MORGANTOWN — It appears as if Morgantown City Council will at least discuss moving the city’s standalone election in line with the county during a forthcoming committee of the whole meeting.
The issue was one of seven potential city charter changes moved forward for additional consideration during a 90-minute work session held prior to Tuesday’s regular council meeting.
As she has previously, Councilor Danielle Trumble said the city’s solo election was one of the top issues raised by voters during her most recent campaign.
Further, she added, the city may not have a choice in the matter much longer.
“I think that if this is not something we do voluntarily — like our three neighbors in the county have done or are in the process of doing — the state is going to force us to do this eventually,” she said. “They have tried for several years now, and luckily for us, they put in weird language here or there that eventually gets it thrown out. I think it’s inevitable that they are going to force us.”
Trumble said it would be advantageous for the city to make the move on its own and control the terms.
Councilor Dave Harshbarger, who along with Brian Butcher supported moving the matter forward for discussion, said he’s been back and forth on the topic, particularly now that only three or four council seats are up for election at a time.
“When we went to a staggered terms of four and three, I started to rethink about do we want to have a separate election for just four of us or three of us versus having it as part of the general or primary,” he said.
City Clerk Christine Wade said city elections typically cost about $40,000. Currently, the county does not charge cities to be on its ballot.
Star City and Westover have already done so to great success in terms of increased turnout. Granville will soon put that question before its residents as a ballot issue.
While the matter had the requisite three members needed to move it onto a committee of the whole agenda, support is not unanimous.
Mayor Joe Abu-Ghannam, Deputy Mayor Jenny Selin and Councilor Bill Kawecki all voiced concerns over a non-partisan city election getting swept away in the rancor of larger state and federal elections.
“I think a municipality should have its own elections at its own time and have its own time so that people can read about candidates in the newspaper and listen to candidates on the radio … without having to compete with everything else going on,” Selin said. “To me, it’s kind of like a form of self-respect or something; that we can be part of democracy and have our own elections.”
The city currently holds its standalone elections on the last Tuesday in April of odd-numbered years.
The city’s 2023 election involving four of the seven city council seats drew 1,697 voters. That’s 12.96% or roughly one-in-eight registered voters.
Charter changes can be adopted in two ways. They can be put on a ballot and supported by a simple majority of city voters, or they can be adopted by council ordinance, but only if there are no citizen objections. If an objection is filed, council can either put in on a ballot or drop the issue.
Other potential charter changes to be taken up for additional discussion include:
- Amending the city council candidate withdraw deadline. Currently, because the city relies on state code in this regard, the deadline to withdraw as a candidate actually falls before the city’s deadline to file as one. If the city were to move in line with the county, this matter would be largely moot or, at the very least, dependent on input from the county clerk.
- Amending the charter to state any three members of council can request a special meeting. Currently, it requires four. Special meetings can also be called by the mayor.
- Amending the charter to remove all gendered language.
- Adding language to the charter to indicate named positions within city administration — the city manager, the city clerk, etc. — must run their offices in a non-partisan manner.
- Remove language from the charter referring to the sale of public records. This does not include charging for copies of requested records, but language that may be interpreted to mean the actual sale of records for use by a third party.
- Adding clarification in the charter indicating when council expects reports from the city’s volunteer boards and commissions.
