Special Districts Announcement
In the 2009 legislative session, the Washington State Legislature eliminated funding for special purpose district programs and services provided by the Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) through its contract with the Municipal Research Council. MRSC is a non-profit organization created in 1969 to continue programs established in 1934 through the University of Washington.
MRSC began providing limited services to Washington's special purpose districts in July 2007 after the legislature appropriated a small amount from the state general fund for the 2007-09 biennium. We are grateful that we had the opportunity to provide services to special purpose districts throughout the state and are saddened that this funding was eliminated.
Eliminated Services - With the funding that had been provided by the legislature, MRSC had been responding to written and telephone legal inquiries on governance questions from special purpose districts throughout Washington state. Additionally, MRSC updated several of our publications with new information to make them applicable to special purpose districts, and we enhanced our website to provide more detailed information about special purpose districts. We also provided training on request to several special purpose districts on a variety of governance issues. We were in the process of doing much more in this regard but we will not be able to do so due to the elimination of the funding from the state general fund.
Beginning July 1, 2009, MRSC will no longer be able to respond to inquiries from special purpose districts, nor will we be able to continue the work we were doing related to updating our publications to include special purpose districts, nor will we be able to provide training for special purpose districts. We will be reorganizing information on the MRSC website to provide an easy portal to materials useful to special purpose districts. However, we will not be able to continue to do major updates and additions to content on the website specifically directed to special purpose districts.
Several special purpose districts have suggested that we continue to offer our current type of legal and other services on a membership or fee basis. While we recognize that a fee based model has different values than a state funded model, we are exploring the viability of this approach.
Continued Services - Special purpose districts will continue to have access to the MRSC website (www.mrsc.org), a storehouse of more than 200,000 documents relating to local government in Washington state. This site contains weekly news, sample documents, responses to common questions received by MRSC, state statutes and administrative rules, court decisions, and more. Nearly 250,000 local officials, state officials, and citizens currently visit our site every month. As we wind down the special purpose district program, we will attempt to update the most relevant special purpose district information so that it has value beyond the termination date of the special purpose district program. Click here to access general information we have about special purpose districts.
Special purpose districts will also continue to have access to the statewide shared roster system. MRSC Rosters (located at www.mrscrosters.org) is a shared small public works contractor roster and consultant services roster for public agencies (including special purpose districts) in Washington state, allowing agencies to find project bidders by searching materials created by contractors and consultants. MRSC Rosters charges a modest fee based upon total annual capital expenditures to fund this cost effective and efficient service. It is not affected by the cuts in the state general fund.
If you have any questions, please contact us at (206) 625-1300.
We take pride in our mission of working together for excellence in local government, and we are hopeful, with the assistance of special purpose districts throughout the state, that there will be an opportunity to provide our full range of services to such entities in the future.