571 Long Acre Road
Palmyra, VA 22963
March 18, 2009
Board of Supervisors
County of Fluvanna
P.O. Box 540
Palmyra, VA 22963
RE: Petition concerning Joint Water Authority
Dear Supervisors:
It has come to my attention that there may be an effort to ignore the Petition being submitted to you this evening based on the requirements of Virginia Code § 24.2-684.1. Requirements for voter petitions to call for referendum elections.
This is a different kind of petition. This is a petition to a governing body. It is not a direct petition for a referendum. The petition is to the Governing body to petition the court for the referendum.
The enabling state legislation for the Joint Water Authority has provision for two types of this kind of petition with each for a specific purpose.
The first type is set up for the case that the local governing body, in our case the Fluvanna Board of Supervisors, do not want to establish any Authority. The petition then is an effort to force the BOS to take action. This is clearly not our case.
The second type is where the local governing body is attempting to form and Authority and the petition is to block that action. In that case the petition is petitioning the court indirectly. These petitions do not go to the court but directly to the governing body. The only requirement is the number of qualified voters must be ten percent number. There is no requirement to have the signatures verified in any way.
Once the quantity test is met, the governing body has no choice in the matter. They must petition the court for a referendum. There is no intervening step. There is no detail analysis of the signatures.
In this case, however, the citizens collecting the signatures did in fact, follow the stricter requirements of other kinds of petitions.
The official petition form was used.
The question was the simplest it could be utilizing the exact language of the code and the proposed BOS Resolution.
Individuals who circulated the petitions were all Fluvanna County voters.
The circulators did not sign their own petition but signed another circulator's petition.
Each petition was officially notarized.
These efforts were not required by statue but done to "go the extra mile" so these petitions will not be disputed for any technicality.
The exact Virginia Code related to this type of petition is:
§ 15.2-5105. Hearing; referendum.
If at the hearing, in the judgment of the governing body of the participating locality, substantial opposition is heard, the governing body may at its discretion petition the circuit court to order a referendum on the question of adopting or approving the ordinance, agreement or resolution. The provisions of § 24.2-684 shall govern the order for a referendum. When two or more localities are participating in the formation of such authority, the referendum, if ordered, shall be held on the same date in all participating localities. If ten percent of the qualified voters in a locality file a petition with the governing body at the hearing calling for a referendum, such governing body shall petition the circuit court to order a referendum in that locality as provided in this section.
(Code 1950, § 15-764.6; 1950, p. 1315; 1962, c. 623, § 15.1-1244; 1970, c. 617; 1972, c. 370; 1973, c. 478; 1975, c. 517; 1997, c. 587.)
Notice that the voter petition the governing body, the Board of Supervisors, not the court directly. The Board of Supervisors then petition the court for the referendum.
If you still have doubts, look at the time line. For this kind of petition we only had 30 days notice of the hearing and the law states that the petition must be delivered at that hearing. § 24.2-684.1. specifies a time from of nine months to complete the petition with the first 10 days spent with paperwork at the clerk of the court. It further specifies the completed petitions be delivered to the court rather that the governing body. Clearly § 24.2-684.1. does not apply to this petition being given to the governing body according to § 15.2-5105.
Very truly yours,
Douglas R. Johnson
434 286-6982 home
206 600-6984 fax
doug@descriptive.com
cc.
Marvin F. Moss, Chairman
Charles W. Allbaugh, Vice-Chairman
Gene F. Ott
Donald W. Weaver
Mozell H. Booker
John Y. Gooch
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