The Anniston City Council Crank

On October 16, 2008, the Anniston Star wrote an editorial accusing Anniston City Councilman Ben Little of being "the crank on the council" because of his position on the Fort McClellan Redevelopment. One would think that wordsmiths such as the Anniston Star prides itself on employing would know that a "crank" is defined by Webster as a part of a machine used to transmit motion "or to change rotary motion into reciprocating motion" in a machine. Presumably, the Anniston Star used the word "crank" with regard to Councilman Little in the colloquial sense as "a person who has odd, stubborn notions about something." Ben Little is a man who causes the machinery of government to get in motion and who has the odd notion that the law should be followed.

But, the rest of the Anniston City Council, except the Mayor, supports Ben Little's ideas about Fort McClellan. Whether the author of the Anniston Star editorial knows it or not, Ben Little, Herbert Palmore, Stan Bennett, and Jeff Fink all agree on the position of the City of Anniston relative to the Fort McClellan redevelopment. As with so much that has been written on the Fort McClellan redevelopment since Judge Laird's decision, the editorial is at least misleading.

It is interesting that the Anniston Star never characterizes or mentions the strike suit filed by Anniston attorney Donald Stewart in that suit overturned a ten year arrangement made, financed, and supported by the United States Government to redevelop Fort McClellan. One cannot help but wonder why a lawsuit such as that filed by the City of Anniston after the Stewart opinion was issued intended to restore the federal plan would be criticized so sharply after the state court judge, Joel Laird, overturned it in what can only be viewed as a radical decision. This is like blaming the farmer for locking the hen house door after a raid by a fox. The fox is the Stewart lawsuit, the hen house is the City of Anniston, and the occupants of the hen house are the citizens of Anniston. Councilmen Little, Palmore, Bennett, and Fink are trying, against great odds, to do their sworn duty to protect the citizens of Anniston and to enforce the law that comes before them. If that is an odd notion, then let us pray that more public servants will adopt it.

One does not have to be a lawyer or even a very smart person to know that state judges cannot tell the United States Department of Defense how to exercise the authority granted to it by federal statutes. Everyone who has attended school knows that the federal government is supreme and the state governments are subordinate. The current mess at Fort McClellan comes from the failure of those who should know better to observe this basic principle of federalism.

But, back to locking the hen house, where are the critics of the Donald Stewart lawsuit? Have the people of Anniston forgotten the Monsanto Chemical Company litigation? The Stewart lawsuit and Judge Laird's opinion has the effect of freezing Anniston out of participation in the redevelopment of Fort McClellan even though Fort McClellan is located completely within the Anniston city limits. Anniston is obligated to provide all the city services to Fort McClellan at Anniston tax payers' expense. Calhoun County under the Laird opinion gets to control the Fort McClellan redevelopment without any responsibility for providing such services. Question: Should members of the Anniston City Council protest that arrangement or simply accept it no matter what it costs the Anniston tax payer? The obvious answer is no. This arrangement, which the three new council members have publicly announced they will accept, is clear taxation without representation.

Then there is the other matter of the Voting Rights Act. Under the preceding ten year arrangement disrupted by Judge Laird's Order, black voters in Anniston constitute 50% of the electorate that chose three of the nine board members of the JPA. Black voters constituted 19.5% of the Calhoun County electorate that elected three board members of the JPA. The remaining three board members were selected by the governor, etc. There are two majority black districts in the City of Anniston, guaranteeing the election of at least two black members out of five total to the Anniston City Council. There is only one black majority district in Calhoun County guaranteeing only one black commissioner out of five total. It is obvious that under the Stewart-Laird system, the appointees of the governor, etc. are eliminated, the Anniston City representatives are eliminated, and nothing is left but Calhoun County representatives. In Voting Rights Act litigation, the "base line" against which changes are measured would be the JPA arrangements done away with by Judge Laird in the Stewart case. This change requires that the dilution of black voting rights relative to the Fort McClellan redevelopment must be precleared with the Justice Department before it can become effective. Judge Laird made his order effective immediately and refused to stay it for even a moment while legal problems were reviewed, including the Voting Rights Act issues.

The question then is whether the Anniston Star is advocating the violation of the federal laws governing the redevelopment of Fort McClellan and of the Voting Rights Act. Do the incoming members of the Anniston City Council believe they can ignore violations of the redevelopment laws and the Voting Rights Act that affect the citizens of Anniston? Hopefully not.

So, back to Ben Little. It turns out that his ideas about the McClellan redevelopment are really nothing but a desire to enforce the law. Maybe we need more cranks in public service.

Fort McClellan update

It is sad to say that the responsible officials at Calhoun County are making every effort to seize sole control of the Fort McClellan Development by freezing Anniston out of the project. Not only is this sad from the stand point of bad community relations, but it is sad to see Calhoun County act contrary to federal law.

The process of closing and redeveloping closed military bases across the country is a federal matter controlled by federal law. Those laws provide that when there is no local re-development authority, it is the local government in whose jurisdiction the property is located that can, under circumstances act as the local redevelopment authority. In the case of McClellan, that local government is the City of Anniston, not Calhoun County. Judge Joel Laird does not have the power to set the federal laws aside, but he has tried to do so by appointing Calhoun County as the local redevelopment authority. Eventually, Anniston must be given its proper role in the McClellan Development. Boston attorney, David Knisely, who represents local redevelopment authorities in base closings cases all over the country, and who represents the JPA, has told the City of Anniston that the Army insists that that insists that Anniston be in the process. The Army must prevail in the end. Since the participation of Anniston is where the project will wind up, the insistence of Calhoun County that Anniston be frozen out of the process is a waste of time and money.

