In latest Richwood drama, police escort Baber out of Council meeting

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Richwood City Council, always set for the first and third Thursdays of each month, hasn’t failed to be interesting in recent weeks.

“Richwood is gonna go down in the annals of West Virginia as being, once again, fascinating,” said Bob Henry Baber, the elected mayor who is on a paid administrative leave that he has been disputing.

The climax of the most recent meeting wasn’t an item on the agenda.

Baber was escorted out by the police.

This all started Sept. 22 when Council confronted Baber about documentation on his state-issued purchasing card and passed a motion placing him on leave. By Sept. 29, Baber contended the city charter doesn’t allow for administrative leave. On Oct. 6, Baber tried to lead a Council meeting and was rebuffed.

By comparison, Councilman Chuck Toussieng said today, the most recent meeting was low-drama.

“Fortunately, it was a lot more boring than the last one. We actually got work done this time,” Toussieng said.

This Thursday’s Council meeting had been moved to an upstairs room because the normal Council chamber is filled with the work of state auditors who are going over Richwood’s books for the past several years.

Baber had been out among the audience, watching the acceptance of prior meeting minutes, the financial statement, unfinished business and new business.

“I’m sitting in the audience with the people, who are 90 percent with me,” he said in a telephone conversation this morning. “Of course, I’m on quote unquote administrative leave, which does not actually exist.”

The head of a company set to demolish flood-damaged Richwood High School was addressing Council, trying to ensure moving forward on the job. That matter has been unresolved for weeks. Baber and Council members continue to explore whether the high school even needs to be demolished, asking if it could be re-purposed.

“I was out in the audience, and there were a number of audience interactions and questions with previous speakers prior to the demolition guy getting up and speaking to get the permit once again to tear down Richwood High School,” Baber said. “He said a bunch of lies about me.”

So Baber got to his feet.

“Bob stood up and started to reply,” Toussieng said. “We kind of let him start, but you could tell it was probably… Once it started to look like it was going to just be an argument, City Council is not the place to adjudicate that kind of stuff.”

Town Recorder Chris Drennen, who is filling the mayor’s duties, spoke up to say it was not the proper time for personal discussions, reported Beckley’s Register-Herald newspaper, which staffed the Council meeting.

“You’re not going to stop me from talking right now,” Baber said.

That’s when the police officer stepped up and asked Baber to leave.

“I stood up just to refute a  little bit of what he was saying, got about 5 words out of my mouth and then the police came over and escorted me out,” Baber said today.

Baber said he went out to the parking lot.

“They released me into the wild,” he said today. “I haven’t been in an orange jumpsuit since 1971 and if I’m going to be in an orange jumpsuit again the media’s going to be there to see it. In other words, I’m gonna let everybody know about it.”

After Baber left, an ally who is an accountant tried to present Council with additional receipts accounting for purchases on Baber’s card. Baber says he now has most of his documentation gathered, but Council did not take the receipts.

“It’s a hassle to do, and I knew what would happen last night was what was going to happen,” Baber said. “It’s a coup, plain and simple.”

He said his lawyer, Richie Robb, is filing legal action over the administrative leave. That’s likely to wind up in the courtroom of Judge James Rowe, who dealt with earlier disputes over the proposed consolidation of the county’s school system.

Baber acknowledged this morning that he’d made critical comments of Judge Rowe on his Facebook page and might come to regret them.

“I told Richard Robb that and he said ‘Well, that’s not so good.'”

Toussieng would like to get back to regular, boring business. He said Drennen is performing the mayoral functions at the part-time pay rate of the recorder’s position. And he said the city’s legal costs are under control right now because it’s only been asking for guidance, rather than full-time legal work.

That could change, of course, if Baber files a lawsuit.

“If he chooses to do that, I believe he will have to pay for that himself,” Toussieng said. “I’m sure he could seek relief if he prevails.”

Meanwhile, the city is dealing with the state audit while trying to negotiate the balancing act of day-to-day expenses while going through the reimbursement process for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“It’s a huge financial balancing act,” Toussieng said. “So what we’re trying to do right now is be ridiculously fiscally conservative.”

Baber acknowledged the city has significant financial challenges directly ahead.

“I do have some sympathy for the council,” he said. “The city is in desperate financial straits.”





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