Morgantown City Council not serving residents with vote

We’re certain members of Morgantown City Council opposed to allowing residents to have a say in changing the municipal election cycle to coincide with the county-wide schedule truly believe they are doing it for the right reasons.
In truth, outside of wasting your tax dollars every two years by sticking to an unnecessary election calendar, all these members are doing is serving themselves.
Consider: Under the current election schedule, which sees half of City Council up for re-election every other April in odd years, voter turnout is abysmal. In April 2023, fewer than 1,700 city residents — not even 13% of Morgantown’s total registered voters — cast a ballot.
In 2021, the number of residents who cast a ballot for city council was 1,517, while in 2019, it was 1,642.
Yet members of council supporting the current election cycle say they believe it best serves the city’s long-term interests to have fewer people voting. That’s the wrong position to take — particularly when having fewer people visiting the polls each election cycle simply increases the likelihood incumbents will be re-elected.
This, from longtime Councilman Bill Kawecki: “I’ve heard these arguments, pro and con, for the longest time. I understand that (holding off-year elections) costs us money, but my feeling is that I believe what we do in this city is important enough for people to take an interest in, and that should be the driver bringing them to vote.
“I don’t see where moving it over to compete with everything else that’s going on at that time, you know, just kind of joining the circus … Is that advantageous to the city at all? I can’t support this one.”
Joining Kawecki in opposing the measure were Mayor Joe Abu-Ghannam, Deputy Mayor Jenny Selin and Councilwoman Louise Michael.
What these four fail to realize is, by their vote, they have effectively shut city residents out of deciding this matter. The ordinance rejected Tuesday called for allowing residents to vote on a charter change to move the election cycle to coincide with the county elections. Their vote took away residents’ voice in this process. That’s unacceptable.
As we’ve noted previously in this space, local municipalities that switched their election schedule to match the county’s have seen voter participation soar. In Star City, voter turnout tripled; in Westover, during the first election held on the county schedule, 800 residents cast a ballot, up from about 100 in the prior off-year election.
“This is us saying, ‘Let’s put it in the hands of the people and let them decide,’” said Councilwoman Danielle Trumble. “I trust the people to make the best choice on that. This is us putting it on the ballot and saying, ‘Would you like us to hold our standalone election, or would you prefer us to move it.’ I think people should have a say in the way their government is run.”
Yes, they should. Members of council are simply the people’s part-time representatives — as is described by the city itself — “as the legislative body in establishing policy and law” in Morgantown. When a matter comes up that requires a full vote of the constituents to change the charter, they must always be afforded that option.
None of this even touches on city leaders wasting $40,000 every two years to hold an election. While that may be seen by some on council as a trivial sum in the city’s $45 million budget, it’s not.
We should expect better of our elected leaders.