Weston officials continue squabble over finances
By JOHN WICKLINE, Staff WriterA discussion between a Jane Lew business owner and the Weston City Council involving the setting up of internal financial controls was interrupted by a former city manager demanding to know the reasons of why she was asked to appear at Monday's meeting.
Former City Manager John Williams questioned why Divine Consulting owner Gina Starett was invited to speak about her services, which sparked an extremely heated exchange among Williams, City Attorney Tracey Weber III and other members of the council.
"Are you here to help Weston, or are you here to help yourself?" retorted Councilman Jim Anderson.
Williams, who has often appeared at City Council meetings and been highly critical of the group's actions, said he believed the city should have advertised for consulting services prior to inviting Starett to the meeting.
But Weber then jumped into the fray.
"You don't have any clue as to what you are talking about," Weber said, asking Williams to recite state bidding laws before threatening to have Williams removed by police officers. "What do you have to offer the city? You have been to every meeting, and you haven't said anything."
Starett had been contacted last week by City Manager Frank Robinette to help the city establish better financial measures as it tries to regain control of its purse strings. The city owes about $260,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and about $60,000 to the West Virginia tax department. A meeting to discuss the situation is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Municipal Building with the IRS agents. The federal agency froze nearly $153,000 in assets last month, and the City Council did not learned about the move until recently when the mayor stopped at the bank to fill out paperwork for a credit card. Finance Manager Crystal Hixson was given the opportunity to resign during an emergency session of council May 8.
"The things (Starett) mentioned are the things we failed in our audits," Mayor Julia Spelsberg said. "I'm hoping within the next 10 days that we can get a handle on our finances."
The two debts do not include thousands of dollars in missed contributions to both the firefighters and police pension funds.
"We're not even touching that yet," the mayor said.
Councilman Jim Oldaker lamented that more people from outside of Weston are stepping in to help the town than what is coming from its residents. Shinnston's city manager has traveled to town to help with payroll duties, and a forensic auditor from Morgantown has offered his services for free.
"It's a shame (a former) city manager comes in and acts like this," added Councilman Terry Cogar.
City Council is also entertaining thoughts of retaining the services of Robinette, whose contract is not being renewed after it expires June 30.
Spelsberg said his accounting background could come in handy in this transition, and that Robinette has been trying to "put things in order."
"That's still up in the air," she said.
The city is also looking at revamping the 6-year-old charter because leaders believe the town is too small to be run by a city manager. The issue would have to be put before the voters, and a special election is not financially feasible. The next regularly scheduled election is June 2011.
