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ELKINS -- Several Elkins City Council members said they are against changing to a city manager-style of government at least until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic during this week's virtual council meeting.
Audio issues plagued the meeting, with one council member even suggesting city council should resume meeting in person and discontinue virtual meetings altogether.
Council heard from attorney Tim Stranko, who specializes in municipal law and was hired by the city in December, before beginning discussion. Stranko also spoke during the Aug. 6 meeting of council and this week reported back answers to several questions posed by council
Stranko provided council with the salaries of city managers from several cities that are close in size to Elkins.
Charles Town, with a population of 6,024, has a $5.7 million annual budget and pays a city manager a salary of $71,000; Hurricane has a population of 6,430 and a budget of $6 million and pays a city manager $85,000; Lewisburg has a population of 3,807, a budget of $7.1 million and pays $52,000 to a city manager; and Ranson has a population of 5,239, a budget of $7.8 million and pays a city manager $100,800.
Elkins has a population of 6,990 and a budget of $6.7 million. He said the numbers provided just include salary and not other benefits.
"A review of all West Virginia cities employing a city manager shows that these cities dedicate between 2% and 4% of annual revenue to the city manager function," according to information provided to council by Stranko. "The annual salary range of these employees is between $75K – $130K."
He said it was harder to find out information about the tenure of city managers. He said a dated report states that nationally, the tenure is about 6.9 years.
Stranko said the city can update the charter and separate the form of government.
"Given that we need to freshen the city charter and take out the archaic portions and make sure it works as well as it can for the citizens of Elkins," he said. "We've got to freshen the charter."
Elkins Mayor Van Broughton opened the floor up to council to discuss what they would like to see in a draft of the charter. Council member Karen Wilmoth, Fourth Ward, asked if the city could separate the issue of changing the style of government from updating the charter.
Stranko said the issues can be separated but it would take some research to see how it could be done.
"I wouldn't want to hold up or not deal with all the housekeeping-type things, if people do not agree with the other part of it," Wilmoth said.
Stranko said there are sections of the charter that are unrelated to the form of the government that need to be updated. He said the city could address those portions only.
Councilman Rob Chenoweth, First Ward, agreed with Wilmoth with segregating the city manager discussion and going forward with the other updates.
"I think there is some problems going forward with the city manager issues," he said. "Just given the current state of the city and the country and COVID-19 and the effect it is going to have with public discourse with respect to the issue."
He said the city manager issue is a city wide issue and not just a council issue. He said if there is a qualified objection to the proposal, it would have to be put on a ballot for a vote.
"I have a little bit of concern and am not comfortable going forward with the city manager just given the timing of it," Chenoweth said. "I think Mr. Stranko has done a great job getting us the theory of the city manager form of government and helping us understand how it works. I think we are still lacking on the practical aspects of the city manager."
Chenoweth said it would be good to have a sit-down with council members and the administrative officers to talk about what problems a city manager form of government would address. He also expressed concerns with the cost of the city manager. He said the city needs to determine how much it would cost to have a city manager before going forward.
Chenoweth said eliminating council positions would not save a lot of money because the salary for a councilman is only $7,200 per year.
"It is also concerning to me if we go from 10 council members down to five, in my opinion that is the city residents losing a representative and sort of taking power away from the city residents. We need to get a better handle on, is it going to be a reduction of council members, resurrecting the current city administrative officers or taking other actions. We need to hammer that out."
Chenoweth suggested tabling the city manager discussion and moving forward with the other charter updates until after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
Council member Linda Vest, Five Ward, asked what would happen with the other administrative positions if the city moved to a city manager-style government. Broughton said that was something for council to discuss further. Vest said she would also like to see the city manager discussion tabled until in-person meetings with the public can resume.
Broughton asked City Clerk Jessica Sutton if she had anything to add to the discussion.
"These can be separated but it will be the same process for anytime you decide to make a change to the charter," Sutton said. "If you proceed with all the other items and leave organization structure the same, it is still a change to the charter."
Sutton said there is quite a bit of public information currently being presented by the city, including articles and a survey that is still open. She said as of Thursday there were about 70 people who participated in the survey. She said there is a lot of information on the city website about the possible charter change.
She said she believes the public would have more input with passing an ordinance for charter changes as opposed to putting it out for a vote. She said residents would have public comment, a planned Q&A session and the survey.
"If you put it up for a vote it is a yes or no situation," she said. "The opportunity for the public to participate in what ultimately ends up in the charter, I think is much higher in the ordinance process than it is in the public vote."
She said discussions about moving to a city manager-style government has been ongoing in Elkins for at least 10 years.
"I would encourage you to keep it moving and continue to keep the resources and the attention that has been given to it so far in mind," Sutton told council members.
Stranko said he could prepare a draft that does not include changes to the organization of city government. He said two drafts could be presented to consider. Broughton agreed with preparing two drafts.
"I am strictly against changing the charter to have a city manager," Councilman Carman Metheny, Third Ward, said.
Broughton said there were two changes to the charter he would like to see. The first is that he would like term limits placed on elected officials, and for all the administrative officers to be contracted positions. He said of the five administrative officers -- operations manager, city clerk, city treasurer, police chief and fire chief -- only the clerk and treasure have contracts.
"I would like to see all five of our admin officers have a contract through the city," Broughton said.
Council member Marilynn Cuonzo, Fourth Ward, attempted to speak for several minutes during the discussion, but audio issues with the virtual platform, Zoom, made it impossible for those taking part in the meeting to understand what she was saying. Broughton eventually interrupted and informed Cuonzo she could not be understood.
During the committee reports portion of the meeting, Councilman David Parker, 5th Ward, also spoke for several minutes, but could not be understood due to audio difficulties.
At the end of the meeting, Councilman Charlie Friddle, Second Ward, expressed frustration with the virtual meetings.
"I would like to express my complete frustration with the platform we are using and the problems we are having (with) city council meeting and committee meetings," he said. "If we can't get this straightened out, then we just need to fold it up and quit meeting. This is not working so we've got to come up with a new system or we need to start meeting in person because we can't adequately do the business of the city if it is going to be like this."
Council began public deliberation on possible charter changes at its Aug. 6 meeting, after hearing a presentation from Stranko. The city is planning an in-person and virtual Q&A session about the charter-change with council. This session is tentatively planned for 5:30 p.m. on Sept.1 at the Phil Gainer Community Center.
The city also has a survey online for residents to give input. The link to the survey, along with links to the current charter, a charter-change FAQ, and other charter-related background materials, can be found at: www.bit.ly/ElkinsCharterUpdate. The survey will be available through at least Aug. 28.