Click here to skip to main content.
scenic picture from Washington state
MRSC FOCUS › Focus - December 2000
 

Note: Some of the information on this archival Web page may no longer be current.

Focus - Dec 2000

Inquiry of the Week

This week's "Inquiry of the Week":

When does the law require that county commissioners be sworn into office?

[Previous inquiries of the week]

I-722 Preliminary Injunction Extended to All Cities, Towns and Counties

The Thurston County Superior Court has extended the preliminary injunction issued in the lawsuits challenging State Initiative Measure 722 to include all cities, towns and counties, regardless of whether they were a party to the original lawsuits. More information about the effect of the judge's order will be available shortly.

Department of Revenue Advises Counties to Postpone Implementing I-722

Citing constitutional uniformity concerns, the director of the Washington Department of Revenue today advised the state's counties to postpone implementing the property tax provisions of Initiative 722 until the courts have ruled on its validity. See the memo (Adobe Acrobat Document 182kb) from Revenue Director Fred Kiga and the Department of Revenue press release (Adobe Acrobat Document 225kb).

Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Against
Implementing Initiative 722

On November 30, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Christine Pomeroy issued a preliminary injunction (Adobe Acrobat Document 1,027kb) against implementing and enforcing Initiative 722. The injunction applies to the parties in three lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the initiative that were consolidated in the Thurston County Superior Court. The parties include, as plaintiffs, nine cities (Seattle, Olympia, Pasco, Richland, Bainbridge Island, Newcastle, Des Moines, Carnation, and Burien) and Pierce County and, as defendants, the state and King and Kitsap counties. The court is scheduled to hear motions for summary judgement in the consolidated cases on February 23, 2001. Some of the pleadings in the lawsuits can be found in the Litigation section of our Initiative 722 page.

Hazardous Liquids Pipeline Safety Rulemaking

Representatives of cities and counties are urged to comment and/or attend the Utility and Transportation Commission's (UTC) sEcond workshop on Hazardous Liquids Pipeline Safety Rulemaking on January 23, 2001. UTC is soliciting comments by January 9, 2001 on questions related to operation and maintenance of safe and efficient hazardous liquids pipeline facilities, emergency procedures for hazardous liquids pipelines, reporting, and penalties and enforcement. The questions are attached to the notice on the UTC's Web site under Pipeline Safety - Public Involvement Notice of Workshop and Date to File Written Comments.

RCW and WAC Databases Updated

December 26, 2000. The 2000 Revised Code of Washington (RCW) and 2000 Washington Administrative Code (WAC) are now available on the MRSC Web site. New this year, the hypertext links between the RCW and the WAC are active, providing an easy way to click directly into code sections cited within the other code.

Next Webmasters and Friends Meeting Scheduled for January 18, 2001

Three times per year, MRSC organizes meetings for people who work on city and county Web sites. The next meeting will take place on Thursday, January 18th in Seattle. Agenda items include presentations on online bid solicitation, Web site accessibility to the disabled, Seattle's recent citizen survey results, and a dialog with the Association of Washington Business on local government Web services for businesses. After the general meeting, a training session on setting up Web-based databases will be held. Free of charge to city and county officials and staff, but registration required. For more information, please contact Fred Ward at MRSC.

IRS Mileage Reimbursement Rate

The IRS mileage reimbursement rate is increased to $ 0.345 per mile. The Internal Revenue Bulletin No. 2000-49 released on December 4th, 2000 has added Revenue Procedure 2000-48, page 570, which changes the optional rate for deducting or accounting for expenses for business use of an automobile. The new rate takes effect in 2001 and supersedes the current rate of $ 0.325 per mile.

New Shoreline Master Program Guidelines
Adopted

On November 29, the Department of Ecology adopted new shoreline master program guidelines (Chapter 173-26 WAC), ending a five-year effort to review and update the state regulations. More …

New Discussion Forum Topic - Marketing to Your Customers

Do your city or county residents know about the good job you are doing for them? In "Marketing to Your Customers", Carolyn Browne, Principal, Carolyn Browne Associates, talks about the need to educate and inform citizens about public services. Carolyn is also moderating a discussion on this topic in the MRSC Discussion Forum. A new Help Page offers step-by-step instructions for joining the discussion.

