Hampshire County is making history again!
Follow the process of the Committee to Reform Hampshire County Government as the Petition works its way through the legal process; it is a great lesson in the Constitutional rights guaranteed by our state Constitution.
The Petition as amended in the Legislature:
Click here for Petition.
Click here for the Bill's
Status in the Legislature
As of the close of the last Legislative Session on March 10, 2007 for the fourth time the Petition was not passed by the Legislature contrary to the provisions of the West Virginia Constitution. Several citizens have filed for a declaratory judgement in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County in order to quiet the Legislature's claim that our petition asks for an unconstitutional form of election. We have posted the Courts finding here in two formats.
Click here for the Court's findings in
text based web page format.
Click here for the Court's findings in .pdf format (requires Adobe Reader)
On April 24, 2007, the Hampshire County Commission with little notice or public input adopted a Resolution to ask the Legislature to ignore the Petition as outdated.
Click here for the Resolution
Our legal council has filed a Memorandum in answer to the Legislature's plea to vacate the opinion and the Hampshire County Commission's Resolution to declare the Petition void.
Click here for the Memorandum in .pdf format.
On July 24, 2007 the Committee to Reform Hampshire County Government appeared before the Hampshire County Commission to ask them several questions related to their April 24th Resolution to declare the Petition void. Click here for the
Presentation . (.pdf format)
On October 9, 2007 both Houses of the West Virginia Legislature
appealled to the West Virginia Supreme Court against Judge
Zakaib's
judgement in favor of the Committee's Petition. Click here for a copy of the
Legislature's Appeal
. (large
pdf format file: 5 megs)
In January, 2008 the Supreme Court announced they will
accept the appeal. Judge Starcher was the only member who voted
to allow the lower court finding to stand. Now there will be a several
month period where both parties will file documents with the court;
not until all the documents are filed will the court set a date
for a hearing. It may not be until April or later that a
date for a hearing is set. Stay
tuned!
