CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Six people have applied to fill the vacancy on the Kanawha County Commission.
The vacancy was created when former Commissioner Lance Wheeler resigned after being appointed executive director of the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority on June 25.
The applicants are Thomas Canterbury, Jared Page, George Smith, Elizabeth Standish, Jim Strawn and George Mets Jr.
Commission President Ben Salango told MetroNews he and Commissioner Natalie Tennant hope to make a decision at their July 23 meeting. If they are unable to reach a decision, they will consider the appointment at the next meeting.
“Then it will go to the very next meeting in August where the (Kanawha County) Republican Executive Committee will submit three names and we will do public strikes, I will strike first because I have seniority on the commission, then Commissioner Tennant will strike one of the names and whosoever left will be the commissioner,” Salango said.
He said he hopes they will make a decision at that meeting.
“The goal is to have stability on commission, the goal is to have confidence in the commission and you do that by doing all of this in public, this will be a public meeting, there will be full transparency, we will put our thoughts out into the public on the record, and if we can reach an agreement during that July 23rd meeting than great,” Salango said.
He said one of the applicants, Jared Page, became the Republican nominee in the May 12 primary because Wheeler was running for the state Senate.
Salango said he does not believe a candidate’s status as the Republican nominee would provide a political advantage, but added it would be beneficial to appoint someone with a background in government.
“The only benefit that we would have somebody with governmental experience, Jared Page has been a municipal judge, he’s been a vice mayor of St. Albans, and quite frankly that’s the will of the Republican voters who chose him to be their nominee,” he said.