Published: November 05, 2006 01:45 am      

Opinions on metro government are intense

Even during early stage of county’s research process

FAIRMONT — Although the surface has only been scratched thus far on the research process of establishing a metro form of government in Marion County, several citizens have already formed solid opinions on the idea.

“It’s so unconstitutional, it’s not funny,” said Fairmont resident Kim Robertson of the idea of consolidating the county’s unincorporated areas and Fairmont into one central governing body.

Robertson, who has been researching the idea on the Internet in her own time, was one of several citizens who spoke out about a possible government merger at a public hearing headed by the appointed Charter Review Committee on Monday evening.

At this hearing, the seven-member, non-political group received its first set of public comments on metro government.

Three months ago, the CRC was formed and charged with the task of researching government consolidation, writing a charter and making a recommendation either for or against the idea to city and county political bodies. Then, following a positive recommendation, the issue would go to a vote by the city and the county, then to the citizens to be approved by way of a super majority (55 percent).

In her research efforts, Robertson found that similar government consolidations have had negative effects across the country. Citing several Web sites, such as calltodecision.com and infowars.com, as some of her sources, Robertson said that merging government services is not only unconstitutional, but could also result in detrimental things like property seizure, taxation without representation and the control of people by executive orders.

Like Robertson, several of the other citizens who addressed members of the CRC last Monday were highly opposed to the metro government idea.

“I think 99.9 percent of the people outside of Fairmont are not in favor,” said Farmington resident Jack Talkington. “The people out here in the county don’t need someone from the city trying to run our business for us. We are doing fine without it.”

Although Talkington had no problems with the forum of the public meeting or the scope of the committee members, he said the use of public money for this study is wrong and believes the CRC should cease its efforts before spending money to study something that will not make it past county voters.

“I don’t think they should be using public money,” he said of the CRC. “I think they should quit right now. They are fighting a dead soldier. It’s not going to pass, and they are just wasting public money.”

Another combatant of metro government, Daniels resident Gene Stalnaker, said there has a been a problem with the idea since the initial approval of a recently sanctioned state bill creating the option for local government consolidation at the city and county levels.

“The bill is terrible. Nobody knows what it says,” he said. “They shouldn’t have passed such a bill to waste citizens’ time and money. ”

Citing several examples of other bills that challenge the legality of consolidating government services through the sanction of this recent one as leverage, Stalnaker said the City of Fairmont should simply develop its own charter to become a part of the county as the alternative to consolidating the entire area.

Although Stalnaker is not a Marion County resident, he said he traveled from southern West Virginia on Monday to attend the public hearing and address the CRC because he sees a local government merger as having a negative domino effect on the rest of the state.

“This is the kick-off,” he said. “This is what everybody is waiting for here, and what happens here will happen everywhere.”

Like Stalnaker, Reader resident Denzil Sloan does not live in Marion County. However, he opted to attend Monday’s meeting in Fairmont because he also sees a similar merger happening in his own region if it passes locally. As the chairman of the Constitutional Party of West Virginia, Sloan also recently helped the organization pass an ordinance in opposition to this idea.

“I’m hoping the people in Marion County reject it,” he said. “If it fails there, then it will be more difficult to implement it around the state.”

Presently, Sloan lives in an unincorporated area outside of the city and worries that government consolidation welcomes the unwanted enforcement of city codes and regulations on everything from building fences to establishing business licenses.

“My biggest concern with metro government is that it is going to mean all people in rural, suburban county areas are going to have to be subject to all these regulations,” he said. “One of the benefits to living outside of town is you don’t have to be bothered with that.”

As far as the scope of the hearing, Sloan said the CRC members seemed open minded to the process. However, he said that he does not expect them to come back with a negative recommendation after spending so much money on the research process.

Presently, the CRC has a working $41,500 budget in place of which $20,000 has been supplied from the state for the completion of a study at West Virginia University addressing the economic and geographic details of developing a metro form of government. The remainder will presumably come from the city and the county.

“I assume the committee members are doing all right, but they are not going to spend the money and say they are not going to do it. They are not going to blow all that money,” said Sloan. “If I were on the committee, I would stop the thing. I wouldn’t spend the money because as far as I’m concerned, it’s wasting money.”

While these citizens expressed significant opposition to the government consolidation idea, not everyone who addressed the CRC at Monday’s hearing were against the concept.

Fairmont resident Ned Poe, who was one of these individuals, said that it is way too early in the research process for anyone to really form any solid opinions.

“I don’t see how people could be so against it or so in favor of it when there is not enough information out there,” he said. “The people who always speak are probably going to be those who are against it. I’m sure their minds are closed, and those people will always speak out. But there is another majority who is open and ready to listen.”

Poe also commended the efforts of the CRC members so far and said the first hearing helped to let people know who they are and where they are coming from.

“I think it was a real benefit to the fact that the committee members stood up and said they do not know all of these things,” he said of the hearing. “They seemed honest, sincere and open about what they did or did not know. They are not operating in secret. They were as open as they could be about the knowledge they had obtained to that stage.”

Poe added that he expects there will be much more information to distribute to the people at the next public hearing to be scheduled sometime in the next three months after the CRC really starts tackling the details of this research process.

“(The CRC) is going to have a whole different toolbox full of ideas they are going to present. And they will be able to speak with some authority and fact, and reaffirm what has been presented to us by the media by the next hearing,” he said. “I think they will take good note to research and answer the questions of the people.”

E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.