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<br /> to do with the origina~ buying or bUilding, or the creation of any debt
<br /> before its time. The Board accepted what the Gouncil gave it, in pro-
<br /> . .-...:"~ perty and debt, and could not know anything about any expenditures made I
<br /> .."",", by the Council if such expenditures were not reported to the Board by
<br /> ..~ the Counc il.,
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<br /> The Council, so far as we at present know, made no request or suggestion
<br /> that $57~970~98 or any sum spent by it, should be repaid to it from the
<br /> water revenues. The Council should have made reauest to the Water Board
<br /> to accept this debt, if such exists, in 1911 rather than now. There evi-
<br /> dently was no reason for the Council not doing this had it intended to do
<br /> so ..
<br /> The City Council did, in the case of the water plant, ask for the repay-
<br /> ment of certain sums used in filtration plant construction, expended be-
<br /> yond the amount received from sale of bonds, and the Board promptly or-
<br /> der'ed this done.
<br /> The Water Board, in ~911, made repeated requests upon the Council to be .
<br /> furnished with complete data as to the original cost of the water plant,
<br /> power plant, and all things connected therewith, and the Council agreed
<br /> that the Water Board should have this information, and, accordingly, gave
<br /> the Board a statement of the financial condition and charges against said
<br /> plant, and incidentals connected therewith, as being, in the words of the .
<br /> Council, "the most accurate information obtainable at this time, and being
<br /> for practical purposes a correct statement as near as can at this time be
<br /> determined by the Council".
<br /> Certainly that Council was in a good position to know or ascertain all the
<br /> II facts, and if they did not ask the Board to repay anything other than the
<br /> bonds issued by the Council to build the utilities they must have considered
<br /> the Board under no obligation to do so.
<br /> In a report dated May 26, 1917, the Public Service Commission of Oregon
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<br /> referred to a sum of ~p57r970.98 as being assumed by the City Council with-
<br /> I out demand for repayment by the Water Board. This the Commission calls
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<br /> the City "equity", and states that the City should receive credit for prin-
<br /> I cipal and accruing interest, but that the accrued interest should not be
<br /> held as an obligation against the Board by reason of the low rates at which
<br /> the City had been supplied with service.
<br /> This report was made in 1917, and was available to all concerned, and yet
<br /> no suggestion, even at that time, was made that the Water Board should col-
<br /> lect from its water customers such sum and turn the same over to the City.
<br /> Likewise, the Commission refers to another sum of- $22,843.67 which, in
<br /> 1917, they say represents the appraised value of the water system over
<br /> the value shown on the books. This, they say, arose partly from the fact
<br /> that the Water Board, through good management, had constructed properties,
<br /> between 1911 and 1917, at a lower cost than those used in the appraisal in
<br /> their report. Principally, however, they think that the difference arose
<br /> in a difference in value in the Skinner Butte property which was teconveyed
<br /> to the City in 1914.' This, thereofre, at most, represents the difference
<br /> I of two appraisals made 6 years apart, by two different engineers. One may
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<br /> be as correct as the other. A third appraisal made at the present time ..
<br /> might be quite different from either of the others.
<br /> While the Commission's engineers elected to call this sum "equityll, the
<br /> amount is at best quite uncertain, and entirely different in its origin.
<br /> from the one arising from the construction of the Walterville plant.
<br /> Furthermore, the matter of appraised value of Skinner Butte, and the
<br /> Water Bpard's obligations with regard to said Butte has been passed on
<br /> three times by the electors of Eugene.
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<br /> Whatever a study of the City and Water Board records may disclose with
<br /> regard to all these matters, it has always been the belief of the Water
<br /> Board that all these questions were considered and satisfactorily settled
<br /> by the Council and the Water Board in the beginning, and that the Council
<br /> at that time had agreed that all such matters were settled. ,
<br /> The Gity's investments, as represented by these Ilequitiesll, have made
<br /> possible lower water and electric rates to the City, through all the
<br /> years up to this time. ~e think that the City has received) in this
<br /> way, much more than any interest that could possible be figured, if the
<br /> exact sums to base interest on were known, and that the principal it -
<br /> self also will have largely been repaid by now. ~e think this phase of
<br /> the matter should be taken into account in any readjustment that might
<br /> be made.
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