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ELKINS -- Elkins City Council will discuss in detail possible changes to the city charter during its regular meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
Council has been looking at proposed changes to the outdated city charter, which dates to 1901, and held an in-person Q&A session for the issue at the Phil Gainer Community Center in late August.
At the last City Council meeting, City Clerk Jessica Sutton discussed the efforts the city has made toward charter change to this point.
"To date, we've spent just over $10,000 on Mr. (Council's charter-change attorney Tim) Stranko, that's as of Oct. 1," Sutton said.
She noted that some speakers at the Q&A session objected to some of the proposed changes, so if council wants to proceed in making those changes they will have to be put to a public vote.
The voting could be done as part of the 2021 Elkins City Election, or it could be done as a special election.
City Treasurer Tracy Judy noted at last week's meeting that a special election would cost "between $10,000 and $11,000."
"The question to ask yourself is, 'What do you want to put out there for the public to vote on?'" Sutton told council members.
City Council is looking at three main categories of possible charter changes. The first category consists of updates to charter provisions that have been rendered obsolete by changes in state law and the evolution of the Elkins city government. These updates would simplify and modernize the charter without significantly affecting the form and functioning of the city government.
The second category will be possible changes to council size, elections, and representation. While Elkins uses strict ward-based representation and election processes, many other West Virginia cities have at least some "at-large" council members or have ward-based members face citywide election.
The third category includes possible changes to the structure of the city government. State law authorizes West Virginia cities to use one of five government structures, or plans. Under the current plan, council holds both governing and administrative authority and the mayor has almost no independent authority (i.e., what state code calls the Mayor-Council Plan). Other available plans assign administrative authority to either a mayor (i.e., Strong Mayor Plan) or a city manager (i.e., the Manager or Mayor-Manager plans).