Carlisle v. COLUMBIA IRR. DIST.
| Decision Date | 01 April 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 82035-0.,82035-0. |
| Parties | Janet CARLISLE, Robert Armstrong, Kent Bell, Kelly Brazil, Dawn Brackensick, Steven Brackensick, Johan Curtiss, Michael Curtiss, Gary Ford, Melinda Ford, William Gabel, Alfred Garcia, Clifford Hampton, Erika Harlow, Bill Huebner, Eugene Juteau, Connie Krull, Colleen Miller, Kenneth Miller, Steven Myrick, Heidi Newsome, Todd Newsome, Craig Nighswonger, Michael Prather, Joseph Praino, Mark Repko, Laura Springer, Lindsay Wagner, Tyler Wagner, Allison Walsh, Tom Walsh, Daniel Wandler, Shelly Wandler, Richard Zelmer, Appellants, v. COLUMBIA IRRIGATION DISTRICT, a municipal corporation, Respondent. |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
John Stephen Ziobro, Telquist Ziobro McMillen, P.L.L.C., Richland, WA, for Appellants.
Terry Elgin Miller, Kennewick, WA, James Paul Wagner, Cairncross & Hempelmann, P.S., Seattle, WA, for Respondent.
¶ 1 Irrigation districts in Washington, like all local government entities, must follow the statutes that regulate them, provide due process of law before depriving persons of property, and hold elections in a manner that is equal and free. The issue in this case is whether the Columbia Irrigation District (CID) met these obligations when it expanded its territory in 2007 and established a local improvement district (LID) to levy special assessments on the newly added properties. We hold CID acted lawfully, and accordingly we affirm the Benton County Superior Court.
¶ 2 Irrigation districts are local government entities created and regulated according to the legislature's design. See Title 87 RCW. Their purpose is to construct and operate irrigation works. RCW 87.03.010.
The add lands process
¶ 3 After an irrigation district has been established, its territory can grow beyond its initial boundaries, provided that the district follows the relevant statutory procedures. See RCW 87.03.560-.640. This "add lands" process, as it is known, begins by petition. RCW 87.03.560. If a group of petitioners seeks to add a "body of lands" rather than a single parcel, the petitioners must represent at least one-half of the land body's acreage. Id. The petitions must be in writing, describe the body of lands, describe the individual parcels owned by the petitioners, state that the petitioners hold title to these parcels, and declare the petitioners assent to their parcels being included in the district. Id.
¶ 4 Upon receiving the petitions, the irrigation district must publish a notice in a newspaper in the county where the district board of directors is located. RCW 87.03.200(1),.565. RCW 87.03.565 does not require personal notice or notice by mail. The published notice must give the time, date, and place for a public hearing on the action proposed in the petitions. Id. The notice must direct all interested parties to appear at the hearing and show cause in writing why the requested change in boundaries should not be made. Id.
¶ 5 The board has discretion to reject the petition. RCW 87.03.580. But if the district board thinks the expansion is in the district's best interests, the board may enter an order changing the district's boundaries to include the lands described in the petition—unless an interested party appears at the hearing and shows cause in writing why the board should not. Id. If there is such a written objection, and the board still thinks the expansion is in the district's best interests, the board may order a district-wide election on the proposal. RCW 87.03.585-.590. If a majority of the votes cast at the election rejects the boundary change, then the board must deny the petition; if a majority approves, the board must grant. RCW 87.03.595. When lands are added to the district, "such lands shall also become subject to all taxes and assessments of the district thereafter imposed." RCW 87.03.575.
LID formation and assessments
¶ 6 To pay the costs of "special construction, reconstruction, betterment or improvement or purchase or acquisition of improvements already constructed," RCW 87.03.480, an irrigation district's board of directors may initiate the process to form an LID, RCW 87.03.485. The board must adopt "a resolution specifying the lands proposed to be included... or by describing the exterior boundaries." Id. The resolution must describe "the proposed improvement" to be built and set a time and place for a public hearing on the matter. Id. The resolution must "state that unless a majority of the holders of title or of evidence of title to lands within the proposed local improvement district file their written protest at or before said hearing, consent to the improvement will be implied." Id. A copy of the resolution must be published and also mailed to owners of property within the proposed LID boundaries. Id. If, after a hearing, the district board decides to move forward with the improvement, "the board shall enter an order establishing the boundaries of the improvement district." RCW 87.03.490.
¶ 7 After the board establishes the LID, the irrigation district must pay for the improvement costs, operations, and maintenance by levying a special assessment on the LID properties "in proportion to the benefits accruing thereto." RCW 87.03.495. The levy and calculation of the assessments must be "in the manner provided by law for the levy and collection of land assessments or toll assessments." Id. If the LID properties are unable to pay any bonds sold to pay for the improvement, "the amount delinquent shall be paid by the general warrants of the irrigation district at large." RCW 87.03.500.
