"4. The county commission has several appointed boards..."
Note: The Pocahontas Times asked all county commission candidates to answer 6 questions, to be published one each week. Below is my response to this week's question.
"4. The county commission has several appointed boards. How involved should the commission be in the boards it appoints? How will you encourage more people to volunteer for these boards?"
Two boards specifically come to mind that serve as examples of how our county commission needs improving. These boards are the Public Service District (PSD) and the Farmland Protection Board (FPB).
The Public Service District is the board having authority over the controversial Snowshoe/Slatyfork sewer project. And with respect to this project, the PSD has historically demonstrated a lack of regard for public input and community involvement. Their track record is one of doing instead what the engineers, private interests, and lawyers have told them to do.
A summary of where this project stands is in order. The price tag to West Virginia taxpayers and Pocahontas County ratepayers is $17.5 million. The environmental and geologic evaluation to date has been sorely inadequate, effectively just checking off the "N/A" boxes for flood and catastrophic risks. Support and ownership of the problem by Snowshoe has been largely insolent. The actual need for a "regional" facility has never been adequately demonstrated nor supported by residents. In all, this project has shown itself to be little more than a Snowshoe bail-out and a vehicle by which everybody from Thrasher Engineering to attorneys and coordinators can jump on board pro bono, bypass a community-centric approach, and in the process put the Upper Elk River Watershed at great risk.
And let us not forget eminent domain. While it is good that this is no longer an issue, it remains obvious that many aspects still need addressed. Sadly, the PSD has simply plowed forward, signed every document asked of them, raised no real questions, defended no reason to pause and simply ask just what it is that we the public are getting into.
The Pocahontas County Commission is the superintendent of the boards it creates, and the PSD is no exception. The county commission should have stepped in two years ago, not two weeks ago. But they didn't. They are the guardians of Pocahontas County's fiscal affairs, and they didn't.
Recent events concerning the Farmland Protection Board are also instructive, yet for largely different reasons. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the funding of easements by the FPB is provided via real estate transfer taxes, not from county coffers per se, nor rate payers, nor state taxes. Neither private interests nor plan-pushing engineers are afoot. The FPB deals in a transaction of preservation, and does so with the landowner directly.
By all accounts, the conduct of the FPB and their cooperation with the county commission has been exemplary, their concern and outlook for the people and landowners involved has been admirable. The FPB's proceedings have been carried out with integrity and transparency, with a continued call for participation and guidance, and a generally active conversation. But the commission, by majority, has demonstrated that they will let their personal concerns outweigh due process when it mostly just feels like it. The personal concerns of commissioners certainly have a role to play in judgment and approach to nurturing complex negotiations. But that personal role shouldn't serve as a kind of veto power in stonewalling the honest, community-minded and well-executed operations of an appointed board. Yet this is just the kind of thing that is happening.
Two cases, two extremes, two good reasons to insist that our county commission revisit its reasons and motivations for the way it has chosen to be involved (or not) with its appointed boards.
More than anything, the county commission should encourage and desire ongoing conversation with its boards. It shouldn't be the business of the commission to try to micromanage its appointed boards, but it is definitely the responsibility of the commission to ensure that everybody is on the same page with the wishes of the community we serve.
Getting more people to volunteer for our boards is tough. There isn't any real financial reason to do so, and the responsibilities can take a lot of time and energy. But at the end of the day, one must keep hope that the concerned and willing souls of the community will rise up to the task. It is important that the commission makes open calls for volunteers when they are needed, and that the decision making process be sufficiently open as well. After all, it isn't in the best interest of the community for a commission to simply plant its agenda within its boards. We can and should do better than that.