WHITE PLAINS – The special election set for Monday, November 9 to decide if 164 acres of land in the Town of Monroe will be merged into the Village of Kiryas Joel, will proceed as scheduled, a state Supreme Court justice ruled on Thursday.
If the vote does approve the annexation, Justice Francesca Connolly ruled the effective date of the annexation would be stayed until such time as all related lawsuits are resolved.
The judge wrote that, “As a general rule, ‘the process of enacting legislation by referendum or by direct legislative procedures will not be restraining by [a] court on the ground that the statue or other enactment that will ultimately emerge would be invalid,” Quoting case law, she said courts “will not intervene to stay an election absent ‘[e]xceptional and extraordinary circumstances of a public nature.”
But Connolly said if the vote does approve the annexation, the court “will stay the effective date of any such local law during the pendency of these proceedings.” While the injunction would be in place, “the subject territory shall remain unincorporated territory within the Town of Monroe and subject to its laws, regulations, and ordinances,” she wrote.
