Former mayor comments on water pact

To The Eagle:

After reading in The Eagle that the Town of Cathlamet had reached a water sale agreement with the PUD, I contacted Town Hall to get a copy of the new contract. To my surprise, I was told that a draft contract did not yet exist, that the contract wasn’t even on the last meeting agenda and that no documentation was provided to the public or to the town council before the decision was made.

It also seems that the town agreed to join the PUD as a junior partner in a grant proposal to study creating a combined water system.

It is time for town leaders to hit the brakes before they cut more corners. The town council can’t review a contract it has not seen. The mayor should not sign a contract that has not been vetted by the council. The same rules apply to grant applications. On any issue, let alone one this complex, deliberation, debate and decision-making must be done at open public meetings so concerned citizens have the opportunity to observe and express their views.

I fear that we have a lone council member making policy in the back room. Ironically, the existing contract dates to an earlier period in Cathlamet’s history, when another set of town officials (for reasons not documented in any town file I have seen) agreed to sell water to the PUD at rates highly unfavorable to the Town. Lacking provisions for fair cost-sharing on infrastructure improvements or water loss, and with no cap on total PUD consumption, that deal has since cost Cathlamet hundreds of thousands of dollars and is the main reason why the Water System Reserve Fund is so paltry today.

The fix is easy enough. The mayor should not sign the draft contract Council Member David Goodroe is preparing. Instead, it should be put on the February agenda, made available for public review, debated fully by the town council, shared with outside utilities experts the Town is in contact with and approved/rejected on that basis.

Only after a water deal is reached should the Town even consider joining the PUD in any grant project, even one funded with someone else’s money.

George Wehrfritz

Editor's note: The wording in the article, published January 22, indicated the council had given agreement "in principle" as Goodroe had outlined.

The end of the report stated, "By consensus, the council approved the agreement." Perhaps instead of "agreement," "principle" would have been better wording in that sentence.

As Mark Twain is reported to have said, "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."