Norfolk facing a formal complaint about annexation

Norfolk, Neb. -- On October 13th, a complaint was filed with the Madison County District Court against the city of Norfolk's annexation, a plan that was approved earlier in October.

The plaintiffs are Leon "Pete" and Portia Becker whose residence was annexed as part of Norfolk's annexation plan. According to the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, George Moyer Jr., the complaint is focusing on two separate statute violations. Moyer claims that the city of Norfolk did not give 10 working days notice of the meeting before the planning commission and the public hearing. He said he is hoping that the court will find the annexation ordinance void.

"We are claiming in the lawsuit that in a couple of ways they failed to follow the statute," Moyer said. "there is a statute that requires them to give...ten working days notice of the meeting first of all before the planning commission, and the meeting secondly before the public hearing and the city only gave about seven days notice of the planning commission meeting and about eight days notice of the public hearing. It has to be working days, you can't just take the calendar out and count ten days and say 'okay we're going to put the hearing on this day' you have to count working days."

Moyer also claims the second violation is not telling residents when and what city services would be serviced to them as well as how much they would cost residents. 

"We think their description was not, again, in accord with the statue," Moyer said. "Now of course they did a plan that they got an engineer to do in 2017, which they brought up to date in 2021, but we argue that doesn't meet the requirements of the statute. We're not trying to stand in the way of progress here. We just want the statute to be followed."

News Channel Nebraska reached out to the Norfolk's City Attorney Danielle Myers-Noelle for comment via email. Myers-Noelle issued the following statement:

"We don't find this challenge to have merit. We're confident that this annexation will be upheld and that the city will be able to show, once again, that such was accomplished in a legal and fair manner." 

Bryan Meismer, a district judge of the 6th Judicial District, is presiding over the case. Moyer says Meismer will determine the date of the hearing after reviewing the briefs of both the defendants and of the plaintiffs.