Our Mission:
Districts helping districts by shared knowledge
Meeting Schedule:
Date/Time: June 15, 2007 10:00 a.m.
Location:
Prescott Library, Prescott , Arizona
Who can attend?
If you are the manager or operator, part of the staff or a board member of a special district you are invited to attend. If you belong to a company considering becoming a special district, you are invited to attend. If you belong to a company or an organization that can help us meet our mission, you are invited to attend. If you're reading this information, you are invited to attend! How will I benefit by attending the Special Districts' meeting?
What are some of the legislative and regulatory changes taking place? What is the advantage of being a designated water provider? Can a wastewater district and a water district become just one district? How? What do I do when my entire water system is frozen? How do you initiate a recall election? What are the PDH requirements for an operator? USDA loans? WIFA loans? What about health insurance? Who do I call when …….?
These are all questions we have discussed at our meetings. The meetings are lively and informative; friendly and informal. No need to be nervous. The agenda always includes a round table discussion – which is often how the agenda for the next meeting is determined.
Special districts throughout the state share the same issues, concerns and questions. In fact, recognition of that very commonality is what initiated the forming of, and the subsequent evolution of the committee.
ASUA has supported the efforts of the committee to reach out to districts all over Arizona by providing administrative services and information dissemination. ASUA further supports our efforts by sending representatives to the meetings - circuit riders, training specialists, and, if possible, the executive director. These provide regulatory updates and other vital information. Steve Wene, an attorney from the firm of Moyes Storey, provides insight into legal and legislative issues.
Last, but not least, there are the regular attendees. We have a variety of operators and managers with years of experience – ready and willing to share such experience with anyone who asks.
What is a special district?
Arizona Revised Statutes Title 48 actually refers to us as “Special Taxing Districts”. A special district is a quasi-government formed by a development, community or municipality to fill a need for specific services. Title 48 lists provisions for weed control districts, fire districts, irrigation districts, road improvement districts, electrical districts, sanitary districts, wastewater improvement districts, water improvement districts and more. There are a lot of us out there. Why would a development, community or municipality form a district?
Sometimes it's a case of sheer necessity. For example, the community I live in is 7 miles north of Kingman - a nice little area nestled up against the Cerbat Mountains . The developers installed a water system and formed the W.T.S. Water Company to operate and manage the water supply and distribution system. W.T.S. had an agreement with a local rancher to pump domestic water from one of his wells, which supplied the subdivision. Later, the well was sold to the City of Kingman and the community was sold to a California developer. W.T.S. obtained an agreement with the city to draw up to 50 gallons per minute from the city tanks, with a maximum of 2,160,000 gallons per month.
By the early 1980's, the water system had fallen into disrepair. After many ADEQ non-compliance notifications and mid-summer outages, the property owners of the subdivision purchased the entire system from W.T.S. Enterprises. In 1988 the property owners formed So-Hi Domestic Water Improvement District, obtained a Community Development Block Grant to develop a master plan and secured loan/grant funding to implement Master Plan Alternative 1. Alternative 1 was the construction and installation of a new supply and distribution system. There hasn't been a water outage since.
What are the benefits of becoming a special district?
Becoming a special district allows the community a certain amount of autonomy. An elected board of directors governs the district based on the needs of their district. Unlike privately owned companies, a special district is not governed by Arizona Corporation Commission, but rather by the statutes that allow them to form in the first place. In the case of a county improvement district, they also fall under the direction of the board of supervisors of the county in which they operate. Becoming a district does involve work, determination and probably, an attorney. Perhaps this could be a subject for discussion at a future meeting. We'll keep you posted.
Contact Information: Our contact list we'll be longer later, but for now, if you want to request information, make a suggestion for a training topic or an agenda item contact: Denise Johnston, chairman 928-565-3037 or 928-716-0756 endj@citlink.net or shdwid@citlink.net
Hope to see you at our next meeting!
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