Grant County, Moses Lake to negotiate jurisdiction lawsuit

EPHRATA — Negotiations to settle a lawsuit between Grant County and Moses Lake  over revenue sharing begins April 20.

The discussions will include an attempt to determine who should receive property taxes from REC Silicon.

In 2007 a civil lawsuit began, started by the City of Moses Lake, who claimed Grant County reneged on a revenue sharing agreement signed in September 1999.

The city was to pay a portion of the property tax revenue back to the county road fund, according to the agreement. In return, the county wouldn’t oppose annexation by the city.

The agreement came before the city’s annexation of the Wheeler corridor. 

For property assessed at more than $20,000, the county received $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value. The amount declines by 25 cents per year. It was slated to end in 2006.

The exception is existing industries involved in agriculture, forestry, fishing or mining. The agreement refers to these as resource-based industries. The city agreed to reimburse the county $2.23 per $1,000 assessed value. The rate drops 25 cents a year until it reaches about $1.13 per $1,000 assessed value. For new resource based industries, the city agreed to reimburse at a rate of $1.125 per $1,000 of assessed value for 10 years.

In the lawsuit, the city claims Grant County breached its contract with the city by not initiating a process to eliminate the boundary review board, which reviews annexation requests. As a result it wants the $733,204 it paid to the county returned, according to Grant County Superior Court records.

The city claims the county promised to dismantle the board one year after the final challenge to the county’s ?comprehensive plan was finished. The Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearing Board dismissed the last challenge to the plan in August 2006, according to court records.

Grant County Commissioner Richard Stevens said the county did initiate a process to disband the board. The commissioners held a public hearing on the request in September 2007, then decided against eliminating the board.

Members of the board, representatives from the county and Moses Lake staff members were at the hearing, Stevens said. The Moses Lake officials didn’t testify at the meeting.

“Nobody testified against keeping the board,” he said. “(Moses Lake) probably didn’t need anything more on the record.”

Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski said the city doesn’t feel this initiated the process. The commissioners needed to draft a resolution eliminating the boundary review board.

“It’s a very simple process,” he said.

Gavinski said the board is no longer necessary and impedes growth, costing the city and developers time and money.

“In one example, the board took a position and found an annexation was invalid … The developer had to go to court, which brought the city into court. The court found, ‘No, the annexation was correct.’ So there was time lost and money spent on the developer’s part and time lost and money spent on the city’s part.”

Stevens said the board has only had one problem in front of it since he’s been there and it dealt with Grant County Fire District 5.

“It’s not bothering (the city) any, and it gives (the public) a spot to go if they have a problem with an annexation,” he said.

The other part of the mediation includes whether REC Silicon is a resource-based industry. The county claims it is because it uses resources and it was the opinion of the county’s land use attorney, Stevens said.

The city claims it isn’t because the plant doesn’t take resources off its property, Gavinski said. If the plant mined silicon, it might be different, but since it doesn’t, it shouldn’t be included in the process.

“REC uses already refined silicon,” he said. “For example, cutting down timber to make furniture is a resource-based industry. Making furniture is not.”

Gavinski said he is not optimistic either of these problems will be solved through negotiations, but it doesn’t hurt to try talk about them.

He said usually mediation works best when trying to solve a problem where there is a disagreement about how much money is owed.

“We’ll look for a solution, but don’t expect to find one,” he said.

Stevens said normally mediation works pretty well if both sides can give a little to find a compromise. If it doesn’t work out, the lawsuit is still in place. He said they are willing to discuss the issues with the city instead of dragging out the lawsuit.

“The only person who’s losing here is the taxpayer,” he said.