PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — A Parkersburg City Council member says embattled Mayor Bob Newell and city finance director Ashley Flowers should resign.
Speaking on MetroNews “Talkline” Thursday, Kim Coram said the mayor has been rendered ineffective.
“I do not believe he can effectively lead any more,” Coram said. “That’s hard for me to say, when I was the one trying to lead the charge to have term limits removed so the citizens could bring him back.”
Coram said she long admired Newell’s talents in steering the city and had been in his corner, but that changed when his alleged affair with Flowers led to misdealings.
“It’s very difficult when you hear recordings of the mayor and Ashley talking about lying to city council and lying to the citizens and covering up,” she said. “It was very difficult doing the budget with the mayor knowing these things are going on. It’s very difficult based on sloppiness and lack of consistency in our financial records. It’s very difficult to have faith in Ashley.”
Pushing for a state audit of the city’s financial records, Coram said the city has been plagued by general sloppiness or genuine fraud, either of which makes tracking money almost impossible.
“The disrespect he has shown council and the citizens,” she said. “During the budget hearings I saw a $175,000 donation in the police fund and when I asked where that came from he told me it was none of my business. It was a donation.”
Coram said she has seen first-hand what the money management problems have done to city business owners.
She received notice from the city her rent had not been paid on her business lease agreement in a city managed building. Coram said as a member of council she had access to the budget line items and researched to find her deposits had been made, but she was still being told she was in arrears.
Council members have tried to rise above the salacious details that surround the controversy, Coram said. The alleged affair between the mayor and Flowers has led the discussion, but she said council is seeking only the truth, transparency in records, and a way to put the city back on solid financial footing.
“We’re doing a systematic review of all the financial laws and we’re finding a lot of them are not being complied with,” Coram said. “We’re working with the administration to bring them all back into play.”
For Coram personally the mayor’s behavior has left her, a longtime supporter, with a new perspective: “Me personally, not as a council person, I’m embarrassed. He embarrasses me as a leader.”