Still not corrected

That it was made so late in the legislative session, without notice to leaders in Greensboro, and given final approval at 4:12 a.m. Wednesday, minutes before adjournment, shows again how some of our representatives in Raleigh prefer to operate.

Sen. Trudy Wade (R-Guilford) authored the Greensboro bill and pushed relentlessly for its passage, despite fierce opposition from city residents and council members. It eliminated at-large seats, increased the number of districts from five to eight, and denied the mayor a vote in most matters, except to break a tie.

When her bill stalled in the House, Wade attached it to another measure affecting the Trinity City Council. After initially losing two votes in the House, the Trinity-Greensboro bill returned to the floor after arms were twisted in a Republican caucus. All Guilford County representatives except John Faircloth of High Point voted against it on the final vote, but it passed anyway.

Besides its other bad points, it contained an incredibly offensive provision. Greensboro would never be allowed to “alter or amend the form of government for the city.” This power is granted to every other city in North Carolina, although the legislature can override it in certain instances — just not forever.

Greensboro sued in federal court. On July 23. U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles granted an injunction, stopping implementation of the changes until a trial is held, probably next year.

“It appears on the current record that the new statute deprives Greensboro voters, alone among municipal voters in the State, of the right to change the City’s municipal government by referendum and otherwise treats the City of Greensboro and its voters differently from all other municipalities and municipal voters, without a rational basis,” the judge wrote in her order.

The technical correction removed that provision. The statute now says Greensboro may alter its form of government after the 2020 census. If it chose to do that, the changes imposed by the legislature might only apply for a few years.

The legislative retreat may give the scheme a better chance of withstanding the court challenge. Although there are other legal arguments against it, the least defensible change is now gone.

The worst offense is political. The state legislature shouldn’t tell cities and counties how to govern themselves, denying them any input and not allowing a referendum. Only when this plan ran into legal trouble did legislators make a last-minute correction And even in doing so, they tried to avoid drawing public attention to their actions.

It would have been better if they’d “corrected” HB 263 out of existence. The court should do that yet.

http://www.greensboro.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/our-opinion-still-not-corrected/article_37dce09b-33ce-5dfc-b0f9-0bf0c4201416.html