From Staff Reports

Prominent Asheville conservative activist and leader Carl Mumpower said in a May 17 email to the Daily Planet that “ I won’t drop out (of the Republican Party) until they have successfully seized the water system. The lawsuit put that on hold.”

Mumpower, a former member of Asheville Council and vice mayor, had announced on April 26 that he would leave the GOP over what he termed “legislative larceny” of the Asheville water system.

His reference was to the legislature’s vote to transfer the assets of the city-controlled water system to the regional Mentropolitan Sewerage Authority.

Meanwhile, on May 10, Mumpower released a statement titled “Asheville Council Is Right to Take Legal Action Against Legislative Theft.”

He said City Council’s reasons for fighting the water seizure are “crystal clear.”

Further, Mumpower asserted, “My party’s Republican majority in Raleigh, under the local leadership of state Reps. Tim Moffitt, Nathan Ramsey and Chuck McGrady are a few days away from commandeering Asheville’s water system.

“Asheville’s City Council is to be commended for their decision to fight back with one of the few cards remaining in their deck.  Taking legal action merits support and enthusiasm by all citizens — especially those with a firm interest in fair play.”

Here are some of the “much-repeated misassumptions” that, he said, merit challenge:

• “This is a waste of money” — No, just the opposite.  Spending several hundred thousand dollars in the attempt to salvage a billion dollar plus asset is a smart investment. Surrender will result in a lifetime burden for city residents and taxpayers. 

 • “They haven’t cooperated” — When a stranger begins their relationship with you by kicking down your door and announcing their intention to rob you, cooperative potentials are dramatically impaired.  In view of the dollars involved, isolated use of imminent domain to seize the city water system, and unprincipled abuse of powers by the Republican majority in Raleigh - our elected officials should be passionately resistant and everything but cooperative.

• “Asheville deserves what they’re getting.” - City residents and neighbors with a conservative take on the issues have every right to resent and resist Asheville’s liberal propensity for special interests, spending other people’s money, social reengineering, and “anyway you like it” values.  In America, people of principle fight those misbehaviors with engagement, voting, active protest, and other responsible means.  Revenge politics whereby core principles are betrayed, truth is manipulated, and theft is validated represent power politics - not leadership.  It is not possible to get to good places through bad means.

• “The water is owned by everyone.” - No, it is not.  The majority of our state’s distributed water is managed and sold as a commodity through municipalities run by elected officials.  The much-ignored foundation for making Asheville a lone exception is found in Sullivan Acts II and III which were passed by an unprincipled abuse of powers by the then Democratic majority in Raleigh.  Asheville’s founders were smart enough to purchase the two watersheds that represent the heart of Asheville’s water system.