Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer previously shared in an interview her expectation that even though the city had secured a stay on litigation to take over the municipal water system, she was almost expecting the “representatives” in Raleigh to perform some legislative calisthenics to make it not so. Then, at council’s legislative update last night, Assistant City Manager Paul J. Fetherston alerted council to the existence of House Bill 189. The bill is billed as an amendment to legislation on child support orders. You can find it by searching the keywords “child custody,” “child support,” “divorce,” “minors,” and “public.”
If you scroll down far enough, you will find that a rider has been added. It would be wrong to assume non-sequitur riders are violating the spirit of and raison d’etre for deadlines for introducing legislation, but I digress. Fetherston started to explain that the bill would cause any legislation legally challenged to prevail over the challenges until the judicial system is exhausted. Manheimer picked up the story, and applying it to Asheville’s circumstances, said the legislature would be allowed to take over the water system. The bill was, she said, “extremely troubling,” she said, she said.
