The Cumming City Council voted Tuesday night to cease communicating with the Forsyth County commission over a new water contract until a binding offer is made.

Under the current deal, which expires at the end of May, the city sells both treated and untreated water to the county.

Only the city has a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pull water from Lake Lanier. As a result, the county buys most of its untreated water from Cumming, as well as some treated water.

During Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting, Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt recommended the postponement of communications “until [the board of commissioners] get serious and send us a contract over here that’s [binding] and they sign off on it.”

Gravitt said he had received three proposals from the commissioners about 9:30 Tuesday morning, also noting all were “unbinding intergovernmental agreements.”

He explained that one of the proposals included a five-year extension of the current finished water contract, with a single option for an additional five-year term.

Another offered a possible 25-year extension, in five, five-year increments. Each increment would be subject to cancellation with a 180-day notice.

The last proposal suggested the county pay about $11.4 million in exchange for 65 percent ownership of the city’s $17 million intake facility, assuring a 65 percent allocation up to the facility’s maximum capacity.

Gravitt has previously asked the county to pay the $11.4 million on the facility, but did not assure 65 percent ownership of the facility.

He called the proposals “nothing more than the ideas and quotes and statements of various individuals.”

“You could go out on the street and talk to any John Doe and probably come up with some of these kinds of things,” Gravitt said.

He also accused “some of the commissioners” of having meetings with the director of the EPD in attempts to “take the city’s [withdrawal] permit and give it to the county.”

“Many, many years ago … the city got into the water business and we have a trust factor with the EPD, a need factor with the EPD, we have a track record with the EPD,” he said.

“We have civility in our government and [commissioners] know that … but yet they go down there and try to pry away the city’s permit for withdrawal.”

The unanimous motion included no further discussions with the commissioners until a binding contract is presented to city leaders.

“If they’d even took the three they sent over here and signed them … but they wanted us to sign off and then decide whether they like it or not,” Gravitt said.

“I recommend we have no correspondence until they send us a binding proposal for us to look at.”

During a meeting last week, county commissioners did discuss the possibility of asking the state EPD to reallocate the city’s shared water withdrawal permit.

The permit allows for a maximum of 37 million gallons per day to be drawn in a 24-hour period, with 16 mgd for the county and 21 mgd for the city.

Ultimately, the commission split 2-2 on whether to ask the EPD to reverse those numbers.

Commissioners Patrick Bell and Brian Tam favored postponing the issue until the contracts have been resolved, while their colleagues Jim Boff and Todd Levent felt the county should get started on the requests for future needs. Pete Amos recused himself from the vote.