WEEK 13 Legislative Session Update

Today is Day 89 of the 105-day legislative session. Next Wednesday, April 12th, is the last day for consideration of bills from the opposite house, except for those necessary to implement the budget, matters affecting state revenue, and resolving differences between two houses. This is the time in session when there are simply too many bills and too little time; thus keeping bills on the radar screen and the pressure on for desired outcomes is essential. It’s a diplomacy challenge, however, as tempers are growing short as legislators’ various bills circle the proverbial legislative drain. Sensitivity and attention to maintaining positive relationships is also essential.   

With one WACO priority bill on its way to the Governor’s Desk (1419 – registered warrants / Treasurers’ duties), there are two remaining WACO priority bills (5392 – reinstating clerks overpayment refund threshold and 5523 – forensic pathologist loan forgiveness program and shortage study) we are working to push across the finish line. Both chambers have a long list of bills for consideration and very little time.   

Will they end on time?  

With the House and Senate budgets fairly similar, it is believed that compromise will be achieved quickly and the legislature will end the session on time April 23rd.   

WACO PRIORITY LEGISLATION STATUS

AUDITORS: Addressing Harassment of Elections Officials (HB 1241)
Status: Referred to Senate Law & Justice

CLERKS: Better Alignment of Duties in the Dependency Cases (HB 1205)
Status: Referred to Senate Law & Justice

CLERKS: Reinstating Overpayment Refund Threshold (SB 5392)
Status: House 2nd Reading




 

CORONERS: Statewide Forensic Pathology Shortage (SB 5523)
Status: House Rules

CORONERS: Addressing the WSP Toxicology Lab Backlog
Status: Not in state operating budget, but will partially be in Capital Budget

TREASURERS: Modernizing the Process of Registered Warrants (HB 1419)
Status: H Speaker / S President Signed

Select Affiliate Priority Bills Still Alive and Kickin' (for better or for worse!)

  • HB1355 (Assessors - Support) – updating property tax exemptions for senior citizens and disabled veterans – (Senate 2nd reading) 
  • HB1797 (Assessors - Support) – allowing residential real estate appraisers to complete real property evaluations – (Passed Senate) 
  • SB5112 (Auditors – support)) – Updating processes related to voter registration (automatic voter registration) – (House Rules) 
  • HB1474 (Auditors - Concerns) – Creating covenant homeownership account and program to address racially restrictive covenants (Senate Rules) 
  • SB5459 (Auditors) – Relating to records containing election information. 
  • SB5082 (Auditors) – Advisory Votes (House 2nd Reading)  
  • SB5182 (Auditors - Support) – Procedures and deadlines for candidate filing (House 2nd Reading) 
  • HB1169 (Clerks / Prosecutors) – Legal financial obligations and juveniles (Senate Rules)  
  • HB 1766 (Clerks - Neutral) – Creation of “hope cards” containing information on protection orders (Senate 2nd Reading) 
  • SB 5440 (Sheriffs – Oppose) – Timely competency evaluations and restoration services to persons suffering from behavioral health disorders (House Rules)  
  • HB 1002 (Prosecutors – Support) – Increasing the penalty for hazing (Senate Passed) 
  • SB 5536 (Sheriffs, Prosecutors) – Concerning drug possession and treatment (House Rules) 

EDUCATION

2023 Legislative Update
April 12th, 2023 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM 

Come hear an update on legislation affecting county elected officials and predictions for the outcomes of the session.

April 12th will be Day 94 of the 105-day 2023 Legislative Session. Legislators and lobbyists are back on the campus, but with remote testimony and limited access to legislator offices, few would describe the scene as business-as-usual. The Democratic-majority Senate and House have struggled mightily this session with numerous crisis-level issues and court decisions. Tensions have been running high and many proposals have failed in the face of limited time and agreement.

Presenters:

  • WACO Executive Director Jennifer Wallace who has worked with state legislatures in 9 states, her service in Washington State beginning in 1998 as education policy advisor for Governor Gary Locke.
  • WACO Deputy Director Timothy Grisham who has worked for nearly two decades with the legislature in policy development on subjects ranging from corrections, to public health, to local government.
  • WACO Lobbyist Mike Shaw who has 30-years of legislative experience, starting as a senate attorney and spending the last 23-years as a contract lobbyist with primary focus on local government issues.
Register Here
Training and Development Newsletter

Register soon, seats are filling fast
 

COMMUNICATIONS

Internal Dialog - The Language We Speak
April 28
There are things we can do to change our internal dialog and improve our productivity. In this training, you'll learn where this "misperception" comes from, how to identify it, and how to change it. You'll also see how to create a road map for improved internal dialog and increased satisfaction at work.
Listening Skills
May 2
Listening is a skill that we use every day in our personal and professional lives. Though it may seem like a simple task, listening effectively can be quite difficult. This training will teach you the value of listening, how to overcome obstacles to effective listening, and how to use empathic statements to encourage the speaker. By the end of this training, you will be able to listen completely, identify and minimize distractions, and respond with clarifying questions.
Technical Writing: Editing Techniques
April 25
This course is for those technical writers who are looking for the next level of skill development.  It is designed to help you acquire essential editing techniques for every form of difficult writing – especially for reports and manuals. 
Writing Documents in Plain Talk
April 20
Learn plain language best practices and how to achieve them in the public sector. Learn how to convey complex information in clear, focused content. Lead others to find, understand, trust, recall, and use what you write. Write and design content that customers easily understand and successfully use.

CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Customer Service
May 4
In this course participants will learn the fundamental tools needed to provide quality customer service such as greeting customers with enthusiasm; using positive words, tone, and body language; giving them their undivided attention; and returning phone calls when people have left them a message.

DEI – DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Recognizing Implicit Bias
May 2
Bias creates barriers to respectful and inclusive workplaces. Everyone has implicit, or unconscious, bias. A crucial step in the journey to inclusive leadership is recognizing our own biases and how they impact communication and relationship-building. Recognizing Implicit Bias, a virtual instructor-led training, helps leaders recognize the role and impact of bias on working relationships and a culture of belonging. Leaders will explore ways to create a workplace where differences are embraced and valued.

GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY

Problem Solving the Washington Way
April 19
This 4-hour foundational course introduces all employees including line staff, supervisors, managers and executives to the 9-step problem solving methodology used in a lean workplace. This class covers problem identification and a practical scientific methodology for solving process problems with hands-on, skill building experience in the class.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Developing a Succession Planning Strategy for the Changing World of Work
April 19
This Succession Planning course is a proactive approach to identifying and developing your current employees with the potential to fill leadership roles. It also helps in identifying and closing organizational competency gaps. Success planning strategies help build and maintain internal bench strength and slow the loss of institutional knowledge. In this course you will learn the process of creating a succession plan.
Ethics in Decision Making for Supervisors and Human Resources
May 9
Executive Ethics Board opinions and investigations detail what behavior is expected of every public servant, and what violates this important state law. This class provides the much-needed opportunity to compare the common understanding of what ethical conduct looks like (subjective assessments of right and wrong) against the very real Ethics in Public Service Act that governs all public employee conduct.
Human Resource Development
April 24-25
This class covers how you as an HR professional develops, implements and evaluates activities and programs that address employee training and development, performance appraisal, talent and performance management, and the unique needs of employees, to ensure that the knowledge, skills, abilities and performance of the workforce meet current and future organizational and individual needs.
Misconduct Investigator Training
May 2
Conducting a lawful, fair, thorough investigation into alleged employee misconduct requires a firm grasp of Just Cause principles, constitutional considerations, and a clear understanding of investigative authority. Misconduct Investigator Training is designed to provide the skills necessary to conduct efficient, objective and legally sufficient inquiries into workplace behaviors that may not comport with agency performance expectations.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Web Design Principles
April 27-28
If you need to create, re-vamp, or maintain a website, and you need background knowledge and a few useful skills and tips, this class is for you. This class will discuss the fundamentals of what it takes to create a website from scratch and maintain it.

LEADERSHIP

Coaching: How Leaders Develop the Next Leaders
May 2
This course is designed to model leadership coaching to the leaders attending this course, and relay coaching strategy to enable you to develop the next level of potential leaders within your organization. 
Creating a Motivational Mindset
April 20
How you choose to deal with, react to, and treat customers is influenced by attitudes, judgments, biases, and assumptions. This course will teach you essential interpersonal communications skills that will assist you in dealing effectively with difficult customers and situations.
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
April 26-27
Based on the groundbreaking work of Patrick Lencioni this course explores how even the best teams can fall into chaos and struggle to sustain their performance goals. We will define the concept of “vulnerability-based trust,” and look at why this is key to building and maintaining high performing teams. 
Franklin Covey 4 Essential Roles of Leadership
April 18-19
The world is changing at an unprecedented pace.  Every day leaders are making countless decisions and facing problems they’ve never encountered before.  What worked yesterday can change overnight.  The speed is relentless, the stakes are high, but the rewards are great for those who can lead a team to consistently achieve extraordinary results.  
Participatory Leadership
May 2-3
Participatory Leadership is an experiential workshop in which participants explore and practice a variety of interrelated methods and tools focused on convening people for meaningful conversations and co-creating a desired future. This approach to leadership activates the collective intelligence of a group to find new solutions to the increasingly complex challenges we face today. 
Systems Intelligence for 21st Century Leaders
May 2
The course is interactive and experiential, with multiple somatic learning components. Participants learn through somatic/movement, manipulating course materials (Habits cards), reflection and conversation with each other, working with examples from their personal experience, and presenting their thinking to the whole group. The goal of this course is to awaken and cultivate the capacity for thinking and acting systemically when responding to complex challenges. 

