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MRSC Insight Blog


Posts for October 2016

PRA Performance Audit: Comparing Washington’s PRA to Other States

October 19, 2016  by  Flannary Collins
Category:  Public Records Act

In my recent PRA Performance Audit: The Costs of Fulfilling PRA Requests blog post, I focused on the SAO’s audit findings related to the costs incurred by public agencies in responding to records requests. This blog post will focus on another aspect of the SAO’s audit: approaches other states and the federal government have taken with their public records laws. 

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Local Leadership: When the Professional and the Personal Collide

October 17, 2016  by  Lynn Nordby
Category:  Leadership and Management

Government leaders who live and work in their community can enjoy a host of benefits, such as enhanced relationships with constituents, but what happens when the line between the public persona and the private one blurs? Using his own experiences as a city administrator, Lynn Norby discusses the lessons he learned in trying to balance the personal with the professional.

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Addressing Religious Speech in the Workplace

October 14, 2016  by  Oskar Rey
Category:  Court Decisions and AGO Opinions

Local governments face challenges balancing the rights of employees and officials to express their religious views with the agencies' constitutional and statutory legal constraints. A recent court decision, Sprague v. Spokane Valley Fire Department, addressed this issue.

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A 4-Step Approach to Progressive Discipline

October 11, 2016  by  Marci Wright
Category:  Guest Author ,  Administration and Management

Clear and consistent guidelines allow supervisors to manage employee disciplinary issues while providing employees with the information and the opportunity to improve performance. Supervisors often coach and counsel employees to fix minor behavioral- or performance-related issues but a template, such as the 4-step progressive discipline process, gives an employers tools to proactively manage more challenging cases. 

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9 Elements of Successful Small Parks and Plazas

October 5, 2016  by  Steve Butler
Category:  Parks, Recreation, and Culture

We're lucky to have so much access to spectacular open spaces and parks in Washington, but most of us can only get there during weekends or vacations. In the meantime, it's important to have access to small parks, plazas, and open spaces. So what are the secret ingredients to a successful small park or plaza?

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Who "Owns" Public Data?

October 4, 2016  by  Michael Jacobson
Category:  Guest Author ,  Leadership and Management

Who owns public data? Is is reasonable for public entities to manage the availability of their data? And what is the relationship between data and open government? In this Advisor column, Michael Jacobson shares his thoughts.

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