Correction: State Sen. Chase says that her bill wouldn’t necessarily prevent annexation of Ronald Wastewater District
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Corrected 4-20-2014 1:46pm Title should read "Ronald"
By Evan Smith
By Evan Smith
Democratic State Sen. Maralyn Chase says that the bill that she sponsored in the recent legislative session wouldn’t necessarily prevent the City of Shoreline from annexing the Ronald Wastewater District.
Instead, the bill simply would require cities that want to absorb utility districts to put such annexations to a vote.
The Ronald Wastewater District includes Shoreline and a small, unincorporated area of southwest Snohomish County.
Democrat Chris Eggen, who plans to challenge Chase in the 2014 election, is a Shoreline City councilman and deputy mayor.
Chase has said that the bill was not aimed at Eggen or at Shoreline.
Still, she notes that letting Ronald Wastewater District residents vote on any proposed annexation will bring out information about rates and taxes.
“Given the fact that Seattle utilities are going up some 50 percent in eight years (as reported in the Seattle Times), one would think the voters would be well served to have access to a full and frank discussion about this issue,” she said.
Chase represents the 32nd Legislative District, including Shoreline, part of northwest Seattle, Woodway, south Edmonds and nearby unincorporated areas of southwest Snohomish County, Lynnwood and part of Mountlake Terrace.
She said last week that she sponsored the bill because she feels that disputed cases should be submitted to the people for a vote.
Chase said that State law has no other provisions that grant such unilateral authority where neither the citizens affected nor the duly elected officials affected are included in the final decision.
Chase said she fears that cities could take over utility districts and use the fees to get income from ratepayers, who may have little ability to pay.
“This is not about Councilmember Eggen and the City of Shoreline nor did their actions generate the bill,” she said. “They certainly do provide a good example of why we need the bill.
The bill passed the Senate in the recent legislative session, but the House of Representatives, on the final day of the session, sent it back to the Senate Rules Committee.
Chase sits on the Senate Rules Committee and the committee on energy, environment and telecommunications, and she is ranking minority member of the committee on trade and economic development.
NOTE: An earlier post mistakenly said that the bill was aimed at preventing Shoreline from absorbing the Ronald Wastewater District.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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8 comments:
Alderwood? Guess again.
Paging Mr. Fixit, Mr. Fixit to the header please . . .
Why is it that Evan Smith is allowed to perpetuate these errors in his posts, as if he is some kind of authority? He makes mistakes in nearly every column. And then he has the nerve to accuse Sen Chase and other electeds for THEIR actions or legislation!
I accept responsibility for a series of honest mistakes: First I wrote that her billl was aimed at preventng annexation (leaving out the words "withbout a vote of constituents"). Then, I wrote a headline with the namme of the wrong utilility district. (I had Alderwood on my mind because of something I had written for the South Snohomish County blog.)
However, I haven't accused Sen. Chase of anything. I reported, accurately I believe, that her billl on assumptiion of utility districcts passed the State Senate but not the House. Then, I reported on Chris Eggen's intent to challenge Chase in the election, a report that included HIS comments about her being an ineffective legislator. I sent Chase an e-mail asking for a response. She sent the comments on the utility assumption bill.
--Evan Smith
The city of shoreline repeatedly tells it s citizens it operates 2 utilities, It does not. It subcontracts garbage service through a private company. It also subcontracts the storm water utility. This means it negotiates contracts with private companies to perform city services.This is not operating a utility in any real sense
The storm water system in the city is still not completely mapped and many of homes and streets are not connected to the system. The storm water from some streets often run down the driveways of private homes and into garages and basements. These homes still pay utility taxes on their properties to the city. The Highlands has excluded itself from the city's plans for water and sewer services. They do so because they know how badly the city of shoreline runs. They choose to operate their own services much like our public utilities. The city doesn't bother them, however, because they have lots of MONEY!
The more profound difference between the utilities the City already provides (solid waste and surface water management) and the additional ones they want to provide (wastewater and drinking water management) is that the former are governmental functions and the later proprietary ones. The provision of governmental functions are mandatory. They are the reason governments exist. The people grant government officials the authority to act to defend the health, safety, and welfare of any resident from threats posed by another, provided they do so fairly and reasonably.
Propriety functions, on the other hand, are optional, and do not have to be provided by governments. They are lines of business, subject to profit and loss. They entail business risk. They are best provided by the private sector in a free market. To warrant investment in a proprietary business, a business case should be made to and accepted by its investors. A municipality or other local government should not invoke its police powers to compel public investment in proprietary functions. To do so would be to enable the implementation of bad business decisions through coercion, in contravention of sound market principles. If local governments have any right to provide proprietary functions (and I hold they do not), coerced investment in each public utility should be decided by a public vote.
All of the above utilies require technical competencies. These can be ably provided in house or outsourced. An increasing trend in many cities is to contract out all or most of their services, governmental or proprietary. Regardless, the government remains ultimately responsible for the provision of the services they have undertaken.
But the provision of proprietary services requires an additional competency, one not usually found in the public sector: business savvy.
Whether the City of Shoreline engages in economic planning of a town center, getting into the business of running proprietary utilities like wastewater and drinking water, wheeling and dealing for a mega-condominium annexation, or flipping real estate at Aurora Square, they are engaging in business investments. In all matters of business, one undeniable reality prevails: they might fail. WHAT IF THEY FAIL? All such business decisions should be decided by the public, not by their governmental agents.
Using citizens tax money to aid private redevelopment schemes is not the business of government. It is the stated policy of our city and the reason behind these acquisition plans. Read the press releases from city hall. In most places in the country when these schemes ultimately fail, prosecutors are called in and we have officials tried for corruption. One can only hope . . .
@29:20am: Amen!
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