Water, housing big topics for Moses Lake City Council candidates

MOSES LAKE — Four candidates for the Moses Lake City Council had an opportunity to make their positions clear at a candidate forum Oct. 24.

The forum was hosted by the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, The Columbia Basin Herald and KWIQ. Candidates were invited to speak a little bit about themselves and their visions for the positions they sought. Next moderator Alan Heroux, an ambassador for the Chamber, asked each pair of candidates two questions about specific issues involving the city. Each answer was limited to two minutes, which timekeeper Karisti Cox enforced strictly. The questions were alternated, so each candidate had a chance to answer one of the questions first and one second.

Participating in the forum were Victor Lombardi and Jeremy Nolan for position 6, and David Skaug and Elisia “Lisa” Dalluge Eklund for position 7.

City staff

The first question was for Skaug and Dalluge.

“There is a public perception issue with dealing with the city,” Heroux said. “Do you believe there is a problem with city staff not being attentive to the needs of the public? Please explain.”

“Yes,” Skaug said. “I'm involved in the construction part of Moses Lake, and that has been a problem that has come up from time to time, just how long it takes to get something done. I think there's a real interest in the city council, particularly the things that I'm involved with, of making people in the city understand that we're in the customer service business. We're not here to save the city; we're here to help people build it, and that has become an issue. We're going to work real hard on that, to get those people to know that they're accountable. … we're really working hard to say, (citizens) talk to city council people, who direct the city manager, and the city manager then tells the city staff what to do, not the other way around.”

“Yes and no,” Dalluge said “Could the city staff do better? Absolutely. Are they doing the best job that they can? I believe so. If you look at building permits and stuff, it's a process that you have to go through (and) work with the city to get, and sometimes the people get frustrated with the timing that it takes to get it done. But it's not necessarily the staff’s fault.”

Sometimes city staff have to put an application through multiple departments or outside agencies, which can slow down turnaround time, Dalluge explained. And if requests for a particular service increase, and staff numbers stay the same, then staffers are going to have difficulty keeping up.

Budget

The next question concerned the increase in the city budget for 2024 over 2023.

“I can't tell you the exact numbers off of the top of my head, although I can tell you that we do have an increase,” Dalluge said. “But we also have a deficit. I can tell you that our city had lost a 1% tax increase that I was able to uncover and recover … I can tell you that we don't have to make all the cuts that the city's proposing with the deficit right now. I can tell you that in the future, we're going to have some really good revenue, that's gonna help out with our infrastructure care and needs that are desperate right now, not just the water but our police and our fire department. I can tell you that the city is responsible for ensuring the cost for the fire and the police, but there's grants out there that can help offset that.”

The city’s deficit was originally $11.5 million, Dalluge said, and the city has been able to allocate about $5.5 million from the general fund to decrease that deficit.

“But there's other ways that we can allocate those funds and reallocate those funds that haven't been touched and looked at,” she said. “And that's why you need somebody that has experience because if I wouldn't have recovered that tax increase fund, we would have lost out on millions of dollars.”

“I think that that budget went from about $97 million to $105 million,” Skaug said. “That is over the revenues that we are anticipating. I have a problem with it. It seems like everything just kind of grows and grows and gets bigger and bigger, and people costs are a big part of it … I would rather pay 10 people $100 an hour to work than 100 people $10 an hour. I don't have a problem with pay scale at the city. Sometimes I have a problem with the number of people it takes to do the job. And I think if we can come up with some way of measuring that we can take some money out of that budget. There are some big budgets: fire is a big budget, parks and rec (is) a big budget. I think they can be closely scrutinized. I know in my own business, when you don't have money, you don't spend it.”

Fact check: Dalluge’s statement that the city lost a 1% tax increase and that she recovered the funds is not supported by any city records and city staff indicated it was not an accurate statement. City staff indicated that Dalluge did attend budget workshops, but did not directly participate in them. The deficit she mentioned was a difference between what department directors at the city requested and what was available. Through the workshop process, city staff were able to reduce the amount requested by the directors and utilize reserve funds to meet the difference. The city still has reserve funds available and is in good financial standing at this time.

Water

The first question for Nolan and Lombardi concerned potable water, and how the city should ensure an adequate supply for the future.

“Right now, the city uses about 4.5 million gallons of water a day in wintertime,” Nolan said. “It uses about 13.5 million gallons of water on average per day during the summertime. Sundays get over 20 million gallons per day. So capacity’s not a problem for the late fall, winter, spring. It's a problem during the summer in watering season where we use potable water for watering irrigation lawns. I would love to see coordination with the Moses Lake Irrigation District, which covers the city, to be able to get some purple pipe in the ground over a 20- to 30-year period. We can change out 2-5% a year getting pipe in the ground so we're not having to go to completely desert, (with) dry yards where we don't have room for our kids to play.”

“I think the first thing you want to do is look at these reports and the engineering reports and working with local staff,” Lombardi said. “Because right now, they are technically the most informed. Also, we have to understand the effect of the federal agencies involved because they have a big amount of control … There's also costs involved, and what exactly are the people willing to pay? And I think that we have to be honest and transparent, and get their opinion as to how much they're willing to pay.”

Fact check: Nolan’s estimations of the amount of water the city uses were slightly off compared with city records, city staff said. The 4.5 million gallons of winter usage is correct. Usage is close to 20 million gallons during weekends, which is why the city has asked residents not to water on Mondays because that allows a day for the aquifer the city pulls from to recharge for one day. Highest usage is usually in July and August while lawn watering is ongoing. The city spends $400,000 to $500,000 per year on repairing and maintaining the city’s piping infrastructure. City staff were unsure of what percentage of the system is replaced annually.

Housing

The last question dealt with affordable housing, and how to improve access to it.

“The term ‘affordable housing’ actually doesn't exist,” Lombardi said. “It's thrown around a lot, but it really has to depend on each city and the income in that area. So one of the things that I propose that I've designed already, is to create this affordable housing concept from the ground up. In other words, getting our local real estate agents involved, because they know the market better than anybody. Additionally, they know the median incomes. And then from there, put the price points that we need to get the majority of people that need affordable housing … Then go to the builders and have them do schematics as to what this would look like (and) also work with the city as far as annexation and getting inexpensive lots.”

The more land that can be annexed, the more smaller-sized lots will become available, he explained.

Nolan took the position that much of the cost of housing could be reduced by streamlining regulations.

“There's the things that the city can specifically control,” he said. “And the city can specifically control (the) cost for new housing through regulation. Roughly 25% of every new house is tied up in city requirements, regulation. So if you've got to build a $300,000 house, roughly $75,000 of that's tied up in requirements from the city. Some of that, I'm sure, makes sense. Question is, what do we need to do to go through there and scrub that? What should really be required and what should be optional? What can we help shave out of that? If we can get some of that cost down, it can reduce the cost for developers; they can still sell at a nice profit and at a lower price point.”

Fact check: The requirements processed by city staff in regard to new home construction are not all instituted by the city. Some are state or federal requirements. The Columbia Basin Herald was not able to verify the “roughly 25%” of cost that Nolan mentioned. All candidates appear to agree with the city that the overall permitting process could be streamlined and the city has indicated it is working on that process already and has the goal of releasing a streamlined process in early 2024.