Grant County, Moses Lake settle lawsuit

City to pay $8.5 million

EPHRATA — Moses Lake will pay Grant County $8.5 million as part

of a settlement agreement to end two lawsuits after roughly three

years.

The city was suing the county concerning an agreement about Wheeler

Road. The city agreed to give a portion of its property tax to the

county to pay for improvements made to the road before the land was

annexed, according to court records. In return, the county wouldn’t

oppose the city’s annexation.

EPHRATA — Moses Lake will pay Grant County $8.5 million as part of a settlement agreement to end two lawsuits after roughly three years.

The city was suing the county concerning an agreement about Wheeler Road. The city agreed to give a portion of its property tax to the county to pay for improvements made to the road before the land was annexed, according to court records. In return, the county wouldn’t oppose the city’s annexation.

The City of Moses Lake filed the first lawsuit in Grant County Superior Court in 2007, claiming the county reneged on part of the agreement because it didn’t dissolve the Boundary Review Board. The city claimed the county promised to eliminate 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.

Initially the county claimed it initiated a process to disband the board by holding public hearings but decided not to eliminate the board, Commissioner Richard Stevens said in a previous interview.

The commissioners decided to eliminate the board in March after 13 cities on the planned growth committee voted to recommend disbanding it. After speaking with the planning department and others affected by the decision, Stevens said the board wasn’t necessary.

A second lawsuit focused on whether REC Silicon should be considered a “resource-based” industry. Resource-based industries are involved in agriculture, forestry, fishing or mining, and the agreement required the city to pay a larger amount of money for the industries in the category, according to court records.

The settlement eliminates the agreement, and requires the city to pay $1.7 million a year for the next five years reaching a total of $8.5 million.

Commissioner Cindy Carter and Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski said the agreement was good.

Carter pointed out the money from the revenue sharing agreement was meant to pay the county for road improvements. The money will return to the public works budget.

“We should recoup our expenses and we can put it into other projects,” she said. “(The settlement) is something we’ve been working on. (The lawsuit is) something we spent a lot of money on. It was costing the taxpayers. The county commissioners were looking to get this resolved. We were paying county taxpayer dollars to fight city taxpayers dollars.”

Grant County paid an estimated $300,000 in legal costs due to the lawsuits, Carter said.

Gavinski also pointed out the city and county have been trying to reach an agreement to end the lawsuit during the past few years. Based on the city’s calculations, it would have paid the county $8.5 million.

The boundary review board’s elimination also played into the decision, he said.

“In a settlement nobody comes out completely satisfied,” he said. “The city is pleased to have it over with. It’s good to have it out of the way, have some resolution, have some certainty and move on.”

Gavinski said the settlement will be beneficial for the city’s budget, since city officials believed the county was going to withhold more money than the city needs to pay.