Dispute over PILOT could use direction

It should go without saying (but probably doesn’t), always choose the harder right over an easier wrong.
Even if the choice is contrary to your own ego, gain or interest. Because that’s the kind of choice that makes people fit to lead.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to reach wholesale agreement with people to compromise with or defend them, either.
Though we strive to report on both sides of issues, sometimes it doesn’t clear anything up, especially when both sides continue to mistrust each other.
Take the recent dispute between the Monongalia County Commission and the state chapter of the Sierra Club.
In response to questioning by the Sierra Club about the County Commission’s negotiations with Longview Power on a new payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement, commissioner’s responded with questions of their own for environmentalists.
Following the Sierra Club’s dismay about those negotiations and suspect allegations about environmentalists’ use of funds from a settlement over pollution, both sides remain in separate corners.
We generally subscribe to the concept that conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional. It’s obvious both sides need to meet in person and share financial records with each other.
Yes, that would include figures in the new PILOT and the environmentalists’ ledger on those settlement funds.
The Sierra Club is asking the commission to be open with its meetings with the power plant representatives.
Well, it should be equally as open and not just direct people to a website where they may find what they’re looking for, but barring being a CPA, many people may not understand what they are looking for.
Both sides need to clear the air with the public and settle this issue once and for all and not fight it out through emails, news releases or posturing.
It’s not complicated. It’s not fancy. It’s just a fact that a lot of such dilemmas could be fixed easily enough, if only we got past the politics.
The best thing any leader can do is to have sufficient faith in his or her power to exercise wisdom, restraint and diplomacy, rather than threats, suspicions, bluster or unrealistic demands and curt rebuffs.
The second best thing is to make sure that you don’t end up simply thinking that there can only be a right side and a wrong side.
We as a society — as residents of Monongalia County and West Virginia — are at our best when we see ourselves in one another.
Not when we approach every dispute as just another case of us vs. them.
Why can’t a non-voting representative from an environmentalist group sit in on these PILOT negotiations?
Or a non-voting member of the commission be named to the environmentalists’ board that approves grants from those settlement funds?
If that cannot work, look for other ways to build trust in this process.
Ultimately, the best way to do that is to ensure both sides participate in it.