But, if only Anniston is reasonable amongst the participants in this matter then unreason instead of reason will govern the dispute until Anniston prevails.

Something is seriously wrong when the citizens and elected officials of Anniston, which will have to provide zoning, the fire protection, tax support, police protection, and all the community services to McClellan, oppose Anniston's participation in the McClellan Development. Is it rational for Anniston to sit idly by and wait for Calhoun County to present it with the responsibility for property and people in areas of Anniston developed solely by the County? Of course not. Then, if it is not rational, why do these Anniston people support it? The Anniston Star needs to explore this question until it finds an answer instead of asking why Anniston is fighting for its rights. But, it will not.

Whatever the reason for this puzzling state of affairs, Anniston is insisting only that federal law be obeyed and enforced. It has exhausted every means available to it to work with Calhoun County and been rejected by the County. Any claim to the contrary by whoever made is simply false.

This leads to the violations of the United States Voting Rights Act by excluding Anniston from the control of Fort McClellan Development after it has been in control with Calhoun County since Fort McClellan was closed in 1998.

If you have any questions email Rutledge & Yaghmai at miller@rylaw.net
Fort McClellan Litigation

Efforts by the City of Anniston to reach agreement with Calhoun County

The City of Anniston and Calhoun County acting through the Calhoun County Commission formed in 1998 the Anniston-Calhoun County Fort McClellan Development Joint Powers Authority known generally as the JPA. The United States Department of Defense on September 10, 1998 appointed the JPA as the local redevelopment authority to act as an instrumentality of the United States Government in redeveloping portions of Fort McClellan and transferring it to civil control. The property subject to transition to civil control is in the city limits of Anniston, Al.

The JPA functioned in its federally appointed capacity until August 22, 2008 when Calhoun County Circuit Judge Joel Laird entered an order in a lawsuit filed by Anniston attorney Donald Stewart, who is a Plaintiff, holding that the JPA was illegally formed and appointing Calhoun County as the redevelopment authority in place of JPA. The City of Anniston is not a party to the Stewart case and was totally ignored by Judge Laird in appointing Calhoun County alone to act as the McClellan redevelopment authority.

The City of Anniston was not aware that Judge Laird intended to enter this order until it was entered in court. However, prior to Judge Laird entering this order, the Calhoun County Commission held a meeting at which it agreed to accept Judge Laird's appointment when his order was entered. The City of Anniston knew nothing of such a meeting until on or about October 7, 2008 when an employee of one of the Calhoun County Commissioners revealed the fact of the meeting.

Nevertheless, after hiring William E Rutledge and Gregory F Yaghmai (Rutledge & Yaghmai) as counsel to represent it in the matter, the City began efforts to consult with the Calhoun County Commission as to a new power sharing arrangement between the City and the County. The United States government has made it clear that it will require that the City of Anniston participate before it will make available permanent funding to redevelop Fort McClellan, which funding is estimated to be an additional 218 million dollars. Rutledge & Yaghmai, contacted Boston, MA attorney David Kniesly, who was the lawyer representing the JPA in its contacts with the Federal government, to approach Calhoun County through its administrator, Ken Joiner, to try to work out an agreement for power sharing in the development of Fort McClellan. These efforts were rebuffed.

The City of Anniston then filed a motion to intervene in an existing case in which the JPA was a party and attached to its motion a copy of a Complaint that it would file if the motion was granted. However, the Complaint was not filed. It was a warning, however, to the Calhoun County Commission as to what it could expect to face if it refused to talk with Anniston about power sharing. A copy of this motion and proposed complaint was delivered to the Calhoun County Commission.

The City of Anniston continued efforts to get the County to work out a power sharing arrangement on at least an interim basis until the federal government could make new arrangements or enforce the old ones. These efforts were rebuffed by Calhoun County. At no time has Calhoun County made any effort to resolve this matter with the City of Anniston. Finally on October 8, 2008, Mr. Knisely informed Gene Rutledge that further efforts to open discussion with Calhoun County were futile. At this point the City of Anniston had no choice but to file suit or to surrender to Calhoun County control of a large percentage of the property within its city limits.

This blog was opened because, unfortunately, the Anniston Star refused to inform the people of Anniston that its government was trying very hard to work out something with Calhoun County and Calhoun County was refusing to do so. The articles in the Anniston Star made it appear that Anniston had precipitously filed a lawsuit without trying to work something out with the County when it had not and that Anniston was making no effort to negotiate or work something out with Calhoun County. This is false as stated above.

If you desire, a copy of this lawsuit, it can be obtained from the United States District Court in Birmingham, Al. The style of the case is The City of Annitson Alabama et al v. Honarable Joel E. Laird, Case number CV-08-PT-1882-E.

Three members of the incoming City Council have stated they would vote against any litigation. It is hoped that when the new Council members understand how the litigation came about and understand that a municipal corporation such as the City of Anniston must control the property within its city limits in order, for example, to provide fire and police protection, that their premature judgments about this situation will be reversed. Two for the five members of the new council, Ben Little and Herbert Palmore, are pledged to fight for the rights of the City of Anniston in the litigation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Rutledge & Yaghmai, at Miller@rylaw.net.
Fort McClellan Litigation Blog