City Lobbyist dictating to NC legislators!!

Here it is folks!

Ellis Hankins, Director of the taxpayer funded lobbying group for the NC Municipal governments telling the House Study Committee on Municipal Annexation what they WILL and will NOT allow or accept in changes to the NC forced annexation laws.

Before you watch this display of unhinged arrogance, do whatever you do to lower your blood pressure because it will go up.

Update on Annexation Committee Meetings

Today was the second meeting of the Study Committee. It was quite interesting and a review will be coming soon. The following is a recap of the January 30th meeting.

You can view the entire January 30th meeting by going to the StopNCAnnexation website. There are also video files of citizens who made comments to the committee after the meeting.
http://www.stopncannexation.com

The number of citizens who attended this committee meeting was close to 60 or better. There were representatives from the coast to the mountains at the meeting. Not just current victims, but plenty of victims from past annexations. The annexation warriors from Wilmington came and spoke to the committee. Cumberland Co and Forsyth Co. victims also attended.
These past annexation stories are important to this discussion as much as the current battles.

This first meeting had one presentation by Prof. David Lawrence of the UNC School of Government. He basically explained NC Annexation law "from the book"....the books that he wrote. Nothing really new or surprising to battle scarred veterans of fighting off a nearby municipality. But necessary, as we can't assume that all of the legislators on the committee know quite as much about the annexation laws as they need to for this study.

What made it interesting was the opportunity for committee members to ask Prof. Lawrence questions. With the committee having a larger number of reform minded legislators who have heard your annexation stories (and a 'non-legislator' citizen) than any past study has had, the questions were slightly more challenging for Lawrence. Doug Aitken asked some excellent questions and made some very good points that had Prof. Lawrence admitting to some of the pesky problems with the law that frustrate citizens.
Things like having little standing to challenge the actions of cities and not much better avenues of recourse after the deed is done. The fact that there is "no one minding the store" regarding the annexations that cities initiate was made loud and clear.

The legislators on the committee seem to be genuinely concerned about the misdeeds and shortcomings occuring with the "most liberal annexation laws in the nation".

If you have been a victim of forced annexation and have a horror story to share, do write to your legislator and to all the legislators on the Study Committee.
The committee email contact info is below on a previous post.

Today's meeting had many more presenters, including Mr Ellis Hankins, chief lobbyist for the cities. The video of his presentation will be posted to the SNCA website as soon as I get it. This is a "must see" presentation, but prepare to have your blood pressure rise a bit.

More on the February 13th meeting in the next blog post.
Stay tuned, and start thinking about coming to Raleigh for the upcoming Public Hearing scheduled for April 9th, and on June 4th for the biggest Rally in Raleigh yet!

Cathy

Annexation Study Committee

Next Study Committee Meeting:

February 13th,

1:00 pm

Legislative Office Building

Room 643

Please try to attend.

Write or call your representative and the committee legislators about reforming annexation.

(See contact info below)

Thank you!

To All NC Citizens Interested in Annexation Reform

Although I have not yet received an official notice from the General Assembly about the meeting schedule of the House Municipal Annexation Study Committee, the first meeting has been scheduled and is posted to the General Assembly website: http://www.ncleg.net/

I encourage every citizen who has worked for and supported reform of the NC Annexation laws to attend this meeting if at all possible.

A large visible attendance will make a difference in the outcome.

The committee might also be open to allowing testimony from the public in attendance.

The Annexation Study Committee will be meeting next Wednesday morning.

When: January 30th 10:00 am

Where: Legislative
Office Building
Room 544
300 N. Salisbury St. 27603
Raleigh, NC (downtown)

919 733-9390

Directions to Legislative Buildings and parking: http://www.ncleg.net/help/directions.html

If you are unable to attend next Wednesday morning, please take the time to contact all of the legislators on the committee, and respectfully share with them what you would like to see come out of this study.

Email addresses are below.

Here is a link to find their complete contact information:

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Committees/Committees.asp?sAction=ViewCommittee&sActionDetails=House%20Select_98

House Select Committee on Municipal Annexation:

• Representative Bruce Goforth, Co-Chair Bruceg@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Paul Luebke, Co-Chair Paull@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Larry R. Brown Larrybr@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Nelson Dollar Nelsond@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Earl Jones Earlj@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Louis M. Pate, Jr. Louisp@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Edgar V. Starnes Edgars@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Fred F. Steen, II Fredst@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Russell E. Tucker Russellt@ncleg.net
  
• Representative Trudi Walend Trudiw@ncleg.net

It is important that everyone who can attend the Annexation Study Committee meeting be seated in Room 544 before the meeting gets underway at 10:00 am on January 30th. The NC League of Municipalities will surely have an organized effort to fill the room with their supporters and lobbyists.

