MORGANTOWN — The Monongalia County Commission plans to meet with a group representing the parks and trails excess levy on Sept. 18 to lay out the “rules of engagement” after concerns were raised regarding a potential vote on which groups will be included when the levy goes back before voters.
During the most recent county commission meeting, Commissioner Sean Sikora said he received two “disturbing” phone calls from city officials asking about the origin of voting rules that were distributed within the group.
Sikora later confirmed the calls were from Rachel Fetty and Jenny Selin, both of whom serve on Morgantown City Council as well as the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners.
The concern is whether a member of the commission — in this case Commission President Tom Bloom — is too involved in the process given the commissioners ultimately vote on which levies get ballot access.
This concern was also raised in 2016 by Sikora’s predecessor, Eldon Callen.
The five-year parks and trails levy, passed by county voters in May 2016, will be back on the ballot in November 2020.
A working group comprised of the various entities receiving money from the levy — BOPARC, the three county parks, Mon River Trails Conservancy, Mountaineer United Soccer and the city of Westover — started organizing for the 2020 effort, along with the West Virginia Botanic Garden, which hopes to be included in 2020.
On Monday, an email was circulated to members of the group by J.R. Petsko, superintendent of Mason-Dixon Historical Park. Petsko is organizing the levy group.
In the email, Petsko talks about an Aug. 28 meeting during which members of the group would vote on who will be included in the upcoming levy call. He explained that “Per the directives I have been given,” the voting will be done by closed or secret ballot. It also explains that no member group can vote for themselves and the botanic garden will not vote as its not a returning member.
“I think the question was where did these rules come from and who made them? I have huge concerns about that,” Fetty said. “We were left thinking that someone in the commission office must have spoken to the chair of that commission telling them these rules had to be followed.”
Fetty said her concerns grew after Monday’s BOPARC meeting, during which BOPARC member William Hutchens said he feared the agency could be left out of the upcoming levy. During the meeting, Hutchens explained that he’d been in contact with a member of the commission.
Sikora said on the surface, Fetty’s concerns appear to be founded. He asked that the Aug. 28 meeting be postponed until the group could sit with the commission. The meeting was postponed.
“There’s the appearance that they’re either directly or indirectly getting direction from the commission and I certainly want to address that and make sure there’s clarity,” Sikora said.
Bloom chaired the parks and trails levy group the first time around. He said he reached out to Petsko a few weeks back about getting the process started and passed along the secret ballot rule, which had been suggested to him by a member of the group.
“I feel badly for J.R. because he was doing what I requested to set this thing in motion,” Bloom said, explaining that the vote in 2016 was not done in secret.
“At the time, we didn’t know what we were doing really … This is a unique situation because this group is not an established organization like the volunteer fire departments or Mountain Line or the library. It was all new.”
Bloom said the secret ballot was intended to allow people to vote without feeling pressured one way or another.
A similar issue led to a dust up between Bloom and Callen in 2016 after Callen, then the commission president, accused Bloom of being biased in his handling of requests for ballot access for two levies — one tied to fairs and festivals and one for the botanic garden/youth baseball — due to his association with the parks and trails levy.
Callen actually nullified Bloom’s vote against ballot access for the botanic garden/youth baseball levy and demanded he abstain from the vote on the fairs and festivals levy. Both levies were ultimately denied by the voters.
Both the West Virginia Ethics Commission and auditor’s office were asked to look into the matter. Neither took any issue with Bloom’s actions.
“Sean is concerned, just like Eldon was, that it gives the appearance like we’re involved,” Bloom said, adding “I was completely cleared and they said the process was alright.”
Even so, Selin said she would like more transparency.
“It just seems like somehow in there the tone changed,” she said. “We’re just wanting to make sure that as this process moves along, that all the folks who were included in the levy last time are part of this process moving forward. I just want this to be an inclusive process.”