¶ 8 CID serves the Tri-Cities region with irrigation water.1 The city of West Richland considered establishing an LID to serve Belmont with water from new wells. At some juncture, however, the city started working with CID, which already served portions of West Richland with pressurized irrigation water, to expand to Belmont. CID had water rights but the Belmont lands did not. Because the Belmont lands had no water rights, CID proposed to reclassify the lands as irrigable and form an LID to assess the landowners for their share of the construction costs, operations, and maintenance of CID's system.
¶ 9 In September 2006, CID sent notice of an upcoming informational meeting about the add lands process. CID sent the notice to a list of Belmont area landowners, which CID staff compiled using the Benton County Assessor's records. The notice stated the date and place of the upcoming meeting, included a copy of a partially completed petition to add lands, and explained the petition.
¶ 10 At the meeting, the secretary of CID, Larry Fox, explained the benefits of belonging to CID, the process for adding lands and forming an LID, and the likely costs to the Belmont landowners. Fox's slide presentation indicated a deadline of "October 27th" for submitting petitions to CID (CID also sent a follow-up letter affirming the deadline of October 27). Clerk's Papers (CP) at 225. Fox's slide presentation stated that "petitions will be submitted to the CID Board at their regular meeting on November 7th" and that "if approved, the hearing will be scheduled for December 5th." Id. If CID added the Belmont lands, they would then be "eligible for a pressurized local improvement district with a water right." Id.
¶ 11 CID accepted petitions until November 7, 2006, but CID did not notify Belmont residents about the deadline change. Further, CID had no official administrative policies or procedures for processing petitions or verifying their validity. CID's process was informal. A CID staff member confirmed that the name of the signer matched the preprinted name at the top of the petition. No one checked the county assessor's database to see if the signer was still the holder of title to the land, even though a few months had passed since CID had originally compiled the list of landowners. For lands owned by business entities, CID required submission of the entity's documents on formation and governance as verification of the petition signer's authority. But CID did not have the appropriate documents from Swansons-Parsons, LLC, or AM Properties, LLC. Although Fox consulted with CID's legal counsel on the validity of petitions signed on behalf of those LLCs, Fox decided to forward the petitions to the board. No CID staff member alerted the CID board about any problem with any petitions.
¶ 12 At its regular monthly meeting on November 7, 2006, the CID board unanimously accepted petitions covering 276.67 acres within a 430-acre block of land. CID did not notify affected landowners or set a hearing date. On December 5, 2006, the CID board met, but did not hold a hearing, on the Belmont petitions, although Fox's slide presentation had indicated the hearing would be on that date. The CID board tentatively scheduled a hearing for February 2007. But no hearing took place that month. Instead, at its February 6, 2007, meeting, the CID board set a hearing for March 6, 2007.
¶ 13 As required by RCW 87.03.565, CID published a notice about the March 6, 2007, hearing in the classifieds section of the Tri-City Herald on February 17, February 24, and March 3, 2007. No statute required CID to send notice by mail or personally notify affected landowners, and CID did not do so. The published notice directed any interested person to appear at the public hearing on March 6, 2007, and show cause in writing why the boundaries of CID should not be changed.
¶ 14 At the hearing, no Belmont landowners came, and CID received no written objections to the boundary change. Because CID received no written objection, the CID board did not order an election. Rather, by unanimous vote, the CID board granted the petition and changed the CID boundaries to add the Belmont lands.
¶ 15 On April 3, 2007, the CID board adopted a...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Hasit, LLC v. City of Edgewood (Local Improvement Dist. # 1), Corp.
...assessments are proportionate, which necessarily includes the right to adequate notice of the hearing. Carlisle v. Columbia Irrigation Dist., 168 Wash.2d 555, 569–70, 229 P.3d 761 (2010). The LID statute specifies that cities must mail notices giving the time and place of the hearing to the......
-
State v. Rhone
...strike was racially motivated); State v. Rayfield, 369 S.C. 106, 631 S.E.2d 244, 247 (2006) ("After a party objects to a jury strike, the 229 P.3d 761 proponent of the strike must offer a facially race-neutral ¶ 32 Adopting a bright line rule similar to that which has been adopted by the ab......
-
City of Seattle v. Kaseburg
...725, 684 P.2d 1275 (1984). "It is not a theoretical harm, nor is it an increased probability of harm." Carlisle v. Columbia Irrig. Dist., 168 Wash.2d 555, 568, 229 P.3d 761 (2010). "Even if a deprivation becomes more likely as a result of government action, due process does not apply if an ......
-
Eugster v. State
...party bears the burden of establishing a statute's unconstitutionality beyond a reasonable doubt. Carlisle v. Columbia Irrigation Dist., 168 Wash.2d 555, 578, 229 P.3d 761 (2010) (citing Brower v. State, 137 Wash.2d 44, 52, 969 P.2d 42 (1998)). ¶ 7 Eugster argues that article I, section 19 ......