Fireworks in the Pumphouse - Talty & Markout WSC information meeting & Vote

Update: on April 12, Markout WSC held it's annual meeting and counted the merger ballots. Of over 700 members, 159 voted: 90 (57%) for, 69 (43%) against the merger. As such a merger would require 2/3 approval, the merger issue failed.

(disclaimer: i was not able to record the meeting, or take notes. this article is written entirely from memory, several days after the event, is very condensed, and surely contains errors, which will be corrected as/when applicable. details may also be added as time permits)
On March 29, 2016 Markout WSC held a membership meeting (lasting over two hours) to explain the reasons for their decision to allow members to vote on merging with Talty WSC.
    Presenting were the Markout board members, as well as representatives from Talty WSC and the attorney. The audience, which included Mayor Rick Wilson and council-persons Mary Penn and Ray Stephens, overflowed the meeting room.
Markout chairman presented the history leading up to this decision -
    Issue 1: about 2 years ago (?) the two employees holding licenses necessary to operate the Water Supply Corp. resigned; Talty WSC stepped up like a big brother, and let Markout sub-contract services through Talty, saving Markout 25k+ in the process. Markout has had, and will have, difficulties in hiring properly licensed persons to allow operations without the benevolence of Talty, due to the small size of the operation.
    Issue 2: the TX legislature recently passed a law allowing developers to opt-out of using the WSC serving their area, which invalidates future water usage calculations that WSC's were previously required to follow, based on their area and expected growth. Which impacts:
    Issue 3: North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD), which supplies water to the city of Forney, which resells the water to Talty and Markout with a 63% markup, has a "take or pay" policy, which means (this is subject to correction): the largest amount of water you have ever taken is what you will pay for, whether you use that much water or not. Given the recent drought, everyones recent usage was high, and that is now what the cost is based on, even though much less water is being used. All area customers are paying for water they are not using.
    Issue 4: the City of Forney has - in the last two weeks - expressed an interest in buying Markout. Markout chairman stated the board has approached Forney several times and found no interest. Now that the possibility has sprung up, TRWA was contacted for advice about the legal hurdles involved, and the chairman stated several times he spoke with 4 people at TRWA and got 4 different answers - it is not clear it can be done, but he did state the City has the legal right to buy the infrastructure that exists in the city limits, which in this case means the Grayhawk subdivision.
    It was stated this interest appeared after the decision to have a merger vote was made.
    It was also pointed out that Grayhawk can't just be chopped off the Markout system - the system operates as a single unit, and there would be serious technical issues in removing that portion, in addition to the "take or pay" issue, which would also be significantly impacted.
    Issue 5: Talty WSC is in the process of becoming a SUD (Special Utility District), similar to a MUD (Municipal Utility District), except SUD's may not levy taxes. This will provide abilities that would be beneficial to Markout members, and would be costly and difficult for Markout to achieve on its own.
    Audience interaction: Mr. Stephens expressed interest in fixing the Grayhawk problem, where residents pay city taxes and the 63% hike on water. He also urged the Markout board to reconsider and/or clarify the confusion regarding ballots for the election. Mayor Wilson said this item will be considered at the next city council meeting.
    Several members asked why we would consider merging with Talty if Forney wanted to buy out Markout - the frequent response was A) this became known after the election was started; B) don't know if it can be done; C) Forney might buy out the merged Talty/Markout, a larger WSC would have better bargaining power.
    Board member Hinds repeatedly pointed out that something has to change, that Markout can not reasonably continue operations with the changes made to the law.
    Several members asked about water rates if the merger was approved: the answer was mostly it would remain the same, or could maybe go down slightly.
    At least one past Markout board member spoke in favor of the merger.

The meeting ended about 8:30pm, with the Markout board planning to provide more information before the April 12 meeting when the merger vote will occur.