Council OKs home rule proposal

Related:

• Municipal Home Rule Board

HUNTINGTON -- Huntington became the fourth and apparently the last city in the state on Friday to submit a plan to participate in a five-year, home rule pilot program.

City officials now will wait to see whether forthcoming proposals to alter the program during the 2008 legislative session will affect their chances at being selected.

City Council members voted 9-0 during a special meeting to approve the home rule plan and send it to a state panel charged with selecting the cities that will participate in the pilot program. Council members Cal Kent and P.D. Adkins did not attend the meeting.

Huntington's plan asks the panel to give the city authority to: Create a land bank; change state law to allow cities to capture fire insurance claim proceeds; strengthen ordinances to collect delinquent fees; and overhaul its tax structure by implementing a sales tax and/or occupation tax and repealing the $2-a-week user fee and reducing the business and occupation tax.

Currently, state law limits local governments on taxation and other administrative and personnel issues. Home rule creates autonomy on the local level and limits state interference.

"This is an opportunity that we in Huntington don't need to miss," Mayor David Felinton said. "We've asked for it for a long time and here it is."

Felinton stressed that if Huntington is chosen for the program, it does not mean the measures it is proposing will take effect. City Council will still have to adopt ordinances for each proposal, he said.

"We also can't look at this as permanent since the pilot program is for five years," Felinton said. "Nonetheless, we are excited about it."

Huntington joins Charleston, Wheeling and Bridgeport in the group of cities that have submitted plans, said Lisa Dooley, executive director of the West Virginia Municipal League. The deadline is Dec. 31.

Weirton prepared a plan, but it was defeated by its City Council, Dooley said. Fairmont worked on a plan but did not submit it because of constitutional concerns about some of its proposals, she said.

"The common thread running through all these plans has been abandoned and hazardous property issues," Dooley said. "The proposals range from land banks to registering abandoned properties to a more streamlined process dealing with demolition of hazardous properties."

Morgantown, which was the main proponent of the home rule pilot program, will only apply if the Legislature makes alterations to the legislation that created the program, she said.

Monongalia County Delegate Alex Shook said Morgantown hired an attorney to review the home rule legislation. The attorney issued an opinion citing two concerns, he said.

"The first is that there is a violation of separation of powers that should exist between the legislative and executive branches," Shook said. "There are two legislative members sitting on the board that selects the cities, and the opinion is that in itself creates separation of powers issues."

Cabell County Delegate Jim Morgan and Hancock County Sen. Ed Bowman are the two legislators on the panel. They are on the board because the legislation states that the chairmen of the House and Senate government organization committees are members.

The second concern is that there is not a clear set of criteria by which the panel will select the cities, Shook said. He anticipates that the attorney hired by the city of Morgantown will prepare legislation in conjunction with the Municipal League.

"The Municipal League supports the changes offered by Morgantown so long as their provisions don't alter or act as a deterrent to the cities that have already applied," Dooley said. "I would hope the wording allows cities that have met the deadline to move forward. Morgantown is the only city we know of that is holding back because of constitutional concerns."