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Bad Reviews

Some residents upset by ‘worthless’ city event

The reviews offered by residents as they left the city of Elkins’ “1 Percent Sales Tax Public Event” Monday evening were not good.

“This was absolutely worthless,” one man said.

“What a joke,” another man muttered.

“The city expects us to fall for this?” a woman asked.

Some residents were upset because they thought the event was going to give them a chance to speak about the proposed 1 percent sales tax, which will be voted on during its second reading during tonight’s Elkins City Council meeting at 7 p.m. at City Hall. We encourage all responsible citizens of Elkins to attend the meeting.

After all, a city official, in announcing Monday’s event, had described it as a “public forum.”

Instead of being greeted by a city official explaining the sales tax plan on Monday, however, residents were pointed toward a series of poster boards on easels.

Instead of being allowed to speak, the residents were handed color-coded stickers as they entered, and asked to place them on boards listing options for how the sales tax revenue might be spent by the city.

Instead of being allowed to offer written comments, they were given post-it notes on which they could scribble ideas and stick them to another board.

Some residents were unhappy that the event was held in the lobby of the Elkins-Randolph County YMCA, where there are few chairs. The informational boards were arranged in a semi-circle in the lobby; residents saw the first board as they entered the lobby, and as they read the information and options they moved around the room until the last board led them back out into the hallway.

“Hurry up and get out” is how one woman described the vibe of the event. “We’re not worth their time listening to.”

Though Monday’s event seemed to anger some residents, it was apparently designed as an attempt to soothe hard feelings. Public comment speakers at recent city council meetings — including several downtown business owners — have demanded city officials announce what the sales tax revenue would be used for before they approve the new law.

Many people attending Monday’s event assumed their input would be taken into account when council decides to designate the areas in which the funding will be spent.

The ironic part is that, according to one city official, council has no intention of designating or earmarking how the revenue will be spent. Not before the third and final vote, or ever.

“I don’t think the intention is to say specifically what we’re going to spend it on,” City Clerk Jessica Sutton told The Inter-Mountain during Monday’s event. “I think they’ll take the information that’s gathered from this event, and from any other feedback that they get, into the making of decisions in the future. But there’s no intention to say this is specifically what we’re going to spend the money on.”

Sutton acknowledged that other nearby cities, including Bridgeport and Clarksburg, have earmarked — and announced to the public — what the 1 percent sales tax revenue will be used for. However, she said, since the state doesn’t require Elkins to designate how the money will be spent, city council has no plans to do that.

The state doesn’t “require you to designate what the money’s going to go to. So our intention is just to put it in the general (fund) and not designate … (but) make decisions as they come up,” Sutton said. “Things come up, council changes, the citizenry, the makeup changes, so priorities are going to change. So we’re hesitant to say we’re only going to spend it on this one thing.”

If Elkins City Council has no intention of designating how the sales tax revenue will be spent, why were they handing out stickers to residents Monday and telling them to pick their favorite options?

Several residents said shuffling around the YMCA lobby Monday, putting stickers on poster boards, made them feel “stupid.”

We think “stupid” is not the correct term to use. But the city’s public event was as bad of an idea as the 1 percent sales tax, and the public event was nothing more than smoke and mirrors hoping to obtain public support of the tax.

There is no question the city has many expenses that keep rising. But the city needs to be operated like a business. Officials should look for ways to cut expenses, and not add additional taxes on people trying to do business within the city limits of Elkins.

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