Clark County (The Evening News)
Jeffersonville annexation foes plan session
Bruce Herdt claims city’s fiscal plan was flawed
Protesters are planning a presentation claiming that the fiscal plan adopted with Jeffersonville’s annexation of the Oak Park area was flawed because it underestimated the number of people in the area.
It’s the presentation annexation foes would have shown had they had their day in court, said Bruce Herdt, the event’s organizer.
The meeting is 7 p.m. Oct. 6 at First Christian Church, 3209 Middle Road in Jeffersonville. It’s open to the public.
ISSUES THAT COUNT
The ordinance to annex the area, which lies east of the city limits, was passed by the Jeffersonville City Council in 2007 with a fiscal plan that estimated there were 3,660 households there. Herdt believes there are around 5,200 households, meaning that city services would suffer because of the discrepancy.
Herdt was the lead petitioner in a legal remonstrance that was filed against the annexation around the time the ordinance was passed.
State law gives remonstrators 90 days to collect signatures from 65 percent of those affected by the annexation. Clark County Circuit Court and the Indiana Court of Appeals determined the signatures were a few days late and the case was thrown out.
Herdt said the presentation shows how the city’s method of counting homes was flawed and how he arrived at his figure.
“We are out of legal options. What this does is show people what we know about the fiscal plan,” he said. “We think everybody in Jeff needs to understand.”
TWO MEETINGS
There is a city council meeting scheduled the same night as the annexation meeting.
Councilman Ron Grooms said the meeting was moved to Oct. 6 because three council members were going to be out of town Oct. 5, the night the council meeting normally would take place.
“I had no idea about this meeting or we probably wouldn’t have [scheduled a council meeting] he said.
According to Grooms, the annexation fiscal plan for Oak Park has been updated and its costs were increase by about 10 percent. However, he said, that update was made because of inflation and it’s based on the same number of residents as the old plan.
“If the number of residents is more than anticipated, I feel the city can easily adjust its services for the difference,” Grooms said. “The capital costs are going to be very similar with either number.”
MORE SERVICES, MORE MONEY
He believes if the count were off, the real difference would be in annual costs of service to the annexed area. However, he noted, if there are more homes, then more people would be paying for services.
“It is a concern, but it’s not a major concern to the point it would take away services,” Grooms said.
Councilman Keith Fetz voted against the annexation in 2007. He was for annexing some areas — newer neighborhoods and those already using city sewer services. However, he was against annexing so much at once.
“I think we bit off a whole lot more than we could chew,” he said.
“I hated the fact that, based on a technicality, their case was thrown out,” Fetz said.
He said he had no problem with Herdt and others making the presentation.
“How can anything negative come out of sharing information?” he asked rhetorically.
For now, the Oak Park annexation is pending. After the case was thrown out by the courts, Herdt asked the Indiana Supreme Court to hear the case.
By the time it decided that it wouldn’t hear the case, it was 2009, and state law prohibits a city from annexing the year preceding a U.S. Census count. The next count is in 2010, the same year the annexation is scheduled to take effect in January.
Herdt wanted to make the presentation at a meeting of the council, but a time couldn’t be agreed on.
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