[Vision2020] Intergovermental Agreement Needed for City to Sell Water to Hawkins

[Tom Hansen]

"The Moscow City Council and Whitman County commissioners will discuss and 
vote on any agreement publicly. Riedner said Hawkins officials also will 
review the agreement."

Question for the Moscow City Council:  Can the people of Moscow (those 
people you swore to support) expect public disclosure of thse meetings?  
Or will the people of Moscow be subjected to another rendition of 
Councilor Krauss' "Hey, I've got a day job.  I don't have time for such 
stuff.  Besides, they scare me."?

>From today's (April 8, 2008) Moscow-Pullman Daily News -

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IDWR: Intergovermental agreement needed for city to sell water to Hawkins

By Tara Roberts, Daily News staff writer

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - Page Updated at 12:00:00 AM

Moscow and Whitman County will have to enter into an intergovernmental 
agreement if the city wants to provide water to the Hawkins Companies 
development. 

Moscow City Supervisor Gary Riedner said Idaho Department of Water 
Resources officials told Moscow leaders last week that such an agreement 
will be required for the city to move forward with its application to 
modify Moscow's water service area to serve the Hawkins retail development 
just across the state line.

The city agreed to make "prompt application" to IDWR in a settlement with 
Hawkins, reached during closed-door mediation in February. 

The process to create the intergovernmental agreement is just beginning, 
Riedner said. Moscow and Whitman County leaders have not been able to find 
a suitable date for an initial meeting.

Whitman County Public Works Director Mark Storey said he expects a meeting 
to occur within the next few weeks. It will then take a month or two for 
Moscow City Attorney Randy Fife, Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy and 
other city and county officials to work out the agreement.

"I think the basic agreement's kind of simple," Storey said. "They agree 
to sell us water and we agree to pay for it, then we pass it on to 
Hawkins."

Riedner said intergovernmental agreements are fairly commonplace. The city 
and county already have mutual aid agreements for police and fire services 
in emergencies, for example.

IDWR Public Information Officer Bob McLaughlin said a 2005 letter to Fife 
from Deputy Idaho Attorney General Steve Strack explains the need for the 
intergovernmental agreement.

Strack wrote Idaho cities are authorized to enter joint service 
agreements "where it is more practical to construct and maintain a unified 
water or sewage system than for each city to provide separately such 
services to their respective residents." The municipalities' water rights 
would be amended to include the joint service area.

Strack wrote that similar agreements across state lines are potentially 
available under a section of Idaho Code that authorizes Idaho public 
agencies to "enter into cooperative agreements" with out-of-state public 
entities. Any agreement to extend services across state lines "would have 
to be carefully crafted to address issues such as authority to levy and 
collect taxes and fees."

The letter includes other rules and regulations regarding out-of-state 
water use and delivering water across state lines.

McLaughlin said he could not comment on the Hawkins situation aside from 
referring to the Strack letter, which was written in response to a 
separate inquiry from Fife.

Riedner said at Monday's City Council meeting that the city will see if it 
can send a letter to IDWR stating the city and county are pursuing the 
agreement, and move forward with the application while the agreement is 
being finalized.

The Moscow City Council and Whitman County commissioners will discuss and 
vote on any agreement publicly. Riedner said Hawkins officials also will 
review the agreement.

Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney said the city will make an effort to move 
expediently on the agreement, as stated in the settlement with Hawkins, 
but it may not be easy.

"I think it'll be time-consuming," she said.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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