Published: July 19, 2008 11:06 pm         

Annexation law hot topic for session

Election-year caution, a tradition that tends to make lawmakers avoid controversy like a plague, has put West Virginia’s disputed annexation law in limbo for now.

Come February, all that could change.

In some counties, unrest is simmering over a law that some critics say emasculates the ordinary citizen’s right to contest land grabbing by municipalities.

A case in point is Raleigh County, where commissioners waged — and ultimately lost — a running battle with the town of Mabscott over its effort to enlarge its borders about 1.2 miles down Robert C. Byrd Drive.

Mabscott’s petition was upheld twice, once at the local level, then by the state Supreme Court. (A separate lawsuit filed by businesses that would be affected by the annexation over the validity of the petition is still pending.) Each ruling was based on the state law that says a city’s annexation petition must be certified without scrutiny by a county commission.

Therein lies the great rub.

Counties want some voice in annexations, but to get there, West Virginia’s law would have to be changed.

Just as Raleigh County has gone through the mill on annexation, so have other counties, notably in Jefferson County, where its commission was given a similar ruling by the high court.

Delegate Rick Moye, D-Raleigh, arrived a year and a half ago in the House, eager to fight the battle on behalf of the beleaguered commissions. A bill he co-drafted with a fellow newcomer, Delegate Mel Kessler, also D-Raleigh, and veteran Delegate Linda Sumner, R-Raleigh, was intended to require that no state highway or other public land could be annexed by a city without a public hearing and approval by a county commission.

Their bill was shipped off to the House Political Subdivisions Committee where it languished.

Fast forward to last January.

Another annexation bill, this one bearing the name of Delegate Tom Campbell, D-Greenbrier, as a co-sponsor, would have required the signatures of at least 40 people to annex without an election. Moreover, any freeholder with at least 25 acres could be excluded, and any minor boundary adjustment would need at least 150 feet of contiguity.

Same fate. Died in committee.

“I’m not letting it go,” Moye said last week. “If I get re-elected, I will be revisiting that issue.”

Two winters of helping make laws have taught Moye that little comes easy in the Legislature, especially if it triggers a dustup.

“It’s going to be difficult,” he acknowledged. “It is a very complex issue to find parity, something that is fair for everybody. In the end, I want the people that are affected by it to have a say-so. I’m all for the people having a voice in their government and the things that affect them.”

Since this is a gubernatorial election year, the 2009 session won’t start until early February, but Moye wants to lay the groundwork for a compromise before then.

What he prefers is that the two opposing sides — the West Virginia Municipal League and the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia — meet to air differences and come up with an agreed-to measure that will satisfy each.

“That would be the best scenario, if we can sit down together and reach a compromise that’s fair,” Moye said.

“In my mind, what I’ve always wanted was that the people affected by annexation have a say-so in it. That’s not to stop it. My goal is, if someone wants to be annexed and a municipality wants to annex them, and the two are consenting, I think they ought to be able to do it. It’s just when public property such as a road is involved, I think people in the community that road goes through ought to have a say-so because they own that road. If we could have a meeting and work something out, that would be great.”

In talking with Paul Mattox, the delegate said the state transportation secretary advised him he has no problem with the stalled 2007 proposal for a hearing and commission approval before public property is annexed.

Another bill yet to be offered would require an election if a freeholder or other petitioner demands one when an annexation is proposed, the delegate said.

“That sounds reasonable,” Moye said. “To me, that’s saying that if everybody is in agreement, then you don’t have to do it.”

If 27th District voters return him to the House, Moye says, he might have such a bill formally introduced.

For now, the delegate wants to see the municipal league and county commissioners group meet at the bargaining table to see if a compromise is possible. As far as he is concerned, there’s no better time than now.

“This is a contentious issue,” he said. “I feel like the sooner you get on it, the better off you are.”

Moye thinks his fellow House members would agree to reform the annexation law, but without consent of both the league and commissioners, rough sailing could come in the Senate, where Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, a former Weirton mayor, chairs the government organization committee.

“Him being a previous mayor, I think he would probably want to side with the municipal league and give them all the latitude that they could get,” Moye said.

“If we could come to an agreement, I don’t think the Senate would have a problem.”

Moye says the issue isn’t limited to Raleigh County, but, in fact, has been roiling in a number of regions, notably in Jefferson.

“Up in Jefferson County, they’re having terrible troubles,” he said.

“They’re having a lot worse trouble than we do here. They’ve got nightmares up there.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com