City council voted unanimously to use the legal process of referendum, which the General Assembly gracefully allows them to do, as simply a method of surveying the public mood. They’re just taking a poll to make a point which in no way would effect the outcome.

The referendum addresses the question of whether or not the city should sell or lease the water system when sale or lease is not on the table. What is on the table is a transfer of the system, which Asheville does not own, to a regional authority. Some like to call it a “seizure.” Remember?

This is a manipulative and irresponsible abuse of authority granted to the city by the G.A.

So much for “good faith negotiations.”

Here’s a little primer on how the Democrat Party set up local government:

How Local Government Works
http://nc116.com/?p=1031
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It’s worth noting that Rep. Moffitt has failed to respond to not one, but two official invitations from City Council to join the rest of the local delegation in a discussion about the water issue. And MSD declined to send a representative to the City’s work session last week on the water issue.

The City has been trying to negotiate in good faith, while continuing to make the case that they shouldn’t have their water system seized by lawmakers in Raleigh.

With this threat against the very existence of the City government of Asheville, the veils of “good faith” are falling away from Rep. Moffitt.

How much are they paying you? Because you’re absolutely following the talking points.

Has it occurred to you that the state doesnt think the city has any negotiating power worth their time?

If city voters decide that Asheville’s water treatment plants and water distribution centers should be sold or leased, that would be a non-binding referendum. If they decide that these assets should NOT be sold or leased, that
would be a binding referendum according to an Asheville City Council member. The 2012 Legislative Research Commission Draft Report states that Asheville does NOT own all of the Public Utility Water System. Buncombe County owns a part of that system.  The Public Utility Water System is a “Public Enterprise” and therefore, the City of Asheville cannot profit from its management.

And yet the threat is that if Rep. Moffitt determines that the City isn’t engaged in good-faith negotiations, the NCGA will take the water system by force. How does the City know what constitutes “good faith negotiations”? Nobody has spelled this out. This is part of why Council invited the whole local delegation together, so everyone would be on the same page as to what is expected from the City. Rep. Moffitt can’t be bothered to even tell them what they will be judged against in January.

Of course, this further exposes the central deceit of this whole thing - there is no doubt that if re-elected, Moffitt will seize the water system, no matter what the City does or doesn’t do, or what the MSD impact study does or doesn’t show. But he didn’t want to do it right before the elections. He concocted this “good faith negotiations” period just to get him past November.

I just came from the monthly MSD meeting, and the discomfort is palpable. The City reps have to sit there and pretend there is some sort of negotiation going on. The other reps have to sit there and pretend they are not complicit in the impending seizure of Asheville’s assets. They refuse to hold a vote on whether or not they want to be the willing recipients of stolen goods.

This is how a regional water/sewer system is created, by everyone in the room lying to each other, their constituents, and themselves?

history will have the final words describing the corrupt, corrosive presence of Mr. Moffitt upon our way of life and our standard of living. He is representative of who we are , where we live and what we stand for. An empty suit, a juandiced vision in retrograde toward the dissolution of schools commerce, infrastructures, and ultimately our familiies and our city. Someday the graft, corruption, greed, and gross stupidity of Mr. Moffitt will see the light of day: he is impregnated with scandal, mark my words.