What the NCLM is up to lately:

First of all, the NCLM has created a program to encourage municipal officials to quickly counter the efforts of citizen groups opposed to legislation that the city lobbyists are supporting or defending. This effort has been named; “LINC”; or “Legislative Information Network of Communities”.

This appears to be a direct response to the impressive and affective communication that citizens across NC have been directing at the Legislators demanding "no more forced annexations" and no new taxes.
You can view the details of this NCLM program here: http://www.nclm.org/leaguelinc.htm

The “QuickConnect” ‘rapid response team’ that the NCLM is recruiting will require citizens to fight back harder against The League's "astroturf" effort: http://www.nclm.org/quickconnect.htm
 
You can view this as proof that your efforts have been effective, but realize that this is also a challenge to every individual to keep communicating with legislators and recruit others to do the same.
The latest NCLM Bulletin has announced the formation of an “NCLM Annexation Experts Team”. The NCLM has declared war!
The input against this from thousands of citizens matters!
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The NCLM has always put protection of forced annexation as a priority legislative issue.
See the NCLM Legislative “Advocacy Agenda 2009-10”
http://www.nclm.org/Legal-legislative/documents/advocacyplan1-5-10.pdf

#1 on the list after their commitment to their general ‘core principles’, (which always includes protecting forced annexation), is their commitment to protecting the power to use forced annexation:

“Annexation for Fair, Managed Growth:
The League continues to support careful change to the long-standing municipal annexation laws in a way that provides for fair and equitable consideration of all citizens’ needs and concerns and allows cities and towns to grow in an orderly manner.”

A read between the lines in this statement indicates that the NCLM is still supporting House Bill 524 and is still actively working to make H524 the ONLY bill that the Legislature considers so the League can shepherd this very bad legislation to passage.  They know if H524 passes into law, that will be all the change the citizens will get for many years to come, and the well funded machine of the League will begin immediately to soften any changes made to favor the cities more once again.
Don’t let anyone tell you we have to accept H524 or nothing. Not true!
Learn more about the NCLM agenda here:
http://www.nclm.org/Legal-legislative/newlegal.htm
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The NCLM is always working hard to grow a base of loyalty to their agenda of power. Among those efforts is the Foundation they’ve set up to collect donations to be distributed to local government projects and give local officials a financial incentive to be loyal: http://www.nclm-foundation.org/projects.htm 

Through this foundation the NCLM is financing ammunition to use in future conversations about increasing the State financial handouts to the cities and most likely to argue FOR the continuation of forced annexation. This is what I see them doing here in funding a “study” to prove that cities are the center of the universe:

“Currently underway is a research project, ‘Economic Role of N.C. Cities and Towns’ funded by the Foundation to document the direct and indirect economic impact of municipalities on North Carolina's economy. The results of this research will be an aid as cities and towns seek to strengthen their local economies and enhance the future for all municipal citizens.”

The NCLM is also using this Foundation to continue to tie themselves, the NCACC, and the School of Government together in lock step to achieve a common agenda that resists any efforts by citizens to “throw the bums out” when the taxing and spending keeps spiraling out of control on less than necessary pet projects and the ‘visions’ of grandeur that cities seem determined to pursue against the likelihood of success.

“The UNC School Government, NC Association of County Commissioners and the NC League of Municipalities have partnered together to create an educational program- Local Elected Leaders Academy (LELA).”

http://www.nclm-foundation.org/projects.htm
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One final word to the wise citizen advocate:

The NCLM has plans in place to hold a series of “Regional Legislative Meetings” all over the State of NC in small and large cities alike:
http://www.nclm.org/2010legislativemeetings.htm

The stated goal of these regional meetings is to prepare city officials for the legislative session ahead and to promote participation in the NCLM “grassroots” network; the “LINC” program previously explained above.

“The meetings will be an essential step in getting ready for the session and an opportunity to learn about League LINC – Legislative Information Network of Communities. League LINC is our grassroots network established for and powered by city and town municipal officials, leaders and professionals.”

I hope you see that it is important for the citizens of North Carolina who are fighting to protect the property rights of all North Carolinians to stand strong against the efforts of the NCLM to erode any protections we do have and their efforts to stop any attempts to strengthen property rights in NC.

We need to be very concerned about both of these issues making progress in favor of the citizens when we have legislators who are not shy about publicly stating which side of these issues they are on.
During the meetings of the Legislative Committee to Study Eminent Domain, Rep Lucy Allen, who was on the committee, made an impassioned plea to the committee to “First, do no harm!”
But Rep Allen was not expressing her concern for the citizens and businesses being protected against the power of the State using this “despotic power”. Lucy was crying out in a plea to protect the government’s ability to continue to use eminent domain as it sees fit. Allen seemed quite proud of herself about securing the approving nods of the NCLM official who was observing the meeting.

