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MRSC Insight Blog


Posts for June 2017

Fiscal Feast or Famine: A Survival Guide

June 27, 2017  by  Stan Finkelstein
Category:  Guest Author ,  Budgets and Budgeting ,  Financial Management

What can local governments do to avoid the fiscal cliff? Advisor Stan Finkelstein argues that the best defense is to develop a multiyear forecast of anticipated resources and expenditures.

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Funding Utility Infrastructure

June 14, 2017  by  Courtney Black
Category:  Guest Author ,  Public Works Finance ,  Utilities

The facilities that make up your utility infrastructure won’t last forever. This post looks at how asset management options can help a utility avoid significant funding challenges or impacts to ratepayers during infrastructure replacement.

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The Supreme Court Narrowly Construes the “Minimum-Value” Executive Session Exception to the OPMA

June 12, 2017  by  Ramsey Ramerman
Category:  Guest Author ,  Court Decisions and AGO Opinions ,  Open Public Meetings Act

On June 8, the Washington Supreme Court issued its opinion in Columbia Riverkeepers v. Port of Vancouver, adopting a very narrow interpretation of the executive session “exception” to the OPMA for discussion about the sale or lease of real estate (the “minimum-value exception”). In this blog post, guest author Ramsey Ramerman breaks down the case. 

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Easy Problem Solving Using the 4-step Method

June 7, 2017  by  Jennifer Haury
Category:  Guest Author ,  Management

Is your worksite suffering from 'change fatigue' and your staff, leery of any new improvements? Guest author Jennifer Haury offers a 4-step problem solving method to help you avoid making new changes that ultimately fail to address old, underlying issues. 

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Big Cybersecurity for Small Jurisdictions

June 1, 2017  by  Mike Kaser
Category:  Guest Author ,  Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is complicated. Guest author Mike Kaser suggests that the best place to start is to determine what can be done within the current resources and skill sets of your organization, then decentralize the risk beyond IT. 

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