tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741412946805763929.post2573108876637896579..comments2024-03-27T19:06:56.566-07:00Comments on Shoreline Area News: State Sen. Chase’s bill to prevent City of Shoreline from assuming Ronald Wastewater District without a vote passes Senate but dies in HouseCarl Dinsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03741982015985286521noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741412946805763929.post-17560140028945413222014-03-28T14:22:44.969-07:002014-03-28T14:22:44.969-07:00With or without a state bill, the City of Shorelin...With or without a state bill, the City of Shoreline should allow voters to decide this issue. All the City does is endlessly beat the drum that they and Ronald Wastewater agreed to the assumption 12 years ago. So what? Who cares? <br /><br />The City has kept the assumption issue as low key as they could. They never asked the voters or even publicized the landmark 2002 agreement in their monthly Currents. Moreover, that agreement specifically forbids Ronald from itemizing on ratepayers bills the fee they have been paying to the City ever since in exchange for stalling off the assumption until 2017. Even the City's own comprehensive plan (updated as recently as December 2012) mentions only the "potential assumption of Ronald Wastewater District," yet the City now talks like assumption has always been a done deal. <br /><br />Voters created Ronald 53 years ago. Voters now ought to be the ones to decide whether to hand over the wastewater utility to the City. The City will tell you an election would be too expensive. Are they saying our community cannot afford democracy? They could have put this issue on the ballot at the general election, at little marginal cost to the voters. And they don't seem to have a problem conducting a perfunctory and equally costly "unification efficiency study" to rubberstamp a decision they made 12 (some would say 20) years ago. Sitting Ronald Commissioner Bob Ransom warned as a councilmember 12 years ago that waiting 15 years to assume the District would cause trouble, and he was right. This city belongs to the living. <br /><br />A big thanks to that small group in Shoreline that has been dedicated to keeping the spotlight on this contentious community issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741412946805763929.post-30743825367083279922014-03-28T09:52:31.478-07:002014-03-28T09:52:31.478-07:00Thank you Senator Chase for having the courage to ...Thank you Senator Chase for having the courage to stand up for Democracy! Public Utilities belong to all of the citizens who pay to operate them. The city scheme is to use utilities to bankroll development schemes! Let the development community pay for their needs out of the tremendous profits they make. Can our house members here in the 32nd weigh in on why this bill failed to get through the house? Who supported it and who opposed it and why?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com