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Crucial Learning Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue
April 18-19
This course will provide you with skills to handle controversial and heated issues.  You will learn how to catch problems early and resolve disagreements candidly and respectfully. You will also learn how to discuss issues in a way that makes it safe for everyone to speak. This course is active and engaging, with frequent skills practice, intense class participation, personal reflection, planning, and commitment.
Motivational Strengths
May 2-4
Motivational Strengths are your most meaningful, energizing, and effective actions. Learning to use your motivational strengths helps you make the best of difficult situations, help others more effectively, experience less stress, and get more done. Participants learn how to appreciate and bring out the best in themselves and others, which helps create better relationships and more successful teams at work. This class provides a new, unique definition to strengths that is based on over 50 years of self-determination research.
Winning the Interview
May 2
Having clarity and confidence when engaging in one on ones, preparing for internal job promotions, and asking for those stretch assignments you have coveted, is necessary to win the interview. You look to your left and your right and you think “why not me?”  The most common answer is that you were not as prepared nor confident for the interview or meeting as you need to be to win the interview.

RISK MANAGEMENT

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
May 9-11
CERT is a training program sponsored by Homeland Security, Region 3 that prepares you to help yourself, family, neighbors, and co-workers in the event of a disaster. During a disaster, emergency service personnel may not be able to reach everyone right away. CERT training will provide you with the necessary skills to help you save lives and protect property.
CPR Plus Team Formation and Training
May 9
This course is designed to help managers understand the control they have over CPR class content and how to use the content to develop leadership skills within their teams. Discover what CPR classes should consist of, learn the differences between lay responders v. first responders, Federal and State laws, incident control, and much more.
Domestic Violence in the Workplace
May 9
This new course delves into Domestic violence" or "intimate partner violence" which can spill over into the workplace. It can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Domestic abuse can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender, and can often present itself in the workplace.
First Aid, CPR, AED Re-certification
April 27
CPR Re-certification recaps the full Basic Plus CPR class for students who have had training within a year of their certification expiration date. The class is taught at a rapid pace with no floor exercises but covers the entire CPR class curriculum with videos and lectures. CPR procedures are still covered in full detail as well as AED use. NOTE: This is a re-certification course and intended only for those who have completed the basic 8hr course within the past three (3) years. If a learner's 2yr certification card has been expired for more than a year, they must re-take the 8hr course.  
Investigator Training Advanced
April 20
This course is designed to provide advanced, yet generic investigation concepts, skills, and techniques by focusing on complex investigative planning and strategy, advanced interviewing methods, and investigator testimony. Other topics include the preparation of subpoenas and/or summons and respecting constitutional rights.
Reasonable Suspicion
April 21
Reasonable Suspicion is a suspicion that is based on facts, circumstances, and observations. It is more than just an intuition or feeling and it must be founded on specific and articulable facts. These facts could be direct observation, such as seeing someone use drugs or alcohol, or they could be circumstantial, such as observing someone with the physical signs and symptoms of drug or alcohol use.
Verbal De-escalation, Conflict and Self Identification of Triggers
May 3
In this course, you will learn how to identify conflict, support people through challenging situations to shift out of their anger, identify personal triggers within yourself, manage those triggers while in conflict, triage and problem solve various conflict scenarios to identify the best strategy for resolution, and practice your new skills in the classroom.   You will learn how to stay “separate” from what is happening in front of you, and re-direct focus on the overall goal.  You will develop the skills to not “engage” in arguments, insults or other external factors while you work on positive problem solving in a situation.

WELL-BEING

Mental Health First Aid
May 10
Mental Health First Aid is a 6-hour, skills-based, experiential and evidence-based practice. This virtual course requires 2-hours of verified pre-work before starting the 4-hour virtual instructor lead training (VILT). This interactive course trains laypersons to recognize and respond to the signs and symptoms of the most common mental health conditions and how to help someone through a proven action plan.
The Importance of Self Care
May 10
Self-care is becoming a more common concept. We are recognizing its impact not only on our personal lives, but we also see it in our work lives as well. Today, we are asked or expected to do more with less. This can lead to stress, feeling overwhelmed, frustration and low energy. As such, work productivity and the workplace environment are affected. As a result, we see increased peer conflicts, low morale, and lack of drive.
QUESTIONS? - Contact us at traininginfo@des.wa.gov. For a full list of available courses, please visit the Washington State Learning Center course catalog.

MEMBER SERVICES
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Candidates that are looking for employment with county and government offices can visit our website to see open positions and subscribe for automatic alerts about new career opportunities. This cross promotion could be just the boost your job opening needs!
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