Moses Lake, Grant County to mediate

Lawsuit still in works

MOSES LAKE - The Grant County Board of Commissioners and the City of Moses Lake planned recently to use a mediator to solve a disagreement about the disbanding of the Grant County Boundary Review Board.

The dispute grew into a lawsuit in late 2007 when Moses Lake sued Grant County for $733,204.93 for improvements associated with Wheeler Road.

The lawsuit is ongoing and in its discovery phase, but the mediation could lead to the case being resolved, said Moses Lake City Attorney James Whitaker on Thursday. The mediation was suggested by Grant County, he said.

Moses Lake City Manager Joseph Gavinski said the city agreed to a mediation.

"We're proceeding with getting those issues resolved," he said.

It wasn't known Thursday when the mediation would take place.

In the lawsuit, Moses Lake claims Grant County commissioners didn't follow an agreement signed in 1999 between the two entities to disband the boundary review board on time.

The boundary review board meets when someone contests an annexation into Moses Lake or other cities in Grant County.

Grant County Commissioner Richard Stevens said the county acted within a year on the issue, but wasn't able to have a hearing until a month after the deadline because of scheduling conflicts.

The county was also concerned about having joint development regulations in place with the city within the urban growth area (UGA) surrounding Moses Lake, Stevens said.

The city wants to use its standards on how items such as sidewalks should be built in the UGA, which is unannexed and not part of the city, he said.

Commissioners are being told by a land-use attorney that joint development regulations should be established within the urban growth boundary area before the board is disbanded, he said.

There are no regulations in place at this time, he said. Stevens said the city didn't want to negotiate on the regulations last year, but said the county hasn't been calling the city lately either.

Whitaker said on Friday he knew of the conversations last year.

A few years ago, Grant County sent Moses Lake a draft form of an interlocal agreement about the development regulations and he hasn't been asked to review anything since then, he said.

As part of the disputed agreement, the county would have been able to keep some tax money the city received in annexed properties, said Gavinski.

If there's any improvements on annexed properties, the agreement states the city would pay the depreciated value of the improvements, he said.

The city paid $733,204.93 to the county for the Wheeler Road improvements and wants it returned because of the alleged breach of contract, he said.