General Local Government

Initiative 900

Initiative 900, requiring the State Auditor to conduct performance audits of all branches of state and local government, was approved at the November election. In recent discussions, the State Auditor has strongly indicated that he is not intending to establish performance standards that disregard the varying circumstances of cities of differing size. The Auditor also noted that local governments are not a top priority for the Auditor’s Office at this time. In fact, the first performance audit will look at the Washington State Department of Transportation. This will give state and local government officials an opportunity to structure a local government audit process that addresses the most critical issues for both local governments and citizens.

A small group, made up of city managers, finance directors, and AWC staff, will meet with the State Auditor and his staff on December 19. We intend to stress several principles which should be incorporated into the design of a local government audit process, including:

• Preserve local decision-making
• Ensure local government expertise among auditors
• Provide flexibility in audit criteria to address city differences
• Finance any statewide review at the state level

For more information, contact Victoria Lincoln at victoral@awcnet.org or Sheri Sawyer at sheris@awcnet.org.

Public Disclosure Model Rules

As called for in HB 1758, the state Attorney General has developed advisory model rules for public agencies, addressing issues relating to public records requests. The draft model rules have been distributed to all the interest groups on record with the Attorney General’s office and to the AWC interested party list. If you haven’t seen the draft model rules, please go the Attorney General’s website to view them at www.atg.wa.gov/records/modelrules/index.shtml.

The Attorney General intends to hold one formal rulemaking hearing in January, will take comments on the draft rules between late November and early January (approximately six weeks), and will plan to publish the final rules in February.

 
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