By Gary Lee Stuber
The regular meeting of the Clay County Commission was held on Dec. 9 at 10 a.m., and was relatively short and sweet. The commission took care of routine business first, approved minutes from the previous meeting, approved bills and a purchase order, approved budget revisions and waivers of final settlement, probated wills and last testaments, and fixed erroneous assessments before moving to other business.
The Commission heard a presentation from Skylar Watring and Jacob Lindroth of the West Virginia State Auditor’s office regarding OpenGov, a communications and reporting solution for every municipality in the state. The program is an extension of the state’s WVCheckbook.gov site launched by the State Auditor’s office to allow taxpayer transparency to see how their money was being spent. They now have this implemented in 50 of West Virginia’s counties and were inviting Clay County to participate.
Watring said, “This program will give every West Virginia municipality access to modern administrative software, which will greatly enhance their ability to operate effectively, make decisions, attract and retain a new generation of government workers, and dramatically enhance their ability to effectively communicate key data with citizens, while more easily achieving their communication objectives.” This is offered free from the State Auditor and they offered to help establish the program, train people in its implementation, and work out all the issues. The Commission agreed to look over the proposal and get back to them.
There was only one disagreement between Commissioners. It involved the new updated regulations of county towing rotation listing. Both local towing companies were present for the vote. Fran King and Tracy Snyder were in the audience. Fran objected to an out-of-county towing firm being called recently when she stated she should have gotten the call, all parties agreed that was wrong and would not happen in the future, but that was not what the fireworks were about. Commissioner Connie Kinder read a state statute that said all commissioners would be notified and be able to craft new regulations and cited that she was never notified when changes were to be made. When asked about what the changes were between the old regulations and the new ones, Commissioner David Schoolcraft answered, “They are radically different. The old regulation language was so out of date that they needed completely rewritten.”
Connie Kinder countered with, “I am just seeing this eight page document now, without your meeting the state requirement as I just read, and you want me to approve this today? I haven’t even had the chance to read them.” She added, “I may only be a commissioner for the rest of the month, but I won’t be treated like I am not part of this commission today.”
Both Schoolcraft and Commissioner Johnson voted yes on the measure and it passed. There were no objections from the audience on the floor. Tow business owners Fran King and Tracy Snyder began a fruitful conversation between them that moved eventually to the hall. It appears they are working out any misunderstandings between them and look to more adequately cover the county well in the future. The next Clay County Commission meeting will be held on Monday, Dec. 23, at 5 p.m.
