Understanding the City vs Sewer District Fight

An explainer and reference library on the knock-down, drag-out brawl between two of the areas largest public entities.

The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed and informing the people's public servants of their views so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. For these reasons, even when not required by law, public agencies are encouraged to incorporate and accept public comment during their decision-making process.

It’s one hell of a statement of legislative intent, perhaps the most famous and best-written of its kind throughout all the RCWs. It’s famous for a reason: it’s a direct shot across the bows of elected officials who look for loopholes through which they can grab the curtain strings and shroud the windows of legislative transparency from the view of the public. The pre-amble includes further qualification:

The legislature finds and declares that all public commissions, boards, councils, committees, subcommittees, departments, divisions, offices, and all other public agencies of this state and subdivisions thereof exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of this chapter that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.

The concept of open and transparent governance is at the core of J425’s reporting on the years-long divide between the City of Lake Stevens and the Lake Stevens Sewer District.

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Exhibits: City vs Sewer District Battle

1. City vs Sewer District Lawsuit 

2. “Rift between Lake Stevens and LSSD” (Herald, June, 2021) 

3. Ord 1108 Assumption of LS Sewer District (Dec, 2020)

4. Full Record of City to SD Communication

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And as we report on the latest machinations in this ongoing feud — an opaque pay raise pushed through in the waning moments of 2023 and the seemingly senseless eviction of a popular Lake Stevens business — it’s easy to lose our place in the wider story — the story of the Lake Stevens Sewer District and the City of Lake Stevens, two local agencies of local government working in tandem since the 1950s and under a mutual operating agreement since 2005.

That’s why I’m going to take a second to try and bring everyone up to speed on the situation and the stakes, in plain language. This is the “don’t quote me” portion, and I’m going to label this story Opinion because I’m not going to cite everything I’m just gonna have a chat with ya like we’re having a club soda with a lime at The Pines or Hawkeyes.

The sewer district’s inception was originally a direct result of the geography of Lake Stevens, a community centered around the biggest lake in Snohomish County.