Lawyer will try to divine more water for North Bend

Published 1:49 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – North Bend’s water problem got a step closer to relief and future development grievances in the city will be heading to the county after last week’s City Council meeting.

The City Council voted unanimously on a resolution to hire a Seattle-based lawyer to help the city press its interests about water rights to government agencies and local groups concerned with similar issues.

The city has been under a building moratorium since April of 1999, when it realized an error made by a previous administration was allowing the city to use more water than it had a right to under state regulations.

The lawyer, Thomas Pors, will be working with the Department of Ecology, environmental groups and the Snoqualmie Tribe to help North Bend secure rights that are vital for continued growth in the city.

“We hope the parties will be willing to have an open mind and work expeditiously to help North Bend solve its water problem,” Pors said.

Pors couldn’t give specific details on how he plans to help the city, but did say he has experience dealing with water rights issues and has helped other Washington cities with similar predicaments.

Despite the desire to move ahead and solve the city’s water problem, Pors said it could take several months to a year for anything to come out of the talks in which he will be engaged.

The resolution passed on the heals of a presentation given by the Seattle-based planning firm H.W.A. Geosciences of Kirkland. The firm, hired by the city, recommended that the best way for North Bend to retain more water rights would be to draw water from a well the city dug in 1995. Although the well was added on an application the city filed with the state in 1992 for more water rights, it has not been granted approval for use.

City Administrator Phil Messina said hiring Pors would speed up the process of receiving more water rights from the state. He said that if the city filed its application for more water rights without considering outside group’s opinions, it would sit around for about six months before the Department of Ecology would tell North Bend to resubmit it with more input from tribes and environmental groups.

“The Department of Ecology is basically paralyzed,” Messina said. “They just won’t make a decision. That is where Mr. Pors will come in.”

In a less united move, the City Council voted 3-2 for an ordinance that would automatically forward appeals made under the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) concerning development in the city to the King County Superior Court.

Under the ordinance, if a party files an application to construct a building and the application is denied by the city because of SEPA regulations, the party can appeal the decision to the county.

Earlier, such appeals were made to the City Council first, but could ultimately be taken to the county if the applicant was not satisfied with the ruling it got at the city level.

City Attorney Mile Kenyon said he believes the new ordinance will save the city dollars it would spend hiring the experts that ultimately end up fighting SEPA issues in court anyway.

Kenyon also said the ordinance will give the council more freedom in discussion of development issues. Prior to the ordinance, when appeals were presented in a quasi-judicial setting before the council, members had to establish they were unbiased by not having any contact with anyone involved in discussions on a development issue.

“It no longer restricts conversation by the appearances-of-fairness doctrine,” Kenyon said.

The two council members who voted against the ordinance, Mark Sollitto and Elaine Webber, expressed concern that power will be taken away from North Bend’s citizens who count on being heard by a local governing group.

“This represents an abrogation of the fundamental responsibilities we have as City Council members,” Sollitto said. “We are elected to listen. We have a duty to listen to the people.”

Citizens were also upset about the fact that under the new law, present SEPA appeals filed with the city will have to be dismissed and refiled with the county, which costs more time and money. Dan Vail of North Bend is part of a group of people who had filed a SEPA appeal concerning the Sno-Bend Short Plat project. He is concerned the higher costs of dealing with the county, combined with a judge who doesn’t know the area, could hurt his cause.

“There are going to be some costs there that some people are not going to be able to afford,” Vail said. “And it’s just nice to have local people hear the appeals that are there.”

Council members expressed sympathy to the desire to lend a local ear to development concerns, but were ultimately won over by the objectivity the Superior Court can provide.

“It seems to take away local control, which almost swayed me to that side,” said Councilman Fred Rappin, who voted for the ordinance. “I swayed to the other side though, because it kept it all legal. It’s good for keeping favoritism out and it keeps it tied down to the actual issues.”

Councilman Jim Gildersleeve, who also voted for the ordinance, said the new process will make SEPA reviews better. Since SEPA claims have gotten more and more complex in the last couple of years, he said it was necessary to have a trained staff look over the appeals in order to judge fairly.

“Most of us council members are not qualified enough to go through these,” Gildersleeve said. “All of this review has become legalistic. This needs to go to a judge who deals with this on a day-to-day basis.”

The North Bend city budget for 2002 was also unanimously passed. Although the $14.9 million budget is largely similar to last year’s and some council members commented on the budget process being easier this year than in previous years, North Bend Mayor Joan Simpson disagreed. She said the recent passage of anti-tax initiatives, lost fees from the building moratorium and expected revenue shortfalls, made for an intense budget process.

“This was not an easy one,” Simpson said. “We scrambled to keep all the services at the same level. The budget is extremely tight.”

The city sought relief for the budget strain by using a Washington tax law that allows cities to get money it may have passed over when setting property taxes below the maximum rate allowed. The additional tax, called “banking,” was passed unanimously with the property tax levy and next year the city will collect the money it would have collected if it had implemented an additional 4 percent tax. Since the tax rate for 2001 was set at 2 percent, rather than the maximum of 6 percent, the city had a 4 percent tax in the “Bank” that it could collect only once.

City Treasurer Elena Montgomery explained the additional rate will be around 8 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation on property, or about $24 for a $300,000 home.