The StopNCAnnexation website is completely dependent upon donations for out-of-pocket expenses. For example, web hosting service fees are $50 a month, in order to maintain our Internet presence. Time spent researching useful information, tracking the legislative efforts, staying on top of news reports about annexations across the State and posting all of this to the website are my unpaid contributions to this cause. Expenses beyond time spent on this effort depend entirely on your financial support. Without it, the website and all of the resources that the website has provided to the cause of reforming annexation will cease to be available through StopNCAnnexation.
http://www.stopncannexation.com/Searchfiles/Contribute.htm
donations@stopncannexation.com

Thanks to all who have given continued support to the effort to reform the annexation laws of North Carolina and for the support for everything that StopNCAnnexation has done on behalf of citizens to further the cause.

Sincerely,

Catherine Heath
http://www.stopncannexation.com

"[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them."
-- Candidus (in the Boston Gazette, 20 January 1772)

Annexation Study Committee is Officially Announced

Speaker of the House Rep. Joe Hackney officially announced the formation of the Annexation Study Committee on Friday.
Details of the Committee’s agenda and the members of the Committee were included in the announcement. You can view the Legislative document online at: http://www.stopncannexation.com/

Below is the list of appointed members:

• Representative Bruce Goforth, Co-Chair Bruceg@ncleg.net
• Representative Paul Luebke, Co-Chair Paull@ncleg.net
• Representative Larry R. Brown Larrybr@ncleg.net
• Representative Nelson Dollar Nelsond@ncleg.net
• Representative Earl Jones Earlj@ncleg.net
• Representative Louis M. Pate, Jr. Louisp@ncleg.net
• Representative Edgar V. Starnes Edgars@ncleg.net
• Representative Fred F. Steen, II Fredst@ncleg.net
• Representative Russell E. Tucker Russellt@ncleg.net
• Representative Trudi Walend Trudiw@ncleg.net
  
• Mr. Douglas Aitken, Moore County
• Ms. Judith Welch Wegner, Orange County

Seven of the Commission Legislators sponsored at least one annexation reform Bill. (names in bold) Many of them put their name on several of the twenty-four Bills written to reform forced annexation in various ways, which were introduced last session.

This is an encouraging departure from the numerous past studies of annexation that appointed few reform Legislators to the past committees.

These Legislators are carrying forward the thankless and mostly fruitless hard work of past Legislators who have tried to reform the annexation laws against heavy odds since the laws were enacted 28 years ago.

Two non-legislators were appointed to the committee; one being Mr. Doug Aitken of the Moore County StTOP group, representing his gated community of Pinewild, and who is also President of this same group’s fledgling Statewide Coalition effort, FAC. The Fair Annexation Coalition has lobbied hard since their inception in early 2007 to steer the legislative efforts toward another study. Looks like they’ve succeeded handily.

The second non-legislator on the committee is Professor Judith Wegner, the Burton Craige Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina, School of Law, the school’s former dean, and a former president of the Association of American Law Schools. She teaches State Local Government Law at UNC, Chapel Hill. Ms.Wegner also put her name on a “friend of the court brief” filed on behalf of the City of New London in the infamous Supreme Court case; Kelo vs. New London, CT.
(Big gun for the cities perhaps?)

It will be interesting to see what does come out of this additional study of NC Annexation Law.
SNCA continues to have concerns, to say the least, about whether another study would achieve anything different than what has resulted from the numerous past studies undertaken.
If history is repeated in this current study, the results could be some minor tweaking of the laws for the affected property owners that wouldn’t amount to much change.

In these studies, the cities have ended up with expansions of their annexation power as a result of concessions they lobby for in the committee meetings.
Your tax dollars at work folks.
(see the Resources Page of http://www.stopncannexation.com/ for the minutes of past studies)

Given the makeup of this new Study Committee, it should be interesting to follow and has the potential produce some surprises.

We will know come May 2008,…..but everyone needs to realize that to those who support true comprehensive reform that restores TO ALL of the people in NC, their right of consent to additional taxes and another layer of government, this study committee that we find ourselves with is going to require active ongoing input and participation.

The facts are this; once this Committee makes its final decision and recommends any changes, the General Assembly will be less open to considering any further needed changes for quite some time. If our game plan was to work on lobbying for incremental changes every legislative session, then another study commission is a major obstacle to that approach.

In order to persuade this committee to reform the law in 2008 in a way that would be acceptable to every affected citizen across NC it is CRITICAL that the many supporters of reform play a part by writing to legislators, attend the meetings at every opportunity, and be ready to present your case against forced annexation to the committee when you are given that chance.

This Committee needs to see the numbers of people who oppose forced annexation and hear their voice about what needs to change!

