The North Texas Municipal Water District board of directors has authorized staff to develop a forum to address matters of common concern to member cities, including matters related to board governance and the regional water supply contract between the district and member cities.

Authorization was given in a vote of directors last month.

For more than 60 years, NTMWD has provided reliable treated water supplies for area communities under statutory authority that guides the district’s operations. The statutory authority includes how each NTMWD member city appoints a representative to serve on the board of directors.

Some member cities have requested the ability to replace any appointee to the board prior to the end of their 2-year term.

Water supply contracts approved by the NTMWD direc

tors include methodology that determines how the district charges for providing water to the region served. Under the current water supply contract, each city agrees to purchase an amount of water each year based on the highest annual demand the city has placed on the water system historically. NTMWD in turn must reserve a minimum volume of water and treatment capacity to meet those historic needs.

However, in light of conservation measures during the recent drought, some member cities have requested that the district re-evaluate the water rate methodology to account for lower demands.

In response to these requests, the board authorized district staff to establish the protocol for meetings with officials from the 13 NTMWD cities, Allen, Farmersville, Forney, Frisco, Garland, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano, Princeton, Richardson, Rockwall, Royse City and Wylie.