Marysville City Council had a discussion at a meeting earlier this week about what should and shouldn’t warrant an expedited legislative process.
Council held the first reading of an ordinance that would have had the city abandon a drainage easement on the Hickory Run Development near Southard Road. A property owner in the area asked the city to abandon an easement that occupies “sixty or seventy percent of (his) property,” according to City Engineer Jeremy Hoyt.
Hoyt noted the property owner has indicated there might be a prospective buyer of the land who intends on building a house there.
After councilperson Nevin Taylor moved to add an emergency clause to waive the 30-day waiting period after readings are finished, councilperson Mark Reams asked if that was necessary.
“Doesn’t that have to be for public reason?” he asked. “I just don’t see the public reason.”
Taylor replied the city hasn’t needed the easement for several years, and likely shouldn’t have had it in the first place.
“We should never have restricted that land to start with,” he said. “It wasn’t us sitting here that did that, there was only two of us sitting at this table when that occurred. And we were probably in the wrong, and I’m looking to correct that issue.”
City Law Director Tim Aslaner said he agreed there’s a time and place to use an emergency clause.
“It has to be to preserve the immediate health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Marysville,” he said.
He said that definition is broad and can encompass a variety of ordinances.
Reams said speeding up a legislative process should be “for the benefits of the residents of Marysville.” Allowing the emergency clause for a single private resident, he argued, is not proper procedure.
“There’s not really a reason for the City of Marysville to do this now,” he said. “It’s been this way for 15 years, if it’s this way for an extra 30 days, no big deal.”
Council member Alan Seymour agreed, saying council should follow through with the easement abandonment, but going forward, council should be more careful with its use of the emergency clause.
“I would agree that not everything should be an emergency, and we should be judicious, and I appreciate what Mark is saying there,” she said. “Because I do think we do emergency clauses quite often.”
The emergency clause ended up failing 4-3.