Plandome spent $325K in water suit

Bill San Antonio

Though a verdict has not yet been issued in the Village of Plandome’s lawsuit against the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District’s rate calculation practices, the village has already spent nearly $325,000 in legal fees on the case, the Manhasset Times has learned. 

Washington D.C.-based Duncan Weinberg Genzer & Pembroke P.C. has billed the village $280,196 for their services and AUS Consultants has billed $44,757, according to a letter provided to a Plandome resident under a Freedom of Information Law that was given to the Manhasset Times.

With 409 households in the village, according to the latest census date, the cost comes out to nearly $795 per household.

Village of Plandome Mayor M. Lloyd Williams said village officials believed the lawsuit was necessary, but didn’t anticipate that the legal costs would be so high.

 “We didn’t know [the legal costs] until they billed us for it and we’ve negotiated as best we can with them,” Williams said by phone Tuesday. 

Efforts to reach the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District were unavailing.

But in a statement issued in March, water district attorney Chris Prior said,  “MLWD believes it is unfortunate for the taxpayers of both MLWD and the village to incur large legal expenses because of this action taken by the village board of trustees.”

The village filed the lawsuit against the water district on Oct. 19, 2012, charging that the water district’s rate calculations were “unreasonable, arbitrary and otherwise improper.”

On its Web site, the village said the village should be charged wholesale rates, rather than retail. The village noted that North Shore University Hospital is charged a lower rate and receives other benefits and services from the district. 

“In short, the Village believes that MLWD’s flawed rate methodology likely results in overcharging the Village for water,” the statement said.

But Prior, who works for the Great Neck-based Ackerman, Levine, Cullen, Brickman & Limmer, LLP, said the district had agreed to a revised flat rate with the village of $3.85 per thousand gallons, without an increase during the last five years of a contract that ran from 1992 to 2011. 

After the contract expired on Dec. 31, 2011, the water district raised the rate to $4.20 per thousand gallons based on a formula spelled out in letters issued in February and July 2012.

In negotiations for a new contract, the village insisted its rates be based on actual expenditures rather than a pre-determined amount set by the district, and an agreement could not be reached even though the village continued to purchase water from the district, Prior said.

“The village raised new objections to the proposed MLWD water rate formula,” Prior said. “It became apparent that the village would oppose any increase in the water rate. In fact, the village began to press for a water rate lower than the rate in effect from 2007 through 2011.”

On its Web site, the village said it had made a reasonable offer to the water district.

“The village, of course, is willing to pay a fair price for water it purchases from MLWD and does not object to MLWD’s earning a reasonable return on its cost of service,” according to the village’s statement. “However, the village strongly disagrees that MLWD is free to charge a rate that does not accurately reflect MLWD’s cost of supplying the village with water on a wholesale basis.”

Williams said the village is looking into re-opening water wells it had operated prior to purchasing water from the district as well as cleaning and testing its contents to comply with state regulations. 

The Manhasset-Lakeville Water District serves 45,000 customers using 18 separate wells located at 13 different sites throughout the 10.2 square mile Manhasset-Lakeville service area, according to a statement from superintendent Paul J. Schrader on its Web site.

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