics: (1) The rate or rates of property taxes imposed by the city, and the purposes of these levies; (2) the excise taxes imposed by the city, including the tax bases and rates; and (3) the indebtedness of the city, including general indebtedness, both voter-approved and nonvoter-approved, as well as the city’s special indebtedness, such as revenue bond indebtedness. Any interested person, including the officials of the cities proposed to be consolidated, may present information concerning the proposed consolidation and testify for or against the proposed consolidations.

Notice of each public meeting shall be published by the county within whose boundaries the public meeting is held in the normal manner notices of county hearings are published.