30-129. Cooperation with operating units

A. Any person or operating unit, or combination thereof, may petition the authority for the exercise of its powers and privileges in making any project or proposed project survey or investigation, or for authorized assistance in the inauguration or completion of any works or projects authorized by this chapter.

B. Upon filing the petition, the authority may conduct hearings and conduct investigations deemed necessary and advisable, and thereafter take action as it deems appropriate in the premises and within its sphere of cooperative action. The authority may:

1. Act as a bargaining and negotiating agency in transactions and dealings between the various departments of the federal government and any petitioning persons or operating units.

2. Serve as a connecting, intermediate or contracting medium for the petitioners when for united or joint participation such a medium is convenient or essential to the receipt, acceptance or enjoyment by the petitioners of any financial proposals, grants or other benefits made available by any federal statute or federal department.

3. Act as a coordinating, clearing, administering, supervising or activating instrumentality by and through which petitioners may cooperate or unite through or by contracts or agreements in the application or pooling of their resources, functional rights or privileges for common purposes cognizable by this chapter.

C. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general, special or local law or statutory regulation, operating units may enter into contracts, agreements and arrangements which may be found necessary for effectuating the intent and securing the benefits of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of subsection B. If found convenient and essential to the accomplishment of such purposes, the cooperators may associate themselves in a cooperative corporation under the incorporation laws of the state, and it shall be their respective duties to do and perform all things on their respective parts undertaken by them to be done or performed thereby or thereunder.

D. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to alter or change any debt limitation of the operating units.