Get MRSC's Newsletter Via E-mail

We are now offering a free e-mail subscriptions to our quarterly newsletter, Municipal Research News. To subscribe, simply send a message to mrscnews-subscribe@egroups.com. In addition to the newsletter, you will also receive a monthly notice highlighting updates to this Web site. If you have any questions about joining the list, please send a message to listadmin@mrsc.org.

City and Town Profiles

We have posted profiles of the 279 cities and towns in Washington. Each profile contains the city or town's address, phone number, business hours, population, and form of government. When available, we have also set up links to the budget, comprehensive plan, Web site, and staff directory.

Federal Court Strikes Down Medina Ordinance Regulating Door-to-Door Solicitation

On November 3, US District Court Judge John C. Coughenour issued an order (Peace Action Coalition v. City of Medina, Case No. C00-1811C) (Adobe Acrobat Document 252kb) enjoining the city of Medina from enforcing its regulations that require all solicitors and peddlers to register with the local police department and submit to a criminal records check. More ...

Mobile Home Park "Takings" Decision

By a 6-3 margin, the Washington Supreme Court recently ruled (Manufactured Housing Comm. of Wa. v. State (Slip Op., November 9, 2000)) that Chapter 59.23 RCW, the Mobile Home Parks - Resident Ownership Act, violates the state constitutional provision prohibiting the taking of private property for public use. More …

Transportation Commission Adopts Final
Recommendations

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation adopted its final recommendations on November 30 at its meeting in Seattle. The recommendations identify a mix of solutions for addressing the state's transportation crisis. A centerpiece of the commission's recommendations is an "early action" legislative strategy that identifies specific steps to take in the next six years to fight gridlock and rebuild public confidence that transportation problems are being addressed. For more information, see the Blue Ribbon Commission's Web site.

USDA Offers Community Facilities Grants

Essential community facilities - such as health care clinics, police and fire stations, schools, and childcare facilities - are essential to the quality of life in any rural community. Through its Community Facilities (CF) Grants Program, the Rural Housing Service of U.S. Department of Agriculture is striving to ensure that such facilities are readily available to all rural Americans. Examples of essential community facilities include health care clinics, medical or educational telecommunications links, public safety communications centers, police or fire stations, fire trucks, jails, and rescue vehicles.

Where Are The Jobs?

A report from The Urban Center, "Where Are The Jobs? Cities, Suburbs, and the Competition for Employment," (Adobe Acrobat Document 89kb) by John Brennan and Edward W. Hill looks at data from 92 metropolitan regions to determine where job growth is happening, and reveals which cities are losing their share of metropolitan area jobs, and which cities are outpacing their suburbs in job growth.

Poulsbo Trenching and Conduit Regulations

Poulsbo's Developer's Guide for Trenching, Backfill and Pavement Restoration for Utility Installations in Public Rights-of-Way, (Adobe Acrobat Document 1.30Mb) is a good example of regulations that are progressive in providing for installation of empty conduit when ROW work is being done and prohibiting street cuts to roads that are less than ten years old. The regulations facilitate Economic development while minimizing future road costs and ROW disruption.

Web Sightings - Winter Information

This month we're featuring sites to help prepare for winter - road closure and mountain pass information, emergency information, and winter recreational activities:

Washington City/County History Quiz

Before the trains arrived, this city was a piece of Yakima River bottom covered with sagebrush. All that changed when Washington's first governor chose an old Indian trail through Naches Pass and the Yakima Valley as the best railroad route across the state. This is yet another Washington city that owes it's name to the inspiration of a Northern Pacific railroad employee. The city offers magnificent views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and other mountains of the Cascade Range. What city is it? And the answer is ~drum roll~ …

Selected New MRSC Library Materials

Browse through a selected list of new MRSC Library materials (listed by subject). The list includes new library books, videos, articles, government publications, and more.

Get MRSC Web Site Updates and Quarterly Newsletter by E-mail

You can get a monthly e-mail notifying you of selected updates to MRSC's Web site along with an electronic copy of our quarterly newsletter, by subscribing to the mrscnews mailing list. Simply send a message to mrscnews-subscribe@egroups.com.
In the body of your message type: subscribe [your name]. If you have any questions about subscribing, please contact listadmin@mrsc.org.

Unlike most listservs, mrscnews is not a discussion list to which all subscribers may post messages, but a free subscription to a monthly notice updating you on major changes and additions to the MRSC Web site, and an electronic copy of our quarterly newsletter.