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| Senator Chase, third from right, being named Legislator of the Year by representatives of King County water and sewer districts |
Senator Maralyn Chase has been presented with the "Legislator of the Year Award" by the Washington Association of Water and Sewer Districts, Section Four, which represents the 33 independent water and sewer districts serving King County residents.
According to a Ronald spokesperson, the Senator was recognized for her efforts to "protect the citizens' right to vote on matters that directly affect their communities. Of particular note were Chase's efforts to ensure that the citizens in the City of Shoreline retain their right to vote on whether their city should purchase, own, and operate a water utility."
"Special purposes districts are a demonstration of democracy," the Senator stated to the elected official gathered at the Ronald Wastewater District office.
"Because of Senator Chase's clear understanding of the issue, and her strong advocacy of the peoples' right to vote on local government actions that may significantly impact their utility rates, the citizens of Shoreline will have a say in whether they want to take on millions in dollars of debt to buy a water system," said Shoreline Water District Commissioner Ron Ricker.
According to Ronald Wastewater District Commissioner Arnold Lind, "Senator Chase is tireless in her efforts to protect the rate payer. She is being recognized for supporting an open and transparent process regarding utilities.
I was not aware of this news. I am thankful to this blog for publishing such news publicly. Anyways, if there are some points which are left the they all are being covered under the chase blog.
ReplyDelete"Of particular note were Chase's efforts to ensure that the citizens in the City of Shoreline retain their right to vote on whether their city should purchase, own, and operate a water utility."
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? Purchasing a water system asset such as SPU's from Seattle is required by law. In speaking with City staff, the City was never planning to move forward with purchase of the SPU water system in Shoreline without a vote on this. That would be illegal. Stating that Senator Chase "ensured that citizens retained their right to a public vote" is complete nonsense. She had absolutely nothing to do with this at all.
This self-congratulatory action is all about getting political muscle behind the District's desire for self-preservation, pure and simple. The Districts are feeling very threatened by Shoreline citizens' potential purchase of the SPU system, as they feel that they "are next." My fellow Shoreline citizens, don't be fooled. The Districts are self-serving entities of a time long ago, when there was no local government to provide basic utility service. They are now gearing up for their last great fight to keep their inefficient, single-purpose governments in place. This is the first of many shots across the bow.
@10:59 am - you are woefully misinformed, the city staff and city council asked for HB 1407/SB 5248 that would have amended the state law to allow the purchase of SPU AND RONALD WASTEWATER WITHOUT the vote. You should go and look at the records of the legislature from last year before you bloviate ignorantly, the bills requested by the City of Shoreline would have made it LEGAL to NOT HAVE A VOTE.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, but the City set their legislative priorities at a dinner meeting where it was not on the agenda, I believe that would be a violation of the open public meetings act and a total lack of transparency.
Your lack of information and ignorance is astounding, when this bill was heard for the second time in the local government senate committee, the City of Marysville couldn't run away fast enough from the lies promulgated by the City of Shoreline.
The City of Shoreline has been running around telling lies about these bills, such as: they were trying to save the citizens the cost of an election (but an election has to be held anyway because we have to vote on at least $25 million in revenue bonds, bet you didn't know that given your astounding lack of accurate information) and the city has claimed that the CITY OF SEATTLE DEMANDED these amendments to state law (now who would believe that one, what does Seattle care about our electorate).
You are full of nonsense you are completely unaware and ignorant of what the city tried to do, you are the one who has been fooled.
Dear woefully misinformed commenter @10:59 am, here is the link to HB 1407:
ReplyDeletehttp://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2011&bill=1407
Sec. 1. RCW 54.16.180 and 2008 c 198 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
(7) A district located within a county with a population of from six hundred fifty thousand to less than seven hundred fifty thousand bordering on Puget Sound may sell and convey to any city or town with a population of less than sixty-five thousand which owns its own water system all or any part of a water system owned by the district without approval of the voters upon such terms and conditions as the district shall determine.
Pay attention - that section was written specifically for a city of the size of Shoreline located specifically within King County to exempt it from the requirement of a vote and was requested by the City of Shoreline, and no one can help you if you believe the lies of the city staff since the record has been provided to you for the State of Washington Legislature.
There is absolutely no requirement in state law for the City of Shoreline to acquire any single purpose utility. Furthermore, SPU is NOT a single purpose utility, it is part of the City of Seattle. For your information, when the City of Lake Forest Park acquired its part of Ronald Wastewater, rates went UP at least 25%, so explain to me how a single purpose district is inefficient. The majority of your sewer bill is not due to Ronald Wastewater, but a result of the multipurpose district called King County and dedicated to Brightwater.
Furthermore, when the citizens approved the incorporation of the City of Shoreline, they approved it not as a full-service city, but because it would maintain the water, sewer, fire, and school districts:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940921&slug=1931917
"A chief impetus for incorporation was to preserve the area's schools. The Shoreline School District has been the area's one unifying entity for years. Incorporation will preserve the boundaries of the school, fire and water districts."
The petition to incorporate was to protect the single purpose districts, like the school district, are you saying that the city should take over the school district too? Not a bad idea since the property taxes for Shoreline Schools are some of the highest in the state.