PARKERSBURG — More flexibility when hiring police officers, uniform court rules and the elimination of the personal property tax for businesses are among the topics Mid-Ohio Valley mayors hope the West Virginia Legislature takes up in its 2020 session, which begins next week.

Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce and Vienna Mayor Randy Rapp both want to see a change in the civil services rules that require cities of more than 10,000 residents to have three certified candidates before hiring one law enforcement officer.

“If they’ve made it through the system and you just don’t have three to pick, then we can’t pick,” Rapp said.

That wasn’t an issue the last time Vienna tested for officers in 2018, but it happened to Parkersburg twice that same year. Vienna Police Chief Mike Pifer said the number of applicants has declined in recent years, with 41 taking the test in 2018 compared to 97 when he joined the department in 1997.

Joyce favors lowering the requirement for certified candidates from three to two and allowing cities to pick from the full list of those candidates, not three per position. For example, with two vacancies, six candidates are required, but Joyce said the city should be able to fill both slots even if only three candidates are certified.

“Give us a list of all the certified people and we’ll hire however many we need,” he said.

To be certified, a candidate must pass the written exam, as well as physical and psychological evaluations and a background check, Pifer said.

Smaller cities don’t have to contend with the civil service requirements, but Spencer Mayor Terry Williams said that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to find officers. He’d like to see a jobs training program established to help recruit law enforcement officers, as well as an initiative to train people to fill the water and sewer plant operator jobs often done by individuals approaching retirement age.

“That’s economic development when you’ve got good jobs for good people,” Williams said. “We need people to stay in West Virginia.”

Joyce and Rapp want the Legislature to remove a hindrance for municipal courts when it comes to penalizing people who don’t pay fines or show up for proceedings. Magistrate courts can revoke an individual’s driver’s licenses in such cases, but there’s a 90-day waiting period for municipal courts to take the same action.

“We have right now dozens of people who just don’t come to court,” Joyce said, noting it impacts both traffic and code violations. “We’d like to speed that process up.”

Rapp supports the push to repeal West Virginia’s personal property tax on business inventory, machinery and equipment, as do Joyce, Williamstown Mayor Jean Ford and Ripley Mayor Carolyn Rader.

“West Virginia is penalized because Ohio and Pennsylvania don’t have that,” Rapp said. “We would make our area more attractive” to potential employers.

While there has long been interest in eliminating the tax, a major sticking point is the fact that it generates $100 million a year in tax revenue. While cities receive some of that, Rapp acknowledged counties and school systems would be hit harder. Recent proposals have included a gradual elimination of the tax.

“I know we have to come up with something else,” Ford said. “I think more business would come to West Virginia if we didn’t have that.”

Without a replacement source of funding, Williams said he can’t get behind the idea.

“I think it might have a bigger negative effect on school systems than it would on cities,” he said.

Slum and blight caused by dilapidated buildings are a concern for municipalities around the state. The West Virginia Municipal League supports the creation of a fund to help cities deal with those issues.

Rader said Ripley has recently formed a B.A.D. (Brownfield, Abandoned, Dilapidated) Building team with assistance from West Virginia University to address problem buildings, which can be an expensive process.

The presence of run-down buildings “says a whole lot to businesses and new residents coming to town,” Rader said. “We would love to see some concern expressed there.”

Mayor Alan Haught said Harrisville has faced those issues as well and he would welcome additional assistance.

“We’ve gradually taken care of a lot of it, but it takes years to do it,” he said.

A provision of the 2017 West Virginia Land Reuse Agency Authorization Act gives municipal land reuse agencies the ability to purchase properties at tax sales prior to the public if the property was condemned or has an assessed value of $25,000 or less. It’s due to sunset this year.

“I think it’s important that that provision remain in place,” Joyce said.

In addition, Joyce said the eligible properties should be expanded to include those on which a city has liens, that have been on a vacant property registry more than two years or have been sold in a tax sale previously. In addition, he favors raising the cap on valuation.

Parkersburg does not have a land reuse agency, but Joyce said it’s being considered. The changes he supports would shorten the timeframe for cities to rehabilitate or demolish problem properties and save taxpayer money as well, he said.

“It’s to help clean up slum and blight,” Joyce said.

Rader said she’d like the Legislature to consider ways to assist cities with infrastructure issues. She noted Ripley is incrementally increasing its sewer rates to meet the conditions of a West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection consent order requiring a $23 million sewer plant project to replace the city’s existing lagoon system. While it’s a needed improvement, it’s also an expensive prospect for a city of about 3,000 people.

“Small cities are going to die on the vine if we don’t get help on our infrastructure projects,” Rader said.

Rader said there may be room for improvement in the state’s complicated annexation process.

“I would love to compare it to other states that make annexation not so difficult,” she said.

Haught said he supports increasing penalties for acts of violence against utility workers in the field, for example, someone who has to shut off water service because a customer hasn’t paid their bill.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.