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Big Issues Confront Town Council

Lack of leadership has been the big problem in County Clay. Often the people attracted to elected service are the very scoundrels you don't want in office. We have a few that are truly trying to help us out but the emphasis should be on "we have a few".
Clear thinking is a big attribute for leadership. Something else is more important.
Keeping a handle on the details, the finances, and following up on the fine print, that's priority one. It's easy to let things slide, to not sit down and actually read those financial sheets handed out during each public meeting. When the crap surfaces and the elected, appointed, leaders have egg on their faces, it's too late. Their only answer is to raise rates.
With that being said, Clay Town Council called a Special Meeting to elected a replacement for resigned Council person, Jack Brown. That meeting was to commence at 5:30 in Town Hall, AKA WaWa Plant.
The Mel Gibson Look Alike showed up for the meeting 20 minutes early. Low and behold, Council, the Mayor and Recorder, were already in a meeting, not a special meeting but rather a meeting of the minds with their Auditor. Not sure how long the meeting had been going on but we picked up some concerning issues during our time there.
Here's a few of the nuggets we overheard.
Turns out the Log Factory operation ended last year $54,000 in the red. State Code requires town budgets to operate and end each year in the black. $54,000 is a bunch of loot and something that should have been caught by a thinking Council, Mayor, and Recorder earlier in the fiscal year, before getting so deeply in the hole.
During many Council meetings, financials are read by the Mayor so everyone can hear the numbers. That's good. On many occasions, the sewer operation (Log Factory as we named it) is in the ditch. Not once did any elected official say something like, Hold it folks!, Let's stop right here and get a handle on the mess!!.
Not once did we hear that or anything raising a red flag.
Now that they are in so deep, how can the problem be repaired? From the Auditor, it's time to seek a rate increase.
   Readers, get out the Crisco, it's comin!
Here's something never before mentioned in public. Not a peep.
   The Auditor told the group that they needed a standardized, across the board, wawa shut off policy. What's she talking about? Turns out everybody else is paying their wawa bills except, the Clay Fire Dept. Auditor: "You need a consistent shut off policy"
   Are other towns, place, in the state allowing fire departments to continue wawa service without paying a bill. The Auditor artfully said, "This is a unique situation"
   During discussion, it came to light, the previous Mayor (Jason Hubbard) told the fire department, you have to pay for wawa used. One issue wih the free wawa is, it's not just used to fill up fire trucks. According to those around the conference table, firemen frequently was their personal vehicles at the fire house.
When the previous Mayor made the mandate, behind the scene, the Clay Fire Dept got all peed off big time. Sounds like, now a days, the FD is not even paying a token amount for wawa used.
The Auditor was very firm with the elected folks, you have to talk to the West Virginia Public Service Commission about this problem, "It has to be worked out.... Non payment is not an option."
Are you paying your wawa bill? How about when a disconnect notice arrives in your mailbox.. do you pay it poste haste?   Business, non profit, other govt agency, seems like, what's good for the goose is.....
There were several more issues brought up by the Auditor lady but we were in shock and couldn't write everything down quick enough.
See what had happened. After keeping public record and responsibilities away from the public, those just mentioned two issues are now a mess. That's the vile part of secrecy in a government operation. When something does surface, the stink is always worse than had they handled the topic early on.

   So much for that unannounced meeting. Now for the Special Meeting
   Council person Jack Brown got his shorts all bunched up after Council refused to immediately hire an employee for the WaWa Plant. Brown didn't want the person to even submit a resume, application or be interviewed.
   The person is Dwana Murphy, a previous employee and Recorder, that was fired from her day job by Council a few years back.
When Council refused his demand and instead, voted to advertise for the positions and do interviews, Brown turned in his resignation. Poof Gone !
   It's tough to find anyone willing to sit on Council. The low pay is a big part of the problem but there's another bigger problem. A good elected leader has to take time and actually look at the fine print and react to problems at first light.   For this reporter, often, it appears, elected officials show up for a meeting unprepared and only there to collect their pay checks. They have had elected officials not show up for meetings month after month and not even bother to particpate via a phone call.
For the replacement, some one suggested a retired Council person (and one time Mayor), Jeff Krauklis. Mayor Shamblin apprised, Jason Hubbard may be available to serve.
   With Council person Joyce Gibson saying there's no reason to wait, and Rene Moore saying, she has no problem with Hubbard on the job, the suggestion came, how about the other people that ran for office but lost, maybe those people may still have an interest?
In the end, no decision was made. Instead, the hunt is on for anybody else that may be interested in holding public office. The actual vote will come during the next regular meeting of Town Council.
NOTE: replacing an elected official is NOT like hiring an employee. Instead, Council will interview in public and then vote in public. Why? Because they are actually conducting an election. No secret ballots are allowed either.
   And finally, a couple other mentions.
   Down at the old CDC (now CSCS) operation on Main Street, seems logs are backing up in their building. The problem is with the Town's sewer lines. Council agreed, they are responsible for the stinky goo and will fix the problem. That fix includes tearing up all the new black top on Main Street.
   For the last couple of meetings, Council has discussed installing a high dollar quarter machine to dispense wawa for haulers. Turns out, that $.79 per 100 gallon rate, that's different from what the WV PSC allows for the Town of Clay. IF any changes are made, they have to go thru the rate increase / change process.
   Council is considering spending 10's of thousands of dollars on a dispensing machine instead of just prosecuting those that are stealing the wet stuff late at night.   With a working security camera system capturing images of the thieves, seems like a few prosecutions would take care of the problem.

AW