The broad based support of the goals of StopNCAnnexation over the last several years, from your coming to Raleigh for the annual ‘SNCA Rally in Raleigh’, to your timely responses to SNCA’s email update requests for letters and calls to legislators has made the real difference. Your grassroots activism has achieved the original goal of encouraging and motivating many more legislators to take a principled stand against the special interest lobbyists of the NC League of Municipalities. Every year for the last several years the number of introduced Bills has multiplied exponentially. Your years of committed activism has brought us this far. No one would like to see the momentum that has been built over time squandered by a study that achieves nothing comprehensive and substantial. It’s time to “raise the roof”!

We cannot let this study end up derailing the momentum for real democratic reform.
NO MORE “tweaks”!
NO MORE “givebacks” to the cities! They have lobbied for too much power already.
Restore to the people their pre-1959 right to have a say in the decision to be annexed.

I encourage you to stay informed about the Committee meetings and follow their progress closely. If you can in any way manage to attend any of these meetings, it would be a very important and useful thing to do if you care about changing forced annexation. There will be committee meetings held in various places across the State to give more people the ability to attend.
We all do need to take advantage of the opportunities when the meeting is anywhere closer to where you live. Numbers in the audience matters.

In order to keep you informed, I will be attending all of the meetings unless something unavoidable makes it impossible. the SNCA email list and website blog will be updated with a report on what the committee discussed at each meeting.

If you know someone who might not be on the SNCA list who has an interest in the outcome of this study committee, please encourage them to go to the website to sign up for the updates or email me with the request to subscribe.

This would be a good time to write to these Legislators and Speaker Hackney Joeh@ncleg.net to thank them for the time and effort that they will be putting into a thorough examination of the practice of forced annexation in North Carolina. Let them know that there are many citizens watching what they do with careful interest and are expecting them to listen to the folks on the top of the State’s organizational chart, _ the citizens and voters of NC.

Also a word of thanks to Rep. C. Thomas Charlest@ncleg.net for his hard work as a freshman legislator in support of reform.

In order to gather a show of widespread grassroots support for reform of annexation that SNCA can take to the Annexation Study Commission, SNCA will be adding to the website a place where you can sign up as a ‘Supporter of Reform’. Please encourage others to add their name to this database as a show of grassroots support for more than just a few more tweaks to the law.

And please consider sending any size contribution toward the efforts of SNCA in order to help make it possible to travel to the various locations where the meetings might be held. Your help to keep the StopNCAnnexation website resources online and available to annexation victims and supporters of reform across North Carolina will be appreciated by SNCA and those whom it has helped.

The StopNCAnnexation website continues to be #1 on website searches for “annexation, NC”. The site is accessed by around 100 individuals a day who spend time looking for information.

You help to make this possible by financially supporting the expense of making these resources available.

Thank you,

Cathy Heath
Organizer, Chair, researcher, and webmaster
StopNCAnnexation
http://www.stopncannexation.com/

Is all hope lost for a study of NC Annexation Law this year?

No, _all is not lost.
The annexation study amendment was unanimously passed by the House on the last evening of the session, but the entire Omnibus Study Bill, SB1256, which the annexation study is amended to, is in limbo due to the Senate going home without voting to concur to the amended version. The Senate left the Study Bill hanging in limbo.

There appears to be a strong commitment from the House leadership to make a study of annexation a reality.
The House voted to adopt the annexation study amendment 102 to zero.

There are options that can make the study a reality.
1) The General Assembly can come back to Raleigh in a special session to ratify the Omnibus Study Bill
2) The Speaker of the House has authority to create a special study commission without a Bill.
We aren't quite there yet, though the prospects look good.

The official Senate position on reforming annexation is not good for getting the needed reforms.
The annexation study is presently caught up in a larger internal battle over other legislation and other studies that are included and excluded from the Omnibus Study Bill.

For the people calling for annexation reform, the Senate's position on this issue is something that we need to work to change. We all need to identify the Senators that support reform and those that don't and won't be convinced to change. If they won't change, then we need to do all that is possible to "change" their status as lawmakers for the people of NC.

On the last night of the Legislative session, Rep. Bruce Goforth made a statement on the floor of the House regarding the difficulty of working with the Senate to get legislation passed that truly reflects the wishes of the people rather than a small group that controls this elected body. When he made the statement, and expressed the need to "take back the Senate for the people" I wanted to stand up and shout "Amen".

The following excerpt of his statement was reported in the Asheville Citizen-Times. I've included the quote below along with a excerpt from an entry from John Hood's Daily Journal:

“It’s more of a dictatorship in the Senate,” said Goforth, of East Asheville. “You’ve got four or five people, maybe two, calling every shot over there.”
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770731130

"As for the broader question that Goforth brings up, about the extent to which power in the North Carolina Senate tends to be far more concentrated than in the House, I agree. But I wonder how many House members would go along with the policies likely to be needed to democratize the place: term limits, session limits, changes in campaign finance laws, and a redistricting commission charged with the task of drawing political boundaries to maximize competition and minimize incumbency protection.After all, we can’t count on scandals and federal prosecution alone to ensure consultative leadership and rotation in office."
John Hood's Daily Journal

We all have to get involved in the primaries and November elections across the State and send the Senate a message from the voting booth about how important annexation reform is to the people.

