Ronald Wastewater Board votes to hire attorney, challenge assumption by City of Shoreline
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
At its meeting on June 25, 2013, the Ronald Wastewater Board of Commissioners voted to authorize the hiring of an attorney to challenge the Letter of Agreement it signed with the City of Shoreline in 2002.
The City's understanding is that the LOA was an agreement for the City to assume Ronald Wastewater over a 15 year period. The City has been working steadily toward that goal, through several administrations.
Ronald Wastewater is challenging the wording and intent of the LOA and fighting to remain independent of the City.
All they agree on is that there is "a clear distinction between the District's interpretation and the City's regarding the intent of the LOA, how it is to be executed, and the State law."
The two entities recently exchanged letters which drew the lines between them and hardened their positions, and now it appears that the matter may be resolved in court. (Ronald's letter. Shoreline's letter.)
Interestingly, one of the signers of the LOA 15 years ago was Commissioner Arthur Wadekamper, who is still on the Board.
Commissioner Arnie Lind was challenged for his commissioner position in 2011 by Robert Ransom, who ran on a platform of absorbing the district into the City. Shortly after Ransom won his seat on the three position Board, the Commissioners voted 2-1 to increase the Board to five members. They appointed Lind to one of the new seats, along with Richard Matthews.
The resolution passed by the Board on June 25 was signed by all the Commissioners except for Bob Ransom, who wrote "Abstain - I think mediation and talking should come first."
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3 comments:
Interestingly, Bob Ransom was on the city council when the letter of intent was created and was voted out of office for violating the open public meeting act along with a couple of other councilmembers.
What a terrible article, Ronald Wastewater's resolution was posted in the Shoreline Patch in its entirety. The City of Shoreline has held that no public vote is required (as state law mandates) and they wanted to rush into a suit on May 22, 2013 in a special meeting because Ronald Wastewater was transferring assets but no revenue to Woodway. Woodway is trying to become a full service city (the argument that the City of Shoreline has paraded about, they don't want their utility taxes and rate setting to be done by an outside local government - by then again, the City of Shoreline are a bunch of hypocrites) and wanted control of the utility.
The City of Shoreline doesn't play well with others. While Lake Forest Park, Edmonds, and Mountlake Terrace try to resolve the flooding in the Ballinger Basin in an interlocal agreement, Shoreline refuses to participate -- isn't that the Shoreline way, demand and dictate what they want from other jurisdictions or they will take their ball and go home.
And the editorializing in this article proves to me, that once again, this is not a news blog but a bully pulpit for the so-called editors and reporters.
While we appreciate Ms. Hettrick's report, we encourage SAN readers to read the original press release and resolution that was submitted to her on Wednesday at 11:53 am.
www.ronaldwastewater.org
http://www.ronaldwastewater.org/downloads/PRRes15-15.pdf
http://www.ronaldwastewater.org/downloads/RES%2013-15.pdf
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