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Santer, 4 Parkersburg City Council members attend final meeting

Live-streaming resolution approved

By Evan Bevins 5 min read

PARKERSBURG -- At the final scheduled Parkersburg City Council meeting of 2020, the last of the term for city officials elected in 2016, Mayor Tom Joyce reflected on the accomplishments of the last four years and bid farewell to longtime City Attorney Joe Santer.

Joyce said annual spending on the floodwall, streets and stormwater projects have increased significantly since he and the nine council members took office in January 2017. A great deal of effort has gone into parks, he said, including the addition of a $1.3 million splash pad in 2019 at the City Park pool which caused attendance there to increase dramatically.

But the mayor said the most important step taken for Parkersburg, long term, was the 2017 vote to close the police and fire pension plans to new hires, which allowed the city to change the way it paid into the system. That required hiking payments in the present to avoid ever-increasing requirements in the future. To afford the new amounts, council also voted to double police fees and raise fire fees 95 percent.

"I think that this council should be commended for taking on that very difficult" issue, Joyce said.

The fire pension was 21.6 percent funded in the spring of 2017, while the police pension was 17.8 percent funded, he said. As of July of this year, those amounts were 31.7 percent and 30.3 percent, respectively.

"As of now, our pensions are scheduled to be fully funded by 2050," Joyce said, adding that was not projected under the previous arrangement until about 2075.

It was the last meeting for Santer, who has served as city attorney under three mayors since 1998 and will officially retire Jan. 5. He previously said he did not want to start the new term and not complete it.

"Working with Joe Santer for two terms on City Council and the last four years as mayor has been a true privilege," Joyce said. "He was certainly never afraid to tell me when I was wrong."

City officials and people attending the meeting gave Santer a standing ovation.

"Thank you very much," Santer said.

Tuesday was also the last meeting for Councilmen Eric Barber and Jeff Fox, as well as Councilman Dave McCrady, who participated by phone, and Council Vice President John Reed, who was unable to call in due to some technical issues.

With Council President Mike Reynolds and Reed not in attendance, the remaining members voted 5-1 to have Fox run the meeting. Councilman Bob Mercer was also absent, and Fox, with a laugh, cast the lone dissenting vote.

During the council forum portion of the meeting, Fox thanked his constituents for giving him the chance to serve.

"I hope that the next council is successful and does great things for our city," he said.

Barber said he also was grateful for the four years he spent on council.

"In many ways, it was the opportunity of a lifetime," he said.

After serving time in prison for a felony conviction of breaking and entering in 1999 and pleading no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct after being arrested by city police in the first year of his term, Barber said one of his proudest achievements was being endorsed in the 2020 election by the local Fraternal Order of Police organization, as well as the International Association of Firefighters chapter.

"I do say I'm sorry for the couple of times I let the citizens down," said Barber, whose social media posts -- including one that appeared to reference abortion during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh -- sometimes drew criticism from residents of Parkersburg and beyond. He said he hoped he made up for it through actions like supporting first responders.

Council passed multiple resolutions in 6-0 votes, including one requiring council meetings once again be live-streamed by the city.

Barber said there had been some discussion over whether the next council should make that decision. But he said he spoke with his successor, Councilwoman-elect Wendy Tuck, who endorsed the move.

"She encouraged me to vote yes tonight, and as a result, I will be voting yes," he said.

Tuck has been live-streaming the meetings on her phone in recent months, an activity previously performed often by Parkersburg residents Jennifer Bryant and Kim van Rijn. The practice was started by the group Fairness Parkersburg during debate over a proposed nondiscrimination ordinance in 2017.

Bryant and van Rijn both spoke in favor of the resolution Tuesday.

"I think any sunlight we shed on government meetings or proceedings is just to the benefit of our democracy and our citizens," van Rijn said.

Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl noted Tuesday's meeting was streamed live on YouTube. Finance Director Eric Jiles said after the meeting the streams were not being saved.

Council also voted 6-0 to approve a budget revision to allocate $704,981 the city is receiving from the settlement of a paving antitrust lawsuit filed by the West Virginia Attorney General's office to the user fee special revenue fund for future street rehabilitation.

Resolutions approving an agreement for a $145,265 state recycling assistance grant, revising the budget to reflect those funds and accepting a $2,970 state grant for the 2021 Taste of Parkersburg event also passed unanimously. So did the final readings of ordinances adopting the city's 2030 comprehensive plan update and rezoning portions of 1503 Park Ave. from residential to business.

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