Sanitation District and City of Ukiah to go to court on Thursday

UKIAH, CA., 12/28/2016 — The Ukiah Valley Sanitation District and the City of Ukiah will appear before a Sonoma County judge tomorrow, Thursday Dec. 29, to set a date for the trial that will hopefully settle the long-standing dispute between the two entities. Careful watchers of Mendocino politics might recognize an echo of a previous dispute over sewage, between the City of Willits and the Brooktrails Community Services District, which also had to be resolved in a Sonoma County courthouse. On December 27, the district board met in closed session at the end of a special meeting for a conference with legal counsel on the litigation. Also on this agenda was a discussion of a budget resolution, which was rescheduled after a raucous meeting in November, during which ratepayers in the district expressed their displeasure with the district’s lawsuit against the City of Ukiah.

In its suit, filed in 2013, the district seeks damages that add up to around $30 million, plus prejudgement interest, citing agreements going back to 1955. If the city loses the trial, it will have to pay the claims out of the city wastewater fund, which, until earlier this month, was also being used as security for a recycled water project. Under a new plan proposed by City of Ukiah Director of Water and Sewer Sean White on December 7, that project could be salvaged. But the litigation could still cost the city millions in opportunities to refinance debt and borrow money on favorable terms for future projects.