Two Parkersburg City Council candidates off ballot, for now

Appointments expected for general election

PARKERSBURG -- Two Republicans appointed to run for Parkersburg City Council seats won't appear on the primary ballot but are expected to be in the race for the general election.

After the Parkersburg Republican Executive Committee did not select anyone to run by the Feb. 7 deadline, Wood County GOP Chairman Roger Conley appointed MonPower lineman Dell Pomeroy to run in District 5 and master Nissan mechanic Austin Richards in District 9.

But even though the city executive committee consists of county committee members who live in Parkersburg and the city committee does not currently have a chairman of its own, City Attorney Joe Santer said Conley, a Vienna resident, does not have the authority to fill vacancies on the municipal ballot.

"The chairman of the Parkersburg executive committee, whether it's Democratic or Republican, is a resident of the city," Santer said Wednesday. "Just like the chairman of the county is determined by the committee, the same would hold true."

Even if the county chairman was a resident of the city, he or she would not have the authority to make the appointment, Santer said, because the position would have been voted on by people who live outside the city.

Santer sent a letter to Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes, the county's chief election official, dated Feb. 14, saying the appointments were improper.

But that doesn't mean Pomeroy and Richards won't be able to run.

Feb. 11 was the cutoff for committee chairs to put names on the primary ballot. But committees have until Monday to do the same for the general election. Chairmen can make appointments until two days after that.

"That's still available to them, should they choose to do it," Santer said.

Conley on Wednesday declined to go into specifics about what the next step would be.

"I expect everything will be handled and in place by Monday," he said.

That apparently means the members of the city executive committee will meet in the next few days, either to appoint the candidates for the general election or, conceivably, to select a chairperson to make the appointments.

Richards said he still expects and plans to run. He said he would have liked for his name to be on the primary ballot, even though he was unopposed, to get it out before voters and gauge his support but called the situation "a minor hurdle we have to overcome."

Pomeroy did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

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