The City of Parkersburg is in the midst of a bitter and unseemly soap opera that is dominating the headlines and coffee shop discussions.
Mayor Bob Newell is under fire for an alleged affair with the city finance director, Ashley Flowers. The Parkersburg News and Sentinel reports that the allegations have also raised questions about the city’s finances. “There are questions about potentially unethical, or even illegal, use of city funds, time and property plaguing the mayor’s office.”
Flowers has said she had a relationship with the mayor, who is married. “I want to sincerely apologize for my decision to have an affair with Bob Newell,” she said in a statement several weeks ago. “I want to put this behind me and concentrate on my beautiful twin girls first and foremost, and second on my job and career by continuing to work hard for the taxpayers.”
But a short time after that, Flowers was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment after allegedly leaving her 22-month-old daughters alone in her car while she was at a local shopping mall. Flowers has since been suspended from her job.
Mayor Newell hasn’t exactly denied the affair, but he did say yesterday on Metronews Talkline that his relationship with Flowers has been mischaracterized. “All I can say is it’s been exaggerated,” Newell told me. “I really don’t want to get much into it until we are before this panel with the evidence.”
The panel Newell referred to is a three-judge panel that will be appointed by the state Supreme Court to review allegations against the mayor once the court receives a petition from Parkersburg citizens with at least 25 valid signatures. Wood County Republican Party Chairman Rob Cornelius says they have at least 130 legal signatures and he expects the petition to be filed this week.
The petition reads that the mayor should be removed because he “has committed misconduct in office, malfeasance in office, neglected his duties as Mayor of Parkersburg, and is an ‘incompetent person’ as defined in West Virginia Code S6-6-7, his alleged actions including but not limited to gross immorality and the wasting and misappropriation of public funds.”
Cornelius says their case against Newell has more to do with alleged financial improprieties than the sex allegations. However, Newell says he’s confident he will be exonerated. “I don’t fear that three-judge panel or a grand jury,” he said. “What will come out is certainly there’s nothing criminal done, nothing unethical done, so I think people will see the relationship was very much exaggerated.”
Newell also contends the allegations have been cooked up by his long-time political foes, including one of his former opponents in the mayor’s race. All the drama has taken its toll on the city. The Parkersburg News and Sentinel opined a few weeks back, “It’s time for Newell and City Council to do some intense soul searching about what is best for the community they have vowed to serve. Confidence in city government—both on the part of the citizens of Parkersburg and those on the outside looking in—must be restored.”
The best way to accomplish that is to do what both Newell and his opponents advocate: the appointment of the three-judge panel to review evidence and issue findings. The sooner that can be accomplished, the sooner a sense of normalcy can return to Parkersburg city government.