The Town Council for the City of Grantsville met on Monday, March 4th, 2024 for their regularly scheduled meeting. Under citizens concerns, resident Gaylen Duskey stated that he had gotten a water bill for 17,000 gallons in usage. The meter is currently showing a leak and he requested the City’s help on location. Mayor Robert Petrovsky agreed to send staff out the following day to see if the leak could be located.
Resident Teresa Overton addressed the Town Council regarding smoking that has been happening in front of the City Building. She asked the council if they were aware of the Clean Indoor Air Regulations adopted by 31 of the 55 Counties in West Virginia for which Calhoun is listed as one such County. In that regulation it prohibits smoking within 15 feet of of the entrance of a public building. Teresa’s mother, who suffers from COPD, was forced to walk out into the street to avoid smokers in front of the City office. The Mayor agreed that they would take care of the matter.
Crystal Mersh invited the Town Council to join the 1982 Foundation at their May 9th, 2024 gathering of people from surrounding counties who will tour the Avalon Campus and receive information on how the funding came into place for the multiple business campus. The event will take place at 4 p.m.
Mrs. Mersh also asked the council if they discussed, at any point during the month, the financial statements of the City which would allow them to have a clear understanding of the financial status of the Town in conjunction with their budget.
Council woman Emily Collins stated that they received a financial statement in their meeting packets but that it had not been made available to the public. There was some confusion with the Mayor and council as to whether or not this was available when Mrs. Mersh had requested all financials for the city. She was given a copy of a general ledger but no profit and loss statement or month financial statement.
Regarding the appointment of Emily (Robinson) Collins, the City Attorney, John Williams read verbatim the correspondence sent to the Town of Grantsville with his firms findings. This reading can be seen on the Facebook Live feed of the meeting on the Ridgeview News site.
Williams firm was hired by the Town of Grantsville to give their legal opinion on the alleged illegal appointment of Emily (Robinson) Collins to the Town Council. In a complaint filed by Crystal Mersh, the Town Council had met on December 30th, 2023 for a work session and had appeared to have voted at that meeting to appoint Emily to the Town Council to replace the vacant seat of William Villers. That work session had not been advertised, as would have been required for a Town Council meeting of any kind where action was being taken. In addition it was also cited that the Monday, January 2nd, 2024 regular council meeting had illegally appointed and sworn in Emily Collins when the agenda had only a swearing in of the Councilwoman, no mention of a vote being taken.
According to Attorney Williams, the act was within the legal jurisdiction of the Town because it would fall under the appointment of a council member being discussed. At the January 2nd meeting, a vote was taken to appoint Emily Robinson Collins with three council members voting for her and 1 abstaining. Emily Robinson Collins was sworn in as the newest council member.
A second question was raised as to the legality of Emily Collins appointment when it was discovered that she was not registered as a legal voter for the Town of Grantsville in the office of the Calhoun County Clerk when she was appointed. Attorney Williams determined that this did not matter because of the language stating the council-member had to be running for election, not being appointed.
Williams concluded that the open meeting act did not give the public access to every single meeting of the city and that an appointment of a council-member was not an election and did not violate the law requiring a council member to be registered to vote, only that they had to reside within the city limits, which Mrs. Collins did.
Attorney Williams then excused himself from the meeting and the Mayor returned to the next item on the agenda.
Crystal Mersh asked the Mayor if they were going to take action on what the Attorney had said, at which point the council members determined that action should be taken. Mrs. Mersh ask the council to follow the law in the future with regard to open meetings and the Mayor responded on their behalf saying, “I think all these council members have been through the wringer in the last several weeks, extra caution will be taken care moving forward, which is a good thing.”
Retired Florida Attorney, Larry Justham, who practiced law in Florida for 44 years and served as the City Attorney for Fort Myers, questioned Attorney Williams findings on multiple points, citing that the Attorney had left out pertinent language to the case and ignored other matters of the law. Justham suggested that Williams had stated incorrectly that there was a difference between an appointment of a council member and an election. “If the legislature intended the code to apply to only elections they would not have said event or activity,”
It was at this point in the meeting that Ridgeview News left to cover the School bus accident and was no longer at the city council meeting. Following my exit it is understood that the council voted to accept their attorney’s recommendation.
A topic of discussion after Ridgeview’s departure was the current rate increase on City Water. The second reading of the suggested rate increase of 60% for both the retail and wholesale rates was supposed to occur, but it was said that the Mayor made a decision to forgo the actual reading. The retail rate would apply to the customer’s in Grantsville that buy directly from the City. The wholesale rates would apply to Mt. Zion PSD and Pleasant Hill PSD who buy water from Grantsville to resell to their own customer base.
If 25% of the Customers file a petition with the PSC, the PSC will investigate if the rate increase is justified and act according.
*Jurisdiction of the Commission may be triggered by receipt of a petition signed by not less than 25 % of the customers served by a non-locally rate regulated municipally operated utility.
For more information click here: http://www.psc.state.wv.us/complaints/ConsumerComplaintProcedures.htm
I’m curious, what did the attorney charge to drive to and from Grantsville with his associate (it was not said whether or not she too was an attorney or a para-legal or clerical) to do nothing more than read his report to the room? The council asked no questions and made no comments for the attorney to answer and it was announced before he began his reading that there would be no questions entertained. So….he read his report verbatim. Nothing else. Would it not have been more economical for the report to have been emailed and copies provided so everyone could have read it themselves? What does it cost for an attorney and associate to drive from and return to Charleston after hours?