MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Council wants more time and information before weighing in on the proposed changes recommended by the city’s Ward & Boundary Commission.
As reported, the commission has presented council with a map representing significant ward changes, one of which would place 3rd Ward Councilor Louise Michael’s home address in the 4th Ward.
Presented with three choices Tuesday — approve, disapprove or postpone — the body chose to postpone the issue until it meets on Nov. 6, the day after the general election.
An initial motion and second to disapprove the map was withdrawn after it was explained members voting in support of the motion would need to explain their reasoning for the meeting minutes.
The city’s charter mandates the volunteer commission review and, if needed, equalize the city’s wards “as nearly as practicable” every even-numbered year based on population and registered voter data.
The city has opted to focus its alignment efforts on registered voter counts.
Complicating matters is the fact that the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office purged 5,759 names — more than 25% of the city’s registered voters — between the 2021 and 2023 municipal elections as part of the statewide effort to update voter rolls.
So, when that new data was plugged into the ArcGIS software, the map that ultimately resulted looked wildly different than the ward map that currently exists.
By postponing the matter, councilors reasoned, the body would have access to finalized voter registration numbers (voter registration ends Oct. 15) and, potentially, city voter data from the Nov. 5 general election.
“I’m a little uncomfortable with the percent of our voters who have been purged. … If we were talking 5%, 10%, but we’re talking 25% or 30% of our city voters,” Councilor Dave Harshbarger said. “I would feel more comfortable going through a voting cycle with the general election and just see if something comes forward.”
If the new map were approved, Michael can serve out her term as council’s 3rd Ward representative but could not seek reelection in 2027. At that point, she would have to run in the 4th Ward, which would next be up in 2029.
Or, Michael could resign the 3rd Ward seat and run in the 4th Ward in the upcoming 2025 election. She’s said she’s not interested in that option.
Jenny Selin has represented the 4th Ward since 2007.
“My term ends when it ends and I can’t run again, so who’s representing my ward? It doesn’t make sense to me. You literally make me wait until 2029 if I do want to run. I don’t like that the option is being taken away from me. It’s not right,” Michael said. “I don’t think you guys would like that if they did that to you.”
Councilor Danielle Trumble, whose husband, John Trumble, is chair of the Ward & Boundary Commission, said the changes are based on the data and come with the unanimous support of the five-member commission backed up by the technical expertise of the city’s GIS office.
Trumble and Michael were on opposite sides of the contentious recent debate of the city’s camping ban ordinance, leading to speculation when the proposed map changes became public.
“I’ve not appreciated the implication that it was done on purpose, which I have heard. The data says what the data says. I’ve watched those five people on the commission really toil over this. They were distraught at times at the changes the data said had to be made,” Trumble said. “I don’t want to diminish any of the work or point fingers that anything was done with malice. They certainly did exactly what they are tasked by our charter to do.”
Council voted unanimously to postpone the matter.
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