North Port responds to suit seeking referendum on contraction of the city limits

NORTH PORT – An attorney for North Port called a petition filed by a citizens group asking a judge to force the city to schedule a referendum on whether to contract the city limits an “improper collateral attack” on the City Commission's 2021 decision against a vote.

The request from the West Villagers Citizens for Responsible Government is currently before 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Danielle Brewer.

Attorney Elizbeth W. Neiberger of Bryant Miller and Olive – North Port's outside law firm for the case – called the request an end run around the established practice for such city board decisions. Instead, the request should be to send the matter back to the North Port City Commission to review its findings.

Neiberger wrote in her Aug. 7 court filing that's the precedent “under decades of Florida case law."

Judge Brewer heard arguments on the action filed by the West Villagers on July 3 but has not ruled.

The citizens are challenging the City Commission’s decision last fall that reaffirmed its April 29, 2021 denial of the group’s petition to contract the city’s western boundary.

Members of the West Villagers for Responsible Government, mostly made up of residents of Wellen Park, want North to Port de-annex more than 13,900 acres of the city west of the Myakka River because they were unhappy with the way the city was being run. The effort started in 2020.

What the North Port residents ask

Now the citizens are asking that the court compel North Port to place a referendum on contracting the city for a popular vote of all residents living west of the Myakka River.

On June 12, Brewer granted the West Villagers request and gave the city 30 days to respond. The city received an extension and filed its response Aug. 7.

The West Villagers, represented by Luke C. Lirot, argue that the city is required to place a city limits contraction ordinance on the ballot based on an Oct. 28, 2020 petition filed by the residents.

What the city of North Port argues

Neiberger argues that Florida case law has clearly determined that court-like or “quasi-judicial orders of local governments are exclusively reviewable" by the City Commission.

Neiberger also argued that the West Villagers failed to establish the three elements required for their request: a legal right for the request to be granted; that it is a ministerial act that the commission has a legal duty to perform; and that there is no other available remedy.”

The clear available remedy, she noted, is for the case to be sent back to the City Commission for review.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: North Port responds to latest resident effort to contract city limits