Thu Feb 09 2012
by Eric Marotta
News Leader Editor
Cleveland -- The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Board of Trustees unanimously agreed Jan. 7 to adopt a system-wide stormwater management plan.
Under the proposed plan, residential property owners, including residents in the northeast quadrant of Hudson, would be billed an average $4.75 per month starting this year.
But before the district can levy the new utility fee, the courts must decide whether the district has the authority to implement its plan.
Summit County and several Summit communities, including the city of Hudson and Nordonia Hills towns, have asked the courts to consider the matter.
Their motion was filed Dec. 30 in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas.
Just after the NEORSD's Jan. 7 vote, that organization also asked the courts to consider the matter, according to district spokesperson Jennifer Elting.
"We have gone to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas to ask a judge for a declaratory judgment to confirm our authority to implement the plan," Elting said.
Elting said the sewer district's legal department had scheduled a Jan. 9 conference call to discuss allowing the Cuyahoga County court to decide the issue, with Summit County court officials handling the case.
At issue is whether NEORSD has the authority to assess fees to support a stormwater management plan throughout its service area, which spans Cuyahoga County and includes parts of Northern Summit County.
The fees are expected to generate about $40 million per year to manage stormwater throughout the NEORSD service area.
The city of Hudson agrees with Summit County that a regional sewer district does not have authority to impose new taxes on Summit property owners.
"While we support efforts to correct stormwater problems in Hudson and in the region, as evidenced in the fact that the city has spent an average of $1.2 million per year since the flood of 2003 on stormwater improvements in Hudson, we do not believe that NEORSD by statute or by the Cuyahoga County court action that created NEORSD gives that entity the authority to implement a program that imposes a new tax on all property owners in Summit County," said Hudson Communications Manager Jody Roberts. "It should further be noted that Summit County does not have any representation on the NEORSD Board."
The Summit County complaint states, among other allegations, that NEORSD has no authority to impose "stormwater fees, taxes or assessments on Summit County residents" and states the county engineer's office is better suited to manage stormwater issues in the county.
The complaint also states county residents have no political representation on the NEORSD board of directors and states any fees needed for stormwater management should be imposed by an official who is accountable to county residents.
NEORSD's authority to regulate stormwater control issues within the district stems from a Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas decision in the 1970s, Frank Greenwood, NEORSD director of watershed programs, said in November.
Greenwood said NEORSD has a seven-member board of trustees, three of whom are chosen by the mayor of Cleveland, three by the NEORSD Suburban Council of Governments, a body that includes representatives of all the suburbs within the district, and one by the Cuyahoga County Commissioners.
"There could always be changes, but that is the current lay of the land," Greenwood said.
E-mail: emarotta@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3171
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