Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories showing the various sides of the Deer Creek and Dyegard water system issues in East Parker County. This story only reflects the views of Willow Park Mayor Kenneth Hawkins. Future stories will feature the mayors of Aledo, Hudson Oaks and Annetta.

Crystal Brown

cbrown@weatherforddemocrat.com

When Willow Park Mayor Kenneth Hawkins moved to the area four years ago and took his seat as a council member in 2007, lawsuits surrounding the water system in the Deer Creek subdivision were already in progress.

After taking the mayor’s seat earlier this year, Hawkins was put into the center of the controversy and made it one of his goals to resolve it.

According to Hawkins, Willow Park purchased the Deer Creek water system in December 2005 after Doyle Handley, the Deer Creek developer, had offered it to Hudson Oaks and Aledo. Both of the those east Parker County towns turned down Handley. Hawkins said he would have declined the offer too had been on the Willow Park council at that time.

Hawkins said Handley was using the cheap water prices to subsidize the development of the subdivision, but wanted to sell the system because it was “financially advantageous.” He said the City of Willow Park looked at the number of water taps that would be added to their system and viewed it as an “attractive negotiation” point for attempting to obtain surface water from Fort Worth. On the side of efficiency, more taps on the system without increasing the number of employees would equal a lower water rate for Willow Park residents.

The water supply in Willow Park continues to come from various wells and not from Fort Worth surface water. The water rates didn’t go down.

“The rates in the Deer Creek system hadn’t been changed since 1981 and their rates had to be adjusted,” Hawkins said. “They were artificially low from the developer’s management. So, we equalized their rates with Willow Parks by applying the 2005 prices when they were used to 1981 rates.”

The result was more than a 50-percent rate increase. And since Deer Creek residents do not reside inside the city limits of Willow Park, they have no representation on the city council to formally address their concern. Hawkins said that it is not an uncommon situation and all grievances against extraterritorial water suppliers must be heard at the state level. A rate hearing for the Deer Creek system is set for December in Austin.

“As mayor, I’ve tried hard to establish working groups with the citizens of Deer Creek,” he said. “And at this point, they are not interested in having a forum in the City of Willow Park. They are not taking any proactive steps to helping me establish that.”

Instead, a lawsuit has been filed in response to the rate increase and in the matter of the legality of Willow Park purchasing the Deer Creek water system from Handley in the first place.

“I don’t think they will prevail in either challenge,” Hawkins said. “Willow Park has a right to set reasonable water rates to sustain the system. An objective analysis could argue our rates right now are too low. And Willow Park does have the legal right to those CCN’s (a Certificate of Convenience and Necesity, the legal paperwork required for changing ownership of a water system). So, we will probably prevail in both cases.”

But before that hearing comes around in December, mayors and council members in Willow Park, Hudson Oaks, Annetta and Aledo will meet Friday for a mediation ordered by Judge Don Chrestman to resolve the issue of transferring the water system out of the hands of Willow Park.

“Willow Park would like to make peace in the community,” Hawkins said. “But the added value to this system through our ownership and sweat equity must be realized. That’s the position Willow Park is going to take. Other cities are attempting to force us to sell the system for exactly what we paid in 2005 and disregard what we’ve put into it that last four years. That is not equitable.”

Hawkins said he took part in negotiations two years ago in Austin where the city said “we’re tired of arguing with you” and offered the Deer Creek water system to the other cities and to the Parker County Utility District (PCUD).

“We gave them a date that they could buy us out for every penny we put into it if they paid by a certain date and in cash,” Hawkins said. “We never heard from them. Now, they’ve gone to court in Weatherford to enforce that agreement that was suppose to be completed two years ago.”

He said the court has already found the other cities in breech of that agreement and has also found Willow Park in breech of an agreement to negotiate rates with Dyegard.

Dyegard is another water system outside the Willow Park city limits south of Interstate 20 off Mikus Road. Hawkins said an agreement was reached a few months ago and said the city council will take up the issue of lowering their water rates at the council meeting Monday night in an attempt to show good will.

“First, it’s in response to what’s been very constructive negotiations with representatives of Dyegard,” he said. “They’ve been honorable, respectful and reasonable people to deal with. The second reason is one of equability. They believe that there are certain things about our rate structure that are egregious or outside the norm. Though we disagree with that, I’ve tried to meet them at the points they are most concerned about.

“The third reason is that when we bought the systems originally, there were issues about water pressure and dependability that needed to be addressed. Over the years we’ve strengthened the systems and don’t have as many problems as we had four years ago. At the beginning is was an integral part that there was no overuse of water. So, in the interest of conservation, we enacted a tiered rate structure which is follows the state guidelines, and at this time we are looking at relaxing some of those tiers because the system can better handle it.”

As for the future of Deer Creek, he said Willow Park is still willing to sell the system to PCUD.

“The mayors and I reached an agreement four months ago, and I’m willing to honor that,” he said. “The agreement was for a purchase price of $6.1 million and some other financial dynamics — Willow Park would retain the enterprise fund accumulated during the time of ownership, some equipment transfers to Deer Creek and Willow Park would take place, Willow Park would continue to operate the system while financing was arranged and Willow Park would assist in training staff both for management of the system and billing during the transfer.”

Willow Park purchased Deer Creek for $4.8 million and has invested a substantial amount of money into the system over the past four years bringing its appraisal to approximately $9 to $12 million, Hawkins said. He said profit from this would only be about 7 or 8 percent. “Which is not really a great return for our money for the last four years,” he added.

Friday’s mediation will center around the final purchase price of the Deer Creek system and will set the stage for the future of the additional law suites.

“If we reach an agreement, part of that will be that the other issues have to voluntarily cease on both the Deer Creek and Dyegard side,” Hawkins said. “Otherwise we will continue to operate the system and any further discussion about selling Deer Creek will cease.”

If a deal is not struck this week, he said the court will issue a ruling which will most likely end up being appealed. He added, further court time and the appellate process will end up costing taxpayers more in legal fees than if would for the cities to take the $6.1 million deal. He called the use of taxpayers money in Hudson Oaks and Aledo to fight a battle in another city an “inappropriate use of tax payer money” especially in a time where budget are shrinking and services are being reduced.

In a letter written to the Weatherford Democrat, Hawkins pointed a finger of blame at the attorneys for dragging out this issue for so long.

“Those attorneys, whose bills are paid by those residents, are playing everybody against the middle,” he wrote. “The greatest truth that any outside expert will tell you is that there is one group, and only one group, that benefits from a protracted legal fight. That group is preventing reasonable compromise.”

He also wrote that each deal agreed up by mayors of the involved cities is unraveled once in the hands of the lawyers.

“It seems no matter how many agreements we make in good faith with the mayors of the other cities, those agreements are then substantively changed so that our attempts to compromise are subverted by the lawyers,” Hawkins wrote. “If I remember correctly, the citizens elected the mayors to make the executive decisions. At this point, it would be more efficient for the citizens to elect the lawyers who seem to make all the decisions anyway.”

He is hopeful of a compromise coming to fruition this week.

“I hope peace breaks out in the community and that a new spirit of cooperation begins and we can set this long fight behind us,” he said.