THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010460
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
The chairman of the panel that until Monday night was preparing a city-county merger plan said Tuesday that his work is done.
``I'm communicating with my commissioners today that we have been disbanded and we have nothing further to do,'' L.P. ``Tony'' Hornthal Jr. said.
Hornthal, the Elizabeth City lawyer who has led the Pasquotank-Elizabeth City Governmental Study Commission for more than two years, made the comment after a merger expert partially supported the conclusion that the commission was defunct.
Pasquotank County Attorney Ike McRee had reached that conclusion Monday night after the city and county parted ways over how the merger group should proceed.
David Lawrence, an authority on merger at the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, said Tuesday that McRee's ruling was reasonable. But he added that there is no real way to know if it's correct.
As a matter of law, ``I don't think it's absolutely clear what that is,'' said Lawrence, who has been involved in a half-dozen merger efforts over the past 25 years. ``There's no real precedent for it.''
The county commissioners on Monday night voted to eliminate a major portion of the merger panel's original role - its plan for combining the city and county governing boards. The city voted not to change the panel's mission.
Because the merger commission was created jointly by the city and county, it is not crystal clear what should happen when the two boards give it different orders.
The June 1993 resolution creating the commission says the body would cease to exist ``upon either governing board rescinding this resolution.'' But the county commissioners did not formally rescind the resolution; they voted to change it.
McRee determined that the county had effectively ended its participation in the original charter by changing its side of the agreement.
Elizabeth City Mayor H. Rick Gardner, a fervent supporter of the merger study, argued Monday night that because the panel had been jointly created, it would need to be jointly disbanded. Lawrence said Tuesday that also could be considered a legitimate argument.
But unless someone is willing to mount a legal challenge, Lawrence and McRee said, the commission can be considered dead.
Neither Gardner nor Elizabeth City Attorney John Hall could be reached for comment Tuesday, but Gardner all but accepted the end of the merger commission Monday night.
At least one city official, David P. Bosomworth, said he wasn't willing to throw in the towel on the commission until he heard the legal opinions firsthand and talked to merger commission members.
``I need some time to feel those folks out and see where we actually stand,'' Bosomworth said. ``I was just hoping we'd get the commission's report and then move on. But that doesn't seem like it's going to be the case.''
Bosomworth said he doubted the city and county would need the commission to study consolidation of services. But he said that consolidation possibilities for departments such as water, planning and zoning should not be dropped.
Hornthal said he would not serve on a commission whose only task would be to look at combining services. The city and county, Hornthal said, ``can take the framework that we have given them and go forward at any time they want to.''
Hornthal said Tuesday he was disappointed with the county commissioners' vote and with merger supporters who kept quiet throughout the process.
``I am dismayed that the countless people in this community . . . that have voiced to me either their support for the study or their support for merger, did not take the opportunity to come forward and make their sentiments known,'' Hornthal said. ``As far as I'm concerned, the people who do nothing get what they deserve.
``And I would say that it is for the electorate of this county to decide whether or not the county commissioners met their expectations of how county government is supposed to function last night.''
Hornthal said he did not ask for the chairmanship of the merger commission but served because he felt it was his civic duty as a lawyer. And he praised those who with him put in more than 1,000 hours to study how the city and county could combine for the benefit of local residents.
``I was proud to be asked, and I was very, very pleased to work with the people who served on that commission,'' Hornthal said.
Hornthal said he especially admired his vice chairman, R.L. ``Bobby'' Vaughan, who expressed similar sentiment for Hornthal Monday night. Vaughan also said he thought the merger commission was dead.
``I don't see how people on the commission can work with their hands tied behind them, standing on one foot,'' Vaughan said Monday. ``I'm disturbed that so many people made assumptions and drew conclusions without data.'' by CNB