04202018 - News Article - Portage mayor, City Council reach agreement over fate of Utility Service Board after protracted dispute that included a lawsuit

Portage mayor, City Council reach agreement over fate of Utility Service Board after protracted dispute that included a lawsuit
NWI Times
April 20, 2018
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/portage-mayor-city-council-reach-agreement-over-fate-of-utility/article_f36bee0b-9773-5599-8870-87b76ee62dda.html

PORTAGE — The City Council and Mayor James Snyder have reached an agreement on how to end their dispute over the legality of the Utility Service Board.

The stipulated agreement was approved by the City Council late Friday afternoon and will be entered into the courts, canceling a hearing scheduled for Monday morning.

Snyder brought a lawsuit against the City Council about two months ago, claiming they were acting in opposition to state law and the USB was improperly formed.

The City Council, which took over the USB just over a year ago, claiming Snyder was inappropriately using funds from the utility department to lease cars and attempted to spend $93,000 of the department's money to pay his personal legal fees, believed the board was acting properly.

In essence, the agreement calls for the council to create separate stormwater and sanitary sewer boards, which operated in the city prior to 2010 when the two boards were combined into one Utility Service Board.

The council will likely create those boards at its May 1 meeting, said City Council Attorney Ken Elwood, adding the board will not have any authority until the process is completed to dismantle the USB.

"They will begin the process to discuss how to unwind the USB and go back to the two boards," Elwood said, adding it must be done in a "reasonable" amount of time.

Once the negotiations on how to dismantle the USB are completed, Elwood said, the council will vote on the final package and transfer authority to the re-created Sanitary Board and Storm Water Management Board.

The agreement also states that the USB will not take any actions outside the day-to-day operation, current stormwater fees will be collected and increased revenue from those fees will be impounded until the USB is dissolved.

Elwood said if negotiations break down and an agreement cannot be reached in that reasonable time, the matter will return to the courts.

The agreement, Elwood said, does not say who is right or who is wrong.

"We still believe our position is correct," Elwood said.

"It is what we have been trying to do since Dec. 5," said Snyder, contacted after the meeting. "The agreed order gets the City Council to follow the law. It is good for Portage."

"I think this is in the best interest of all the parties," said City Council President Mark Oprisko, adding a continued legal battle would be costly with taxpayers paying for both sides. "I think the people who are going to benefit are the taxpayers of Portage."