Remonstrators against the city’s proposed West Side Annexation scored a major victory Thursday, as Special Judge Thomas Lett ruled to disallow hundreds of contested remonstrance waivers.
The waivers were central to the city of Kokomo’s contention that the remonstrators had no right to fight the annexation in court.
“We’re extremely happy with the judge’s ruling. He’s vindicated a lot of hard work,” Kokomo attorney Alan Wilson, who represents the remonstrance, said Thursday. “He’s at least gotten us to the point we can argue the merits of the case.”
Attorneys for the city of Kokomo had asked Lett to dismiss the remonstrance, claiming the remonstrators didn’t have enough signatures to fight the case.
By Indiana law, a remonstrance petition must be signed by at least 65 percent of the owners of the land in an annexed territory.
In his ruling, Lett threw out more than 500 waivers the city’s attorneys claimed were valid.
By throwing out the waivers, Lett ensured all of the signatures on the petition counted.
By the remonstrators’ own count, they’d received signatures from 68 percent of the owners of land in the targeted annexation territory.
The city is attempting to annex 3,742 parcels of property to the west and south of the current city limits, an area comprising more than 4,200 acres.
Lett faulted the city’s waivers on two grounds.
First, Lett said the waivers weren’t specific enough. Under Indiana law, cities may demand remonstrance waivers specifically in exchange for sewer services.
The city’s waivers, however, refer only to “city services,” Lett noted.
During oral arguments, Wilson presented Lett with examples of waivers from both Fishers and Evansville. Those waivers referred specifically to “sewer” services.
Second, Lett said the city didn’t establish that the waivers were “properly recorded so as to provide notice of the waiver to subsequent title holders.”
“The waivers [are] invalid and unenforceable and do not reduce the number of remonstrators [on the petition],” Lett said in the ruling.
Lett scheduled a conference with both sides for 2:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in Tipton Circuit Court.
“Obviously, we just got this, so we’re taking a look at it right now,” city attorney Derek Sublette. “We’re weighing our options, including the ability to appeal the ruling.
“We still believe our arguments are very strong,” Sublette added.
Wilson said he hadn’t spoken to Lett about the ruling, but suspected the judge was concerned about the amount of time between when the waivers were originally signed and the city’s annexation attempt.
“It looks like basically the people the city wanted to hold the waivers against didn’t know they had a waiver on the property,” Wilson said. “And the fact the waiver was signed back in the past, and there was no annexation was also a factor.”
The city may choose to appeal Lett’s ruling, but an appeal would push the case back several months, Wilson said.
• 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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