Count ends in annex battle

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June 9, 2009

City, remonstrators fail to count a single waiver

By Scott Smith The Kokomo Tribune Tue Jun 09, 2009, 11:37 PM EDT

The Kokomo city administration and the West Side Annexation remonstrators were supposed to present a joint report to Special Judge Thomas Lett last week.

Instead, Lett received notice the two sides in the city’s annexation battle couldn’t accomplish anything over the course of several meetings this spring.

March 31, city officials and the remonstrators agreed to Lett’s request to simplify next week’s annexation court hearing by agreeing on the exact number of valid petition signatures signed by remonstrators.

But a series of letters between the city’s attorney, Carl Greci, and the remonstrators’ attorney, Alan Wilson, confirm the signature count was a complete non-starter.

The West Side remonstrance, in which hundreds of petition signatures are being challenged by the city, has a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. June 16 in Tipton Circuit Court.

When both sides agreed to get the signatures counted prior to the June 16 meeting, it was expected Lett would have enough information to decide whether the remonstrance can proceed.

But after mutual recriminations of being “browbeaten” by the opposing side at a series of meetings, it’s now clear Lett will have to decide an alternate arrangement for getting the signatures counted.

“After four meetings and 60 days, not a single petition or waiver has been counted jointly,” Greci wrote in a May 29 letter to Wilson. “Despite your professions of cooperation, the remonstrators have apparently not followed the good advice and direction consistent with our agreement that we fully assume and trust that you gave to them.”

But problems had surfaced from the first meeting between the city and the remonstrators.

May 1, Wilson wrote Greci, saying “there have now been two meetings, and absolutely no progress has been made.”

“My understanding that the meeting [April 30] was to browbeat and intimidate the remonstrators who were present,” Wilson wrote.

Since the West Side remonstrators filed suit Dec. 12, city officials have maintained the West Side remonstrators failed to collect enough valid signatures to move ahead with their remonstrance.

The city is asking Lett to dismiss the West Side suit without a trial, and to let the West Side annexation proceed. Up until the March 31 meeting, at least, Wilson had maintained the west siders had enough signatures to get a day in court.

At the March 31 hearing, however, Wilson and city attorney Derek Sublette said both sides would sit down some time in the next 60 days to review the remonstrance petition signatures, and to review the waiver documents in the city's possession.

Both attorneys said they would try to reach an agreement on the actual number of valid signatures, but said Lett would have to ultimately certify the correct number of signatures if no agreement can be reached between the city and the remonstrators.

Both sides had agreed to submit a report on the signature issue to Lett by June 1.

Last week, however, the city submitted a report to the court, saying the efforts to count signatures had failed.

• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at (765) 454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com

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