PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — A group of Parkersburg residents is pushing for broad changes to their city’s governmental structure in the wake of an affair involving Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell and Parkersburg Finance Director Ashley Flowers.
“What the affair did is basically open the eyes and open the door to other things that were going on behind the scenes as far as money goes and how money is spent (in Parkersburg),” said Craig Roberts, a resident of Parkersburg.
He claims Parkersburg’s books, which have been audited, do not reflect what’s happening “behind the scenes.”
“We’re done with the affair. That’s a personal thing. What we want to talk about now is we want to talk about what kind of checks and balances need to go in place that the citizens want to make sure that things like this don’t happen again,” Roberts said.
Roberts and Christi Middleton Walcutt were organizing a Monday night meeting at Parkersburg City Park for residents interested in pushing for a new kind of government in Parkersburg.
The ultimate goal, Roberts said, is to change the city’s charter and move away from the current strong mayor-weaker council system.
“We want to turn it around to where it’s a strong council-weaker mayor so there are more checks and balances across the board and we have more people who are directly involved with the citizens of Parkersburg” he said.
“We want them to speak for us, rather than being afraid of big government.”
The citizen effort comes as controversy swirls around Parkersburg City Hall. Flowers has publicly admitted to and apologized for the affair with Newell. Newell has denied any involvement in illegal financial activities.
A petition, calling for Newell’s removal from office, is still circulating.
Roberts said 140 confirmed signatures had been collected as of Monday, beyond the threshold needed for the state Supreme Court appointment of a three-judge panel to consider removal.
“It’s not political at all. They’re trying to turn it into a political fight, but that’s not what this is about,” Roberts said of the petition drive and charter change attempt. “This is about listening to the citizens of Parkersburg.”
Monday night’s meeting was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at Parkersburg City Park.