Woman facing charge for interrupting Parkersburg URA meeting
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PARKERSBURG -- A Parkersburg woman was charged with a misdemeanor count of willful disruption of governmental processes after interrupting a meeting of Parkersburg City Council's Urban Renewal Authority on Tuesday.
According to Wood County Magistrate Court records, Jessica Stark-Omogunloye, of 1209 Lynn St., Parkersburg, was arraigned after being arrested outside the Municipal Building following Tuesday's meeting, in which she refused to stop speaking or leave council chambers after being told to multiple times. She appeared to be speaking about constitutional rights and cited her freedom of speech when told to stop interrupting the meeting.
Eventually, Council President Sharon Kuhl called the Parkersburg Police Department and the authority, consisting of all nine council members, adjourned the meeting without taking action on an item they'd discussed in executive session. Stark-Omogunloye left council chambers after the adjournment but was questioned by police outside the Municipal Building and taken into custody.
Kuhl said Wednesday morning that she was upset the charge was only a misdemeanor because Stark-Omogunloye had made a threatening comment toward her. Later in the day, she said she had spoken to Police Chief Matthew Board about why a more serious charge had not been filed.
While Kuhl was calling police from council chambers, Stark-Omogunloye said what sounded like, "If you lock me up, I'm coming back after you," according to video footage posted by local media and on Facebook.
Board said Wednesday that information about a threatening statement was not conveyed to officers by dispatchers, just a disruption to the meeting. Based on that information, a charge such as intimidation of a public official did not fit the circumstances, he said.
Willful disruption of governmental processes "was the most fair and appropriate charge for the law that was broken," Board said.
Magistrate records show Stark-Omogunloye was released on a $500 personal recognizance bond, a condition of which is that she is not to return to a City Council meeting.
The disruption started as Kuhl and Councilman J.R. Carpenter disagreed over whether the activities of a recently formed URA subcommittee required public notice.
The subcommittee - consisting of Councilmen Mike Reynolds and Zach Stanley, City Planner Connor LaVelle and Assistant City Attorney Rob Tebay - recently visited some URA properties, including commercial and residential structures at 19th Street and Dudley Avenue. Reynolds and Stanley apparently discussed their assessment of the buildings in a closed, executive session dealing with that site.
Carpenter said the subcommittee meetings should have been announced publicly. Kuhl said because it did not involve a quorum, at least five members, of the authority, they did not.
City Attorney Blaine Myers attempted to answer Carpenter's question, but the meeting soon adjourned because of the disruption.
On Wednesday, Myers said West Virginia's open meetings law lists exceptions, one of which is "on-site inspection of any property or program," so the subcommittee's activity would not be considered a meeting.
"I don't believe they did anything improper," he said.
Council was discussing what to do with the buildings on the property, which include two residential structures and a commercial building with one tenant without a lease who has said they will be moving out. State open meeting law allows government entities to go into executive session for multiple reasons, including to discuss material that would "constitute an unwarranted invasion of an individual's privacy" or "matters involving or affecting the purchase, sale or lease of property."
Kuhl said the matter would be considered at the next Urban Renewal Authority meeting, a date for which has not been announced.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.