Vienna City Council conducts executive session
Vienna resident and city council candidate Henry Sasyn said he thought bringing in manufacturing would encourage economic development in Vienna. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)
City Attorney Russell Skogstad explains state laws pertaining to public meetings during a special session of Vienna City Council Thursday evening. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)
Vienna resident and city council candidate Henry Sasyn said he thought bringing in manufacturing would encourage economic development in Vienna. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)
City Attorney Russell Skogstad explains state laws pertaining to public meetings during a special session of Vienna City Council Thursday evening. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)
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VIENNA -- Vienna City Council held an executive session regarding a real estate matter during a special session Thursday evening.
During the public forum, Vienna resident Brenda Powell asked the council for more transparency. She said she attended Wood County School Board of Education's special session Thursday and learned information about the Phase 1 of the due diligence study for the potential Vienna Elementary School site off Rosemar Road.
Powell also said the executive sessions are included on each agenda for the school board and the council should consider doing the same thing.
Henry Sasyn, another Vienna resident, who is also a city council candidate, said Wood County and Vienna's population is either flat or declining.
"You're hearing, 'they're bringing stuff in, they're bringing stuff in.' Yeah, but the population ain't supporting a lot of stuff that's going on," he said.
Sasyn said in order to revitalize the economy, the city and the region should bring in more manufacturing jobs. Sasyn also said economic development should be a group effort.
"It's gotta be a we effort, not an I effort," he said.
After the public forum, Mayor Randy Rapp asked City Attorney Russell Skogstad to explain how state codes apply to putting executive sessions on an agenda. Skogstad cited the West Virginia Ethics Commission as the source of his information.
"Any agenda item, I suppose, could be susceptible to an executive session. The ethics commission on the Open Meetings Act, they say 'may', you may put notice of this on your agendas that there may be an executive session. It's not a requirement," he said.
Rapp said the council should go into executive session due to a real estate matter. He invited Lindsey Piersol, executive director of the Wood County Economic Development Authority, to join them. The council voted unanimously to go into executive session at 6:14 p.m.
Council member Chris Mancuso said he spoke with the West Virginia Ethics Commission and told them he was employed with Pickering Associates and that it might be related to the subject discussed in executive session. Therefore, he wanted to recuse himself from discussions. Rapp agreed.
The council returned from executive session at 7:40 p.m. Rapp said the session was informational only. No decisions were made.
City Recorder Melissa Elam said that a new Facebook page had been created for Jackson Pool for people to follow. It's called "Jackson Pool" and the profile picture has an orange "J" on it. Elam said the page will be used to notify the public of updates throughout the summer season.
Kristen Hainkel can be reached at khainkel@newsandsentinel.com