(A News and Sentinel Op-Ed - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

The Parkersburg City Council regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 24, wasn’t entirely contentious and unpleasant. Council did vote 7-1 (with only District 3 Councilman Roger Brown voting “no” and District 6 Councilman Mike Reynolds absent) to reinstate open public forum, wherein members of the public in attendance can speak for up to three minutes on any subject of their choosing, not just a subject on the meeting agenda. The resolution also included creation of a Council forum that gives Councilpersons a chance to respond to the public and be heard.

Council also voted to execute a lease agreement between the City of Parkersburg and Duke Bikes, LLC, to operate a bicycle ride-share kiosk at Woofter Memorial Plaza downtown. This is a nice idea for the walking and biking path on the river side of the floodwall and across downtown Parkersburg and, presumably, throughout the city. The last place where I saw something like this was in Atlanta, GA, where bikes and scooters you pay through an app to use get a tremendous amount of use.

Then came the portion of the meeting for consideration of the final or only reading of two ordinances, items three and four on the agenda: An ordinance to approve a Recycling Program Agreement between the City of Parkersburg and Rumpke of Ohio, Inc, and directing the Mayor to execute the agreement on behalf of the City (final reading); and an ordinance amending and reenacting Article 955 of the Charter of the City of Parkersburg (only reading).

Numerous speakers (myself included) spoke to the fact that amending Article 955 of the City Charter was premature. A petition is pending as I write that, if it receives at least 2,763 verified valid signatures as of Friday, Feb. 27 at 4:30pm, will give Council the option to repeal ordinance No. O-1775 wherein Council in January approved a contract with Waste Management of West Virginia, Inc, to collect garbage for the City of Parkersburg. If Council refuses to repeal, the question will then become a ballot issue to be decided by the voters of Parkersburg (assuming there are no successful challenges to the validity of the petition effort under the Charter, as alluded to previously by City Attorney Blaine Myers).

Assuming the petition is successful and the repeal of the Waste Management ordinance is placed on the ballot, I have no doubt whatsoever that the people of Parkersburg will vote for its repeal. At that time, City Council will have to vote to amend Article 955, once more removing the language from January and inserting alternative language. The City has 20 days, per Charter, to verify and validate the signatures on the petition. Waste Management will not be prepared in that timeframe to execute the contract and begin collecting Parkersburg’s trash.

Councilman Chris Rexroad from District 7 pointed this out, but the Mayor and numerous other Councilpersons decided that didn’t matter. Article 955 just had to be amended then and there with the language from January. Why the rush? Because the Mayor and those Councilpersons were anxious to strike language from the Charter holding the City accountable for trash collection, even if the contract with Waste Management is nullified by the people. The Mayor pointed out that the Sanitation Division of the Public Works Department does not have employees to continue collecting trash and that workers in other city departments are being pulled over to do so (contract workers and even incarcerated inmates have been pulled for trash collection as well, as I understand it).

Every time the issue of sanitation has been raised with this city’s government, we’ve been given these excuses about staffing issues. Whose fault are these issues? If one of our local businesses can’t maintain staffing to do business, who gets the blame there? Republicans like Mayor Joyce and the majority of City Council love to say government should be run like a business (an idiotic premise), but don’t seem to want to accept accountability for staffing issues in sanitation.

As I said in my remarks to Council Tuesday, poor management, poor compensation and lack of respect for these incredibly essential workers is what has led us to the collapse of city-run sanitation. Those who caused these problems should be responsible for fixing them and keeping sanitation services with the city. Instead, they’re trying to pass the buck by contracting the services out while maintaining administration and billing.

Now, residents of Parkersburg are stuck paying charges that increase annually for more restricted services and are faced with the closure of our fantastic local recycling facility. I think it’s wonderful that there is this newer, state-of-the-art facility in the Columbus area for Rumpke to haul recyclables to for processing — and I understand that even recyclables processed locally are bundled and sold out of state — but why not put and keep locals to work processing our recycling at our great existing facility with convenient drop-off bins provided by the Wood County Solid Waste Authority?

Not only that, but why go to all the trouble to make recycling a pay-to-play enterprise where people who choose to recycle have to pay more for the privilege? The Mayor may think recycling is just a feel good, “ideological” nicety, but recycling is a critical part of the management of our waste streams and there should be full community buy-in.

This city government is failing and unresponsive in numerous ways. We must rectify that in 2028.