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City of Sherwood and Clean Water Services Continue Mediation over Disagreement
In September of this year, officials from the City of Sherwood and Clean Water Services began a mediation process over a disagreement between the parties that began back in 2008. The City of Sherwood had passed an ordinance in late 2008 imposing a privilege tax on all utility providers (public and private) that use the City’s right-of-way and, in early 2009, had notified Clean Water Services that it was subject to that ordinance. Clean Water Services disputed the franchise fee at that time and the parties, including Mayor Mays and CWS Board Chair Tom Brian, attempted to resolve the issue throughout 2009 and early 2010, but the parties disagree about the outcome of that process.
The City began collecting the franchise fee from Clean Water Services in July 2010. Since that time, the City of Sherwood has collected approximately $783,000 from Clean Water Services. As with all other City privilege taxes, these funds were deposited into the City’s General Fund and are intended to cover the various costs associated with managing and maintaining the City’s right-of-way. While Sherwood has until recently been unique in assessing such fees on Clean Water Services, the cities of Hillsboro and Beaverton have recently adopted similar legislation to begin assessing similar fees on Clean Water Services. Clean Water Services disputes the appropriateness of the Cities’ fees, the method of calculating the fees, the manner of withholding the fees and other issues.
The City and Clean Water Services have an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) that contains specific language within it that outlines a multi-step dispute resolution process whenever there is a disagreement between the parties related to the IGA. In 2015, Clean Water Services initiated step one of this process, which involves the City Manager and the Clean Water Services General Manager meeting to attempt to resolve the issue. The dispute not being resolved at that step, Clean Water Services initiated step two in early 2016, which involves the Mayor and Clean Water Services Board Chair meeting to attempt to resolve the issue. Mayor Clark and CWS Board Chair Andy Duyck met in January 2016, but a resolution of the disagreement was not reached. Finally, in September 2016, the parties entered step three of the process, which is mediation, at the request of Clean Water Services. Formal mediation sessions took place on September 8 and 16, 2016.
Although a resolution has not yet been reached, both parties are continuing to discuss possible settlement as part of the mediation process and remain hopeful that a mutually agreeable solution can be found.
