City looks for compromise on water fees

SANDPOINT - The Public Works Committee took steps Wednesday to reach a compromise with the Syringa Heights Water Association, which the city says owes more than $500,000 in unpaid overage charges.

The association, which purchases water from Sandpoint for its roughly 180 members, was informed in August that it had accrued $524,220 in overage fees since 2003.

The letter came after city treasurer Shannon Syth learned of a 1993 resolution passed by the council that raised the association's overage charge to $50 per 10,000 gallons of excess use. For reasons unknown, the city never implemented the new fees and it is unclear if the association's board was ever made aware of the resolution.

At Wednesday's meeting - which was not attended by any members of the association's board - the Public Works Committee looked into the prospect of taking the association into Sandpoint's water system and considered how best to resolve the large overage fees.

Bob Bossi, who receives water from the association, told the committee they could not involuntarily take over the system and argued that association members were not responsible for the hefty overage charges.

"If we've used water in excess, we've paid for it on our bills," Bossi said. "As far as I'm concerned, my bill is paid and I don't owe you anything."

Councilman John Reuter said he would be agreeable to forgiving the overage fees while reassuring Syringa water users that it was not the council's intention to forcibly take over the association.

Absorbing the association into Sandpoint's system has the potential to create a raft of problems for the city, such as how to handle annexation and issues of collecting impact fees, said Councilwoman Carrie Logan.

City Attorney Will Herrington agreed with Logan that a slate of potential problems exist that need to be addressed further before any decisions are made.

"I think this should be the subject of a workshop down the road," Herrington said.

Despite agreeing that collecting the full overage charge is unfeasible, all parties acknowledged the need for the association to work toward greatly reducing its future water usage.

"This has a real cost to our citizens," Reuter said. "It's not merely the cost of providing water that's in question here."

The issue will move on to the full council for more discussion.