You can view the amendment to Senate Bill 1256 on the StopNCAnnexation website using this link: http://www.stopncannexation.com/S1256ASU22.pdf

This issue has life and is moving forward because of the efforts of everyone who has written and called the Legislators!
Thank you for standing firm on the fight to reform the annexation law.

Going to Incredible Lengths

Update on Annexation Study, H86

The proponents of annexation reform have been assured repeatedly that "There WILL be study of annexation in this year's legislation".

So where are we with this now that the 2007 Legislative Session is over?

In spite of the assurances, I ended up spending the evening of August 2 observing the final hours of House business on the floor, so I could see and hear for myself whether the "omnibus study bill"- SB1256, was going to include a study of annexation.

What I witnessed was a bit of last minute drama regarding the inclusion of an annexation study.

The Omnibus Study Bill had been hashed out in a joint conference that afternoon. The result of that House/Senate conference was the removal of the annexation study by the Senate. The Senate stood strongly opposed to any study of annexation. Rules Committee Chair Rep. Owens gave me an explanation of why the Senate opposed an annexation study, which I will share later.

But back to the final hours of the House debate.

Sometime shortly after the joint conference, some of the House members who have been working to reform the annexation statutes found out that the annexation study had been removed by the Senate. An objection was raised regarding the removal. There must have been some significant objection, although how many or which Representatives raised the objection, is unknown to me. The objection was sent to the Senate to try and reconcile the differences by amendment before the Bill would be voted on.

When the Omnibus Study Bill was introduced to the floor of the House, Rep. Owens gave a somewhat lengthy explanation about what had happened and stated that the House was awaiting an amendment from the Senate that would add the annexation study back to the Bill.

From what I heard, the amendment was received and the House voted on the Study Bill with the amendments.
Afterward, I spoke to several Representatives about the annexation study and was told that the Senate agreed to an annexation study that did not include participation by Senate members. The Study Bill would be a "House only" study of annexation reform.

In my conversation with Rep. Owens, he explained that the Senate was opposed because they remembered how the study of annexation done in 2001 or 2002 brought SO MANY people to the General Assembly, taking up SO MUCH of their time, that it was nearly impossible for them to "get anything done". Hmmm......

Since, from all appearances, the fact that the amendment adding the annexation study was received and included in the House vote to approve the Omnibus Study Bill, I asked a couple of Legislators where I could get a copy of the amendment. I was directed to the office on the first floor where the Bills and drafts are printed. When I went to the office, I was told that a copy of the amendment would not be available for a couple of days. I'm still waiting for it, and I doubt that the amendment itself will ever be available to the public.

I am greeted this morning by an article from the Associated Press stating that the Omnibus Study Bill as amended and approved by the House, which included the annexation study, didn't get a confirming vote from the Senate before the 2007 legislative session ended.
Here is a link to the story posted on the Eyewitness News 9 WNCT.COM website:

NC Legislature goes home without "studies" bill

I've been trying to reach key legislators to ask them what is going on with the annexation study and Rep.Goforth is the only one who called back. I also spoke to his Assistant, Ann Jordan. She was very helpful to my understanding the status of the annexation study.

Regardless of whether the Senate "finalized" the Study Bill topics that the House version included, IF the annexation study was going to be done, the final version of the Study Bill would reflect that. IT DOESN'T.

WHY NOT?
I've looked for the study in SB1256, someone at JLF has looked for it, Rep. Goforth's LA has looked for it and a reporter from the Asheville Citizen-Times has looked for it.
Take a look and see if you can find any reference to annexation in it at all.

Looks like more undercover legislative 'slight-of-hand' to me, which has been the way the efforts to reform annexation have handled ever since last fall.

There are two possibilities left for an annexation reform study to become a reality this year; the ratified bill has some blank sections that could possibly be used to add another study after the fact, OR Speaker Hackney could authorize a study using General Statute 120-19.6. But that would depend on Speaker Hackney being convinced that the annexation study should be undertaken.

More phone calls and letters anyone?
Even though the 2007 Session is officially over, the doors and offices of the legislators remain staffed and open. You can send them your thoughts about the annexation issue and how the citizens call for reform is being shuffled around the dance floor.

It seems that our current crop of legislators still contain far too many who would go to incredible lengths to bow to the wishes of the tax funded lobbyists of the Municipal League.

It will be far more important to get seriously involved in the November elections on behalf of the annexation reform effort than anything else we can do. We need to get more people elected and unelected on whether they think the the current NC annexation laws "are good for NC"!