Letter to the Editor: Some history on the Ronald Wastewater assumption
Friday, October 18, 2013
To the Editor:
Why do I support George Webster and Gretchen Atkinson over the other two candidates for Ronald Wastewater District Board of Commissioners? For me, the answer is clear. The other two candidates are opposing the assumption agreement of the Ronald Wastewater District by the City of Shoreline. They are good people committed to their cause, but in this case, I believe their cause is wrong.
The original Shoreline City Council was committed to forming a full service city and that included the eventual assumption of the Ronald Wastewater District. We entered into discussions with the District in 1999. After extensive negotiations, the City entered into a mutually beneficial assumption agreement with the District. That agreement was reviewed by legal authorities and approved by the City Council and the District's Board of Commissioners. It provided for a transfer beginning in 2014 and completing by 2017. This was cost wise the most efficient and least contentious way to accomplish the assumption. It specifically avoided unnecessary legal and election costs for both the City and the District, costs which would be passed on to the taxpayers and ratepayers. Former District General Manager, Phil Montgomery signed the agreement. Sis Polin, former District General Manager, and Connie King, former District Commissioner and Shoreline's first Mayor, both support the agreement.
Some of the present District Commissioners and some of the present candidates for District Commissioner, mostly individuals who were not present or a party to the original negotiations and development of the assumption agreement, have caused or support a suit against the City to negate or otherwise set aside the assumption agreement signed 11 years ago. This is causing the same legal and election costs to the taxpayers and ratepayers that the Council and the Commissioners had sought to avoid when the agreement was signed in 2002.
Ron Hansen
Shoreline
Posts
1 comments:
The original city council was committed to a full service city even though the voters clearly did not approve one? The ballot measure sought to protect the special purpose districts (which include Shoreline Fire, Shoreline Schools, Ronald Wastewater, and Shoreline Water), so Mr. Hansen is admitting that the original city council was going AGAINST the will of the voters.
Furthermore, these "legal authorities" are nothing more than the attorneys who drafted the agreement, they are not a court of law -- which is the only legal authority that matters.
I guess that the original city council didn't value the voters when they voted to incorporate the city in excluding the special purposes districts in seeking to become a full service city and sought to undermine state law by using their "legal authorities" to backdoor a deal that does not meet the standard set forth for assuming water and wastewater districts in setting an election. No one said democracy was free.
Funny how the city and its former leaders worry about money whenever an election is required but are willing to spend $30 million on a city hall with no vote of the people like they have done in Mountlake Terrace -- something that Mr. Hansen was party to arranging.
Post a Comment