Petition Law Suit Now in Supreme Court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PALMYRA VA August 24, 2009, The Virginia Supreme Court received the official Appeal of the April 21 Order of the State Corporation Commission which established the James River Water Authority. This Appeal was due by law within four months of the Order date and was filed on Friday, August 21, 2009 by Douglas Johnson.

Mr. Sherman L. McLaughlin, Jr., Senior Bailiff of the State Corporation Commission, stated on August 20, 2009 that: "The record on appeal from the State Corporation Commission's Order issuing a Certificate of Incorporation to James River Water Authority will be forwarded to the Supreme Court of Virginia Today or Tomorrow."

This Appeal to the Supreme Court is in addition to the action still ongoing with the State Corporation Commission. The Hearing Examiner has recommended that the case be dismissed. Johnson filed an Objection to that recommendation on Saturday, August 22, 2009. That Objection includes copies of the Appeal to the Supreme Court and the
Amended Complaint for Declaratory Judgement and is available on line at
FluvannaBlog.com along with all of the filings with the State Corporation Commission.

The Fluvanna Circuit Court had a Hearing on Friday, July 31, 2009 on Declaratory Judgement action to determine the validity of the Citizen Petitions. The Court ruled that the documentation was not sufficiently detailed to be acted on and gave 21 days for it to be amended. The Amended Complaint for Declaratory Judgement was filed by Johnson on Friday, August 21, 2009 with the Fluvanna Circuit Court.

All three legal actions started with a simple filing by Johnson, with the Fluvanna Circuit Court, of the Petitions circulated between March 24, 2009 and April 15, 2009.

This was actually the second batch of Petitions circulated in the county requesting a referendum asking: "Shall Fluvanna County join Louisa County in the formation of a Joint Water Authority".

The first batch was submitted to the Fluvanna Board of Supervisors at the March 18, 2009 Public Hearing by Leroy McCampbell. The Board adjourned the action part of the Public Hearing until April 15, 2009, pending a review of the petitions, after County Attorney Fred Payne had advised the Board that the Petition form should have first been approved by the Fluvanna Circuit Court.

The following day, March 19, 2009, Mr. Johnson filed the petition form with the Court as per Mr. Payne's comment to the board. The Court officially accepted the petition form on March 24, 2009.

While Mr. Johnson considered that approval of the Court to be correcting Mr. Payne's perceived problem with that first batch of petitions, others, acting on legal advise, took the opportunity of the adjournment to April 15, 2009 to circulate a second batch of petitions.

On April 15, 2009, Douglas Johnson hand delivered a full copy of the "second petition" to the Fluvanna Circuit Court in the afternoon and Leroy McCampbell hand delivered a full copy of that same "second petition" to the Fluvanna Board of Supervisors at the beginning of its meeting that same evening.

At that April 15, 2009 meeting, the Board voted four to two to reject the petitions and then voted four to two to form the James River Water Authority.

Leroy McCampbell and a group of citizens engaged counsel to challenge the Board's action in Court. The Board refused to agree to let the Court decide and ran to the State Corporation Commission in an effort to flee the jurisdiction of the Court.

With about $30,000.00 in legal costs to the citizens, the funds ran out and the lawyers were put on "hold". Doug Johnson is the sole citizen now pursuing the matter in court and is acting without an attorney.

Mr. Johnson is not an attorney and therefore, by law, he can only represent himself. He still is, however, representative of the 2,200 signers of the petitions.

The law requires ten percent of Fluvanna's 16,860 voters to put the issue on the ballot. The Fluvanna County Administrator Delivered a written report to the Board at that April 15, 2009 meeting that the first petition had 1,822 valid signatures. The County Registrar Certified that the second petition met the ten percent requirement.

Virginia law is quite clear that official documents cannot be rejected for mere technicalities. It seems obvious that the Board knows that it cannot win in Court on the merits of the case as it is concentrating on procedural and technical defenses.