Community-Led Demonstration Projects: A Cost Effective Way to Engage Citizens and Implement Plans

June 27, 2016 by Josh Mahar
Category: Public Participation

A new policy from Burlington, Vermont provides a neat example of how jurisdictions can give their enthusiastic citizen activists a clear avenue for taking action.

Read more | 0 comments

WA Court Of Appeals Determines When Records "Produced" to Trigger Statute of Limitations

June 23, 2016 by Adrian Urquhart Winder
Category: Public Records Act , Guest Author

In White v. City of Lakewood (2016), the Court of Appeals applied a form of "mailbox rule" to the state Public Records Act in defining when records have been "produced" sufficient to trigger the PRA's one-year statute of limitations and reiterated that the statute of limitations is not triggered by an invalid claim of exemption.

Read more | 0 comments

Police Records: My Take on Some of the Tricky Disclosure Questions

June 17, 2016 by Flannary Collins
Category: Law Enforcement Records Disclosure

We received a number of interesting questions during our recent webinar on disclosure of police records that we didn’t have time to answer, and, based on the number of questions submitted, it’s clear that I’m not the only one who finds this to be a difficult area of public records law. So, today I’ll provide my thoughts on some of the trickier questions we weren’t able to address during the webinar.

Read more | 0 comments

The Dynamics of Public Sector Budgeting - Who is the Constituency?

June 15, 2016 by Stan Finkelstein
Category: Budgets and Budgeting , Guest Author

This post attempts to broaden the budgetary discussion and encourage local officials to recognize the need to address the longer term needs of their jurisdictions when adopting budgets.

Read more | 0 comments

Planners and Police Officers Working Together to Create Livable and Safe Communities

June 14, 2016 by Steve Butler
Category: Design

Using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) planners and police officers are working together more and more to achieve each other’s complementary goals to achieve an inviting and safe community.

Read more | 0 comments

Time to Scrap the Annual Performance Review?

June 8, 2016 by Tracy Burrows
Category: Administration and Management

New approaches to performance reviews offer techniques that could enhance the value of public sector performance appraisals.

Read more | 0 comments

Washington Supreme Court Reviews "Other Statute" Exemption in Ruling on Sex Offender Records

June 7, 2016 by Adrian Urquhart Winder
Category: Public Records Act , Guest Author

In Doe v. Washington State Patrol (2016), the Washington Supreme Court held that the state's community notification statute concerning registered sex offenders is not an "other statute" exemption under the Public Records Act.

Read more | 0 comments

Recreational and Medical Marijuana Systems Merge on July 1!

June 3, 2016 by Jim Doherty
Category: Marijuana

July 1 will mark a major shift in the state’s development of a regulated marijuana market. On that date, there will no longer be both a strictly regulated recreational marijuana system and an almost totally unregulated medical marijuana system. Instead, the two systems will merge into one fairly coherent and consistent system under the jurisdiction of the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB). So, effective July 1, any and all marijuana sales throughout the state that do not take place through state-licensed retail stores will be clearly illegal.

Read more | 0 comments