She and other lawmakers should immediately get about the business of repealing this anti-democratic power grab that was engineered by Rep. Richard Morgan, R-Moore, and two of his cronies on the Board of Commissioners. Furthermore, a court challenge to the bill based on questions as to its constitutionality should be fully explored.
Morgan rushed the local bill through the House and Senate without the knowledge of anyone in Moore County except for Republican county Commissioners Michael Holden and Colin McKenzie, who urged Morgan to introduce the measure. It requires that from now until Dec. 2, no ordinance or resolution can be approved by the commissioners without a 4-1 affirmative vote. The customary 3-2 vote won’t be enough.
It’s no coincidence that Dec. 2 is the date Holden is to be sworn in for another four-year term and that he and McKenzie are joined on the board by Republican political ally Virginia Saunders, who unseated Commissioner Paul Helms in the Sept. 10 Republican primary. That will give Holden, McKenzie and Saunders control of the board, relegating Commissioners Bob Ewing and David Cummings, also Republicans, to the minority.
Morgan said he pushed the bill through to prevent Helms, Ewing and Cummings from engaging in lame-duck “shenanigans” before the shift in power takes place. For Morgan to suggest that anyone else would perpetrate shenanigans rings hypocritical.
Kinnaird represents the 16th Senate District, which will include Moore County until legislative redistricting takes effect in January. She was joined in voting for the bill by Democratic Sen. Howard Lee, who also represents the 16th, Democratic Rep. Douglas Yongue of Scotland County, whose district will include one Moore precinct until January, and Democratic Rep. Leslie Cox, who will represent part of Moore if she is re-elected in November. Kinnaird says she thought the Morgan measure was just another non-controversial local bill and voted for it as a matter of routine. All four legislators should be embarrassed about being too weak to object or — worse — being asleep at the switch.
But one has to wonder how Kinnaird, Lee, Yongue, Cox and other lawmakers could have been so taken in. Members of the legislative press corps weren’t. They dutifully reported the bill’s passage and its implications for Moore County. And at least some lawmakers knew full well that the state was stepping in to change the way a local government operates. Appallingly, both Democrats and Republicans seemed to buy the idea that because it was only for a couple of months, it was OK to do the wrong thing. If that bill had included an amendment to do something like that to Wake or Mecklenburg counties, there would have been blood on the floor.
The Institute of Government says the bill is perfectly legal, but what the institute says should be taken with a constitutional grain of salt, because it is in the business of assisting, not challenging, actions by local governments. It seems a case could be made for challenging the measure on the grounds that it treats Moore County in a highly peculiar and discriminatory manner. That’s not exactly in keeping with the state Constitution’s Equal Protection clause. Helms, Ewing and Cummings, having been disenfranchised by this bill, are the logical people to go to court about it, but of course the county attorney’s office wouldn’t be available to them. After all, it would take a 4-1 vote for the county to institute a lawsuit. They would have to retain their own council and presumably pay for representation out of their own pockets. We hope they will do just that on behalf of the people they were elected to serve.
Whether the law is challenged in court or not, Kinnaird, Lee, Yongue and Cox should cosponsor legislation for repeal of the Morgan bill. The four could have stopped the bill in its tracks merely by raising a red flag. But they didn’t and were therefore accessories to making Moore County government a broken democracy. Those four should take responsibility for fixing it.
