SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — Though he’s not surprised by the ruling of a three-judge panel to dismiss a petition of removal against two Nicholas County Commissioners, lead petitioner Tim Clifford doesn’t think the fight is over.
“We kind of expected something of this nature,” he said. “We had a good run. We won a Supreme Court decision and had a neutral Circuit Court judge render a decision in our favor.”
The petition for removal was filed against all three Nicholas County Commissioners in 2013: Ken Altizer, John Miller, and Dr. Yancy Short. The dispute stems from the creation of a County Administrator position without putting the issue to a county-wide vote.
The panel, consisting of Judge Philip Gaujot, Judge John Hatcher, and Judge Timothy Sweeney, dismissed the petition and ruled that a new petitioner, Kenneth Culp, could not amend the petition base on broad allegations of “systemic financial mismanagement.”
In their ruling, they left the door open for Culp to file a separate petition. Mr. Culp told MetroNews that he hasn’t made a final decision yet.
Clifford believes that Culp will likely file a separate petition, but will likely not sign on for this one.
“As it stands right now, I can’t see going on with it,” he said.
Dr. Short chose not to run for re-election and is no longer involved in the case. John Miller’s term expires this year. Ken Altizer’s term expires in 2018.
According to Clifford, they filed this petition in response to the Commissioner’s appeal of the original ruling and refusal to resign.
“When Judge Alsop filed his motion, it was over and done,” he said. “Of course we went and asked them to resign and pay back the money they had paid to the County Administrator. And we knew they weren’t going to do that.”
In the 35-page ruling, the panel chose not to remove Miller and Altizer from their positions. They agreed with the argument made by the Commissioners that they had simply misinterpreted a statute of state code in good faith after consulting with legal counsel. They instead suggested that it was the responsibility of the voters, not their court, to decide.
Clifford said that ruling was ironic because the voters of Nicholas County weren’t given the choice when it came to creating a County Administrator position.
“I want to emphasize that the County Commissioners never put that in mind when they illegally hired Roger Beverage and created the position for him,” he said.