Section 1.40 Name, Boundaries, County Seat, and Classification. The corporate name of this county shall remain Whatcom County, and it shall have those boundaries provided by the legislature. The County seat shall be Bellingham, Washington. Branch offices of the county are authorized, and branches hereafter established shall be by ordinance. Wherever “classification” is significant, this county shall be considered equivalent to a classified county of the class having the population of this county at the time of the last official census.