MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Councilor Jenny Selin said Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis “has gone way out of line with his conduct” toward other agencies and asserts “I think we need to do something about that.”
Selin’s comments were in response to Brazaitis presenting an $8.5 million levy for placement on November’s ballot to the Monongalia County Commission for the purpose of building a new ice rink.
This occurred despite no support from Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, and the request followed Brazaitis’s colleagues on the City Council twice last week declining to send a levy to the voters.
Brazaitis claimed his presentation was not made in his capacity as deputy mayor, but as vice president of Learn to Skate for the Mason-Dixon Figure Skating Club and adviser to the WVU Figure Skating Club.
Selin, who also holds a BOPARC seat, accused Brazaitis of circumventing the council’s decision and perhaps jeopardizing other plans taking shape.
“No means no. Morgantown City Council acts as a body. That means that no one gets to put on another hat and thwart the will of council,” Selin said. “We told the deputy mayor no. Now it will be up to council as a whole to decide what to do about it.”
Selin said BOPARC is awaiting two ice rink designs — one using $2.5 million it will receive from an existing 2016 levy, and another more ambitious design that would keep the rink open year-round and add a second sheet of ice.
“So those designs are about to come back to the BOPARC board. Then we will have a fundable project that we can use multiple strategies to come up with how we would like to fund it,” she said. “I was floored that anyone would move something forward after being told it was not something we were ready for yet, if at all — that this was something we did not want to move forward on.”
Morgantown Mayor Bill Kawecki declined comment on what action, if any, council could take, but he believed that Brazaitis was acting “as an individual citizen representing another group.”
Asked if an elected member of council can choose when they do or don’t represent the city, Kawecki said “Council is wrestling with that right now.”
Asked if Brazaitis’ actions represent a violation of the city’s charter — specifically the provision on interference with administration — City Manager Paul Brake said that would be up to council.
Under section 2.05 (d), the charter states “Council shall act in all matters as a body, and it is contrary to the spirit of this section for any of its members to seek individually to influence the official acts of the Manager, or any other officer or employee …”
Kawecki and Brake conceded that if the levy presentation is found to be in order by the county commission, the deputy mayor’s individual action would result in both city administration and BOPARC leadership facing the prospect of pulling together a campaign in support of the levy or risking a defeat that could make future efforts more difficult.
“If there is a determination that Mr. Brazaitis is violating the charter, that needs to be determined by the council and then potentially through the courts if that becomes necessary,” Brake said.
Because some council members were unaware of Brazaitis’ intent to make a levy presentation, Brake said acting alone “is contrary to the spirit of the arrangement.”
“We discussed this before at the council level and that idea was turned down,” Brake said. “I know he wasn’t officially representing the council, but it’s kind of hard to separate yourself like that.”
After a heated exchange with Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom at Wednesday’s meeting, Brazaitis said Bloom is a “right-wing Republican” posing as a Democrat. He also said the local Democrat Party needs to be purged and replaced with “actual progressives.”
During a Thursday appearance on WAJR radio’s “Morgantown AM,” Brazaitis also questioned whether U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and Delegate John Williams are actually Democrats.
Kathleen Abate, chair of the county Democratic Committee, then issued a release stating: “No single Democrat defines what it means to be a Democrat. … The Democratic Party wholeheartedly endorses all the candidates who were elected by the people in the 2018 primaries.”