Rep. Allen is not the only legislator that we are up against in the General Assembly who feels this way or who feels more loyalty to the NCLM than to the individual constituents they are supposed to be representing.

This is why it is so very important that individual citizens stand up and push back to stop the violations of our property rights that we see year after year with forced annexation and with the overreaching use of eminent domain. And push our County Commissioners to stand up for EVERYONE they represent.

StopNCAnnexation is holding the Annexation Law & Reform 2010 Conference to help the citizens who want good annexation reform get ready for the upcoming legislative session. Our opposition is preparing.
We need to prepare as well!
Registrations for the conference started coming in right away, but there is still room for many more.
I hope those of you who were considering attending will make that commitment and register soon.
http://www.stopncannexation.com/SNCA_conference.htm

I hope to see you there,

Catherine A. Heath
Director,
StopNCAnnexation Coalition

Position Statememt on Annexation Reform from the Grassroots

January 18, 2010                               DRAFT LETTER

Dear Senator,

North Carolina has one of the most extreme annexation laws in the country.  On behalf of North Carolina FreedomWorks and the # undersigned organizations, we urge you to fix this extreme law by supporting meaningful annexation reform in the upcoming short session.

The Senate can do what the House failed to do last year, and that is to pass a meaningful annexation reform bill.  The House-enacted bill, HB 524, “Annexation – Omnibus Changes,” addressed none of the reforms we sought, and even made matters worse than the status quo. 

For example, under existing law, municipalities are required to provide services that give annexed property owners a significant or meaningful benefit.  Municipalities often ignore this requirement by trying to get away with duplicating services or providing unnecessary services.  There is nothing meaningful or significant about providing unnecessary services.

Last year, we asked for a simple reform that would prohibit municipalities from meeting their legal obligations by duplicating existing services or providing unnecessary services.  Instead of doing this, HB 524 does the exact opposite.  The bill would clearly allow municipalities to forcibly annex property owners by duplicating services or providing unnecessary services.

At least under the existing statute, the North Carolina Supreme Court would have a chance to put an end to these games played by municipalities in regards to meaningful services.  HB 524, however, would take away that opportunity by legalizing these games.

Supporters say that HB524 is “a step in the right direction”.  While the bill includes some changes, the changes hardly constitute real reform or compromise.  For example, bill proponents tout its prohibition on shoestring annexation, but these types of annexations already are illegal according to the North Carolina Supreme Court in Hughes v. Town of Oak Island (The Court affirmed an Appeals court decision finding shoestring annexations to be illegal).  The legislature has tweaked the annexation law in the past and all it has done is lead to more opposition to the annexation law and more annexation abuse. 

We are extremely concerned about HB524 and the future of annexation reform.  The passage of meaningless reform will likely mean many years before we have a chance at meaningful reform.

In addition to requiring truly meaningful services, real annexation reform would include:

• County Approval of Forced Annexations:  The county commissions should review and vote on forced annexations.  They represent both the municipalities and the annexation victims.  They also know the needs of the overall community and would provide annexation victims a voice.  Regarding a voice, municipalities oppose a vote and the citizens want a vote.  It is hard to imagine a more perfect compromise than having a representative voice through the county commissions.

• Vote: A simple majority vote of the annexed property owners should be required.

• Financial Obligation of Water and Sewer Infrastructure:  Forcing annexed property owners to pay for the infrastructure necessary for services they never even wanted or needed may be one of the most egregious and devastating aspects of the annexation law.  Costs imposed on property owners can exceed $20,000—for many property owners, these costs may be the difference between keeping their homes and losing them.

• Municipalities initiate the annexations and therefore should be financially responsible for water and sewer infrastructure.  Citizens should pay for reasonable tap fees only if they choose to connect to the system.

There is an excellent bill in the Senate, SB 494, which addresses many of these reforms.  We ask that you work off of SB 494 in developing annexation reform.

Finally, we understand that there is a need for compromise.  The perfect is not the enemy of the good.  We are willing to work with you to craft legislation that will provide real reform yet take into account the legitimate concerns of municipalities. 

Thank you for your service to the citizens of our state.

Sincerely,

Allen Page

State Director

North Carolina FreedomWorks

a.page@mindspring.com

Kathy Hartkopf

Legislative Liaison

North Carolina FreedomWorks

khartkopf@earthlink.net

John Locke Foundation

Stop NC Annexation Coalition