Announcement for Washington Special Purpose Districts
April 2010
MRSC is pleased to announce that we have implemented a new model to provide our one-of-a-kind services to Washington special purpose districts. We are pursuing this model to fill a need that arose when the state legislature in the 2009 legislative session ended the state general fund allocation that had allowed MRSC to serve special purpose districts from July 2007 to the end of June 2009. We continue to serve all cities and counties in the state through our traditional model which involves dedicated local funding (not state general fund) through a contract with the state Municipal Research Council. Service to cities and counties is not impacted by our new service to special purpose districts. For additional information on this topic, see the "About Us" link on our homepage.
In order to continue to serve special purpose districts, we are entering into contracts directly with special purpose district associations, such as the Association of Washington Public Hospital Districts (AWPHD), through which we are serving all the public hospital districts in the state, and the Washington Association of Sewer & Water Districts (WASWD), through which we are serving sewer and water districts that are general members of the WASWD. Additionally, we are contracting with insurance risk pools, such as Enduris, through which we are serving approximately 450 special purpose districts in the state, including cemetery, conservation, diking/drainage, fire protection, health, irrigation, mosquito control, park/recreation, port, reclamation, rural library, sewer/water, water/power/wastewater, weed, and many other types of districts, boards, and other governmental agencies/authorities/entities.
The new contracting model has been quite successful and we are working to enhance our services even further. For those Washington special purpose districts that are not contracting with us, feel free to contact our Executive Director, Tracy Burrows, about how we may be able to serve your municipal organization and/or district as well. Tracy can be reached at (206) 625-1300 or tburrows@mrsc.org.
As a final note, be advised that there is new legislation enacted this legislative session (HB 2658) that will eliminate the above referenced Municipal Research Council. See our announcement on this issue. Most importantly, rest assured that the elimination of the Municipal Research Council does not impact MRSC's level of services to special districts, cities, or counties. Rather, the change is an administrative matter at the state level that will result in MRSC contracting with the Washington State Department of Commerce regarding our services to cities and counties (but not special districts), rather than the Municipal Research Council. Regarding special districts, MRSC is contracting directly with special district associations and insurance pools, and such contracts will not be impacted by our new relationship with the Department of Commerce.