Little has changed in efforts to upgrade infrastructure and reduce rates for Sandy Springs water customers as a dispute with the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management drags on.
However, City Attorney Dan Lee said there is a small amount of hope for a resolution despite litigation over the issue.
Recently, the City of Atlanta has indicated a willingness to settle water delivery issues with Sandy Springs, Lee said, but Atlanta officials told Sandy Springs staff that a dispute over water rates would need to go through litigation.
The spirit of cooperation seen with Atlanta that was shown in Local Option Sales Tax negotiations and that between the cities’ police and fire departments is something Lee said he’s never seen before. City Manager Eden Freeman’s conversations with her counterpart, and Mayor Rusty Paul’s discussions with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens have brought discussion about the water dispute. They’ve had an oral agreement that a rate surcharge shouldn’t exist, infrastructure repairs and upgrades should be made, and the way that day-to-day fixes are managed needs to change.
The Sandy Springs Public Works Department confirmed that cooperation is much better on issues such as outstanding job tickets for failing to repair right of way after work is done along a city street.
Lee said the mayor directed him to continue to seek a legal solution.
The Fulton Superior Court Judge overseeing the case asked both cities for agreeable dates for a hearing in March, Lee said.
Issues that need to be resolved through litigation or arbitration include a rate surcharge. Lee said Sandy Springs shouldn’t pay a surcharge on water as it’s cheaper to deliver water from the Johns Creek Treatment Facility than Atlanta’s Hemphill water plant. A surcharge is meant to cover added expenses, he said.
Another issue for arbitration is that a cost analysis is required annually to set water rates, Lee said. But that has never been done for Sandy Springs customers, who are charged three times the cost of delivery.
Atlanta needs to maintain its water system, he said. A $400,000 study by Hartman and Associations that Sandy Springs funded revealed that water treatment facility repairs and upgrades would cost $80 million, and that figure is two years old, he said.
“There’s not been a major improvement done to this system in 47 years,” Lee said.
The City of Atlanta delivers services outside of its city limits, but since the intergovernmental agreements that Fulton County granted to the two cities expired, Atlanta has been delivering services outside its jurisdiction without authority, Lee said.