Moscow candidates talk water, housing

Candidates for Moscow mayor and city council shared thoughts about the city’s water availability and affordable housing Wednesday during a forum held Wednesday at the Best Western Plus University Inn.

The event, organized by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Latah County Board of Realtors, gave the public one of its first introductions to the batch of candidates running in the November election. The chamber reached out to all of the candidates and six participated.

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Editor's note: The Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Center announced after publication of this story they did not reach out to all of the candidates prior to the forum, only to candidates who provided emails in their initial filing documents. Here is a portion of a Sept. 20 news release from the chamber: "It recently came to our attention that two mayoral candidates and four council-member candidates were inadvertently not contacted. We regret this isolated and unintentional misstep. ... The Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center is also reviewing and improving internal processes to ensure that all means of contact are utilized in the future and that every effort is made accordingly."

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Mayoral candidates Art Bettge and Olivia Moses were present, while candidates Jim Gray and Barb Rathbun did not participate. City council candidates Gina Taruscio, Julia Parker, Kyrk Tylor and Hailey Lewis participated, while council candidates Steve Harmon, Jason Stooks, Shaun Dareshi and Melissa Cline did not.

Moses, Bettge, Gray and Rathbun are running to replace Mayor Bill Lambert, who announced in April he would not seek reelection.

The eight council candidates are competing for three open seats currently held by Taruscio, Bettge and Brandy Sullivan.

During the forum, the moderator asked each candidate to discuss the city’s growth and how it will affect the declining aquifer. The Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee is exploring four different alternative water supply options to lessen dependence on the aquifer.

Bettge, who currently serves on the Moscow City Council, said it is time to take action on the alternative water sources as well as continuing conservation practices. He said the city already offers rebates for low-flow toilets and xeriscape lawns that do not require irrigation.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing a subdivision code or building ordinance that discourage placement of lawns and just save some water that way,” he said.

Moses said the city needs to make sure people outside of Moscow’s limits are included in this discussion as they are experiencing a water crisis. She said Moscow should set a lofty goal to “be a leading force in this regional water crisis.”

City Council candidate Gina Taruscio, an incumbent on the council, currently serves as a Moscow liaison to the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee and said the alternative water supply options are expensive but are necessary to protect future generations living in Moscow. She emphasized the significance of taking this step.

“It’s not going to be any kind of a small decision, but it is the most important decision we will make in probably the next 10 years of our community’s lives,” she said.

Parker said there is room to conserve more water and she said the city should prioritize incentivising water conservation for new home developers, existing homes, businesses and institutions.

Taylor said the city should encourage sustainable growth, because growth is needed to bring income into Moscow. He said the city will have to choose an expensive alternative water supply option because “it’s a necessity.”

Lewis spoke about the complexity of the issue.

“There are very few things in this conversation that are really clearly black and white other than we know we’re going to have to address it,” she said.

Lewis emphasized that large-scale consumers of water in the area need to be included in the discussion and active in finding a solution to this problem.

The candidates on Wednesday also addressed another pressing issue: affordable housing.

They all spoke about the need for more affordable housing as well as the benefits of partnering with Moscow Affordable Housing Trust, a nonprofit working on creating affordable housing opportunities for residents.

Moses said the city needs to prioritize affordable home creation because there are “countless families who are waiting on the opportunity to be a part of this community that we keep telling everybody is the most livable, the best place to raise a family.”

Bettge said the city’s influence is limited in some ways because it is not a real estate developer or a home builder. But it can encourage people in those industries to make different decisions about the type of residences they develop, he said.

Taruscio, who is part of the local economic development group Partnership for Economic Prosperity, said PEP has a housing leadership team to discuss the need for affordable housing, recruiting new developers and changing the city’s housing code to allow for different kinds of housing.

Lewis said the city cannot do much to address the shortage of labor and building materials that is complicating the issue, but there is more the city can do to make the building environment appealing to independent developers and address concerns they have.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.