The hot topic at last night’s city council meeting was the General Assembly’s runaway, anti-Asheville bill-making. The mayor was perhaps even outraged that the legislators would craft bills affecting Asheville without “having a sit-down.” City leadership was left to find out about the laws by reading legislative bulletins.
One annoyance was a variety of anti-annexation bills. Special legislation had been crafted to de-annex Biltmore Lake, but then several bills had been submitted for de-annexations across the state.
Perhaps the greatest annoyance, though, was an attempt to create a Regional Airport Authority. Currently, the board consists of three representatives from Asheville, three from Buncombe County, and one appointed by the others. Asheville and Buncombe would both be asked to surrender a seat to Buncombe County. Then, the legislature wants to be very picky about qualifications for board members.
Brownie Newman didn’t think that was all bad. He currently serves on the airport authority and says the FAA is so regulatory, it likely wouldn’t make too much difference who was seated. However, the worst part of the bill was that it presumed to convey airport property now owned by the city to the authority, evidently without any provision for compensation.
Councilwoman Esther Manheimer asked if the conveyance would be enforceable or defensible. City Attorney Bob Oast said there was that presumption since the language had made it into a bill. Manheimer countered that when she used to draft bills in Raleigh, she had been told to write things that weren’t Constitutional and let other people deal with the issues down the line. Oast added that a lot of the property had been acquired with federal grants, in perhaps 90%-10% matches. In that event, the city might have a more difficult time demanding compensation.
Council unanimously directed staff to draft in strong language a resolution stating their opposition to the proposed regional airport authority, and another resolution proclaiming their opposition to the “non-deliberative” way the legislators are going about governing.
Council did give a 4-3 approval for the incorporation of Leicester. They gave advocates a big runaround the last time they tried. Members of council thought the area was too large, and they wanted the people to make the decision in a referendum. Newman voted against the measure because he didn’t think the incorporation of rural lands was good land use policy. Jan Davis was not in favor because incorporation advocates had added a section of highly-annexable land from the ETJ to their proposed territory. All along, the incorporation movement has been viewed as a defensive maneuver against potential annexation. Cecil Bothwell cast the other “no” vote.
While discussing legislative actions, Bothwell wished to comment on a couple bills. First, he spoke against the attempt to rewrite the state constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. He said the city had already taken a stance with its Equality Resolution. The resolution put city council on record for supporting civil unions, and committed it to establish a domestic partner registry, anti-bullying ordinances, and policies protecting employees from discrimination on the basis of gender orientation. Mayor Terry Bellamy, who had cast the lone “no” vote, strongly opposed the policy in spite of rudeness and intimidation she continued to encounter for saying so. Bill Russell was absent that day.
Bothwell also wanted to support Patsy Keever’s bill to legalize pot. He said several constituents had asked him to use the big microphone to raise awareness about the bill. Bothwell said in his travels about the country, he has seen big-time differences where marijuana had been legalized. In particular, newspapers had been growing. One could only wonder if the editorials rambled on and on trying to be funny, or if newsprint was the in-thing for rolling paper. Bothwell finally explained: There was an incredible surge in adverts for medical marijuana.
