MORGANTOWN — The individual organizing an effort to recall all seven members of Morgantown City Council spoke before the body during Tuesday’s regular meeting.
“We, the concerned citizens of Morgantown, are asking for your immediate resignation. We ask that you save the city the time and the money and walk away with your heads held high,” Todd Stainbrook said. “If you choose not to resign, we will have our signatures and you will have a chance to defend yourselves.”
Stainbrook cited lingering issues between city hall and Morgantown’s fire and police departments as some of the issues he believes are being mishandled.
Sherri Lowther, a realtor in the city, said homelessness and infrastructure problems are making Morgantown a tough sell in explaining her support for the recall effort.
“I see it. I’ve been selling for 25 years. I was born and raised in Morgantown and right now, I’m appalled by what we look like. I’m going to do whatever I can do to get Morgantown back to what we were, because we were a great city, and we are not right now,” she said.
Stainbrook, who ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate in the city’s 2019 7th Ward council race and lost a bid for a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 2020, is in the process of collecting signatures.
In order to trigger a recall election, a total of 3,849 signatures — 20% of the city’s 19,246 registered voters in the 2021 municipal election — will need to be collected and verified. That 2021 election saw 1,519 voters (7.89%) go to the polls.
Stainbrook said he’s collected about 200 signatures since Friday, but noted he’s one of nine people participating in the petition effort, and therefore unaware of the total number.
Councilor Bill Kawecki said he’s hopeful city residents won’t simply accept the “fictitious allegations” being presented in an effort to undo the city election.
“Some people are looking for issues to promote their own activities, unfortunately, and ignoring all the good things that have been occurring,” Kawecki said. “As a city we have our problems, but I think we have the same problems everybody else has. Sometimes it’s magnified in that we seem to be the gathering place for all these various activities. But I think that’s what has attracted people to this area and has made this a great community in the past that continues to move forward.”
Jenny Selin, who was once again tapped to be the city’s mayor for the coming year, said information being presented about the cancellation of the WVU Homecoming Parade is not true, and that the MPD will be a part of the police presence in and around Milan Puskar Stadium this fall.
Both have been among talking points surrounding staffing issues faced by the city’s police department.
“I’m just wanting to make sure that when we’re having public discourse and people are disgruntled and unhappy, that we make sure we’re accurate,” Selin said. “And that we figure out ways to work together.”
In other news, the public pushback against firearms retailer Big Daddy Guns continued.
The Florida-based company plans to open a location in The Deck — the new development at 1050 University Ave.
Jodi Hollingshead, organizer of Protect Morgantown, cited shootings across the country over the holiday weekend.
“If Big Daddy Guns is allowed to open in The Deck in downtown Morgantown, Morgantown is next,” she said, adding, “We are prepared to make it next to impossible for Big Daddy Guns to operate business if and when they are allowed to open.”
Andrew Boston pointed out the divisive political marketing used by the brand, noting his home is about a five-minute walk to the location.
“We’re not getting a grocery store or a Mexican restaurant or a hardware store or any of the essential services and businesses missing from downtown. We’re getting a gun store,” he said.
Seven-year-old River had another suggestion.
“Instead, I want an ice cream shop, because I think a lot more people like ice cream than guns,” he said.
