EMINENT DOMAIN - WYO.

From: Ldgoodman
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 4:20 PM
Subject: House concurs w/ Senate w/o a conference!! HB 124 headed for Gov's signature!!!

Yahoo!!! Yesterday, instead of going to a conference, the House concurred with the Senate language in HB 124. It's now on its way to the Governor's desk for his signature --- which he has said he will gladly deliver!!! (I'll let you know when the signing ceremony will be!) Take a moment and congratulate yourselves and this team of property owners you are a part of!! The odds were against any meaningful reform to Eminent Domain, and yet in spite of the tremendous effort by the Industry Coalition to minimize the impact of this bill, the Legislature showed thoughtful leadership and support for substantive reform to our eminent domain laws. While we didn't address the very constitutional ability for a private entity to take another private property, we did come a long ways to improving the process for property owners when a taking occurs. Thank you for consistently sending your emails to legislators, working in your communities over the last year to educate your colleagues and fellow citizens, educating me about what's happening on your lands and in your towns; traveling to share your testimony with the legislators over the last year, and making sure your legislators consistently heard from you!! Job well done! Upon the Governor's signature, we will now have the following new provisions to protect our private property rights:
1. Notice by public entities when private land is seriously considered for a project and no less that 2 years before construction is completed (language offered by Wyoming Assoc. of Municipalities).
2. Good faith negotiations that include a 3 part process (initial offer, counter-offer, AND response by condemnor to the counter-offer)
3. The ability to negotiate for termed rights-of-way, similar to those allowed on federal and state lands;
4. Just compensation that can include information gathered from comparable sales for other like partial takings; (what your neighbor was paid, or what was paid for comparable easements on on similar lands, etc); and some increased ability to broaden compensation for urban condemned property owners;
5. Reimbursement of our legal fees if we have to bring a suit and it is found that the condemnor failed to negotiate in good faith, failed to plan a project in the greatest public good at the least private injury, or failed to show that the condemned property was necessary for the project we had asked instead for jury trials, but believe attorney fees are a good compromise).

Many folks have asked me about the "Coalition" and how their efforts impacted reform. They provided the new statutory language for reclamation, they supported improving good faith negotiations, they provided the language to limit the transfer between public and private entities of property condemned "for public purposes", but opposed applying the same limitations for the stricter "public use"; and they supported lifting a cap on reimbursable expenses for condemned urban property owners. Also because of their efforts, we lost:
* Rep. Brown's language that allowed property owners to charge condemnors for access for activities prior to condemnation (we had that going into the session);
* Rep. Shepperson, Wallis and Hallinan's amendment to limit the priority of condemning and using private land over public land for projects that provide a public benefit;
* The ability to hold onto and continue to lobby for provisions that were originally proposed by the Legislative Services Office to the Joint Agriculture Committee. Once deleted by the Coalition in October, we never were able to get back to the following issues, given the effort it took to get and hold the other provisions!!:
* specific language allowing negotiation of annual fees, (now you will just have to negotiate for that under the "good faith negotiation provisions" and force the condemnor to explain, in writing which you can take to court, why an annual fee is inappropriate);
* a prohibition against takings by private entities to minimize their cost, streamline their permitting and ease their convenience; and
* language to ensure NO property owner is financially harmed by a condemnation for public use projects (instead, they supported lifting a cap to increase the flexibility of public agencies to reimburse more of the expenses caused a property owner by condemnation.)
* jury trials

Please take a moment and thank all the legislators one last time for their efforts to strengthen private property rights in Wyoming. President John Schiffer and Senate Majority Leader John Hines deserve an extra thanks for their guidance and support throughout this past year and during this session. While there were differing levels of support by members throughout the process, as indicated by their votes on the amendments, all Legislators except two [Senators Geis and Jennings] eventually voted for final passage of HB 124. (Recall some members switched their Aye votes at the end to position themselves to be on the Conference Committee, but they are really some of our staunchest supporters of private property rights.) Let's just thank them all for their leadership and support for our private property rights....