Illegal Annexation 31
| At the last Lenoir City council meeting, right at the
end of the meeting, council member, Robin McNabb, requested to find out
how much Lenoir City has spent thus far on the annexation lawsuit
between the county and city over the city's two illegal annexations. It
was a very logical question given that the lawsuit has now been ongoing
for two years. McNabb's point was that the city could be looking at a
hefty bill already and even higher bill as time goes by. She just wanted
to know how much the bills were now rather than waiting until the
conclusion of the suit.
Aikens wasn't having any of that. He asked councilman Eddie Simpson, if he wanted to know how much the bill is now or to wait. Simpson said he'd prefer to wait. Same question from the mayor to council member, Jennifer Wampler. Wampler said she wanted to wait until the end too. Sure seems like an odd way of doing business. Of course, those two are going to do whatever Tony Aikens wants. But the good stuff was just getting started. mayor Aikens went on a rant about the lawsuit and came up with a brand new reason for the illegal annexations. According to Aikens, the former owners of one of the properties gave the city permission to annex the property back in 2007. He also said a judge signed off on it and even that a former county employee signed off on the illegal annexation. Of course, all this is pure hogwash. Not a word of any of that is true. But even if it were, a private property owner did not and can not give the city permission to violate state law. A judge can not and did not give the city permission to violate state law. A former county employee did not and can not give the city permission to violate state law. So there's that. Additionally, of all the hearings and court documents for the lawsuit, this defense has never come up. Of course, no lawyer with two grains of since would ever try to make such absurd arguments. In addition to that crazy story, Aikens also said one of the property owners, WNW, involved in the lawsuit has asked the city to de-annex his property. But inexplicably, Aikens apparently refuses to honor that request. There's only one person responsible for the illegal annexation lawsuit and the costs, is Lenoir City mayor Tony Aikens. He started it by allowing the annexations of two properties he knew were not legal. He alone bears the responsibility for all the headache and the hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars being spent on these illegal annexations. He could end it tomorrow by de-annexing both properties. But that would be an admission that he was wrong and he could never do that no matter how much it cost the tax payers. |
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3/3/25