It is evident by the administration’s latest escapade concerning the Westmoreland firetruck that something is terribly wrong in our River City.
A city that is in such financial straits as Huntington, should not seek out other ways to fall deeper into debt.
A firetruck from Westmoreland was used by the city as collateral on a lease-purchasing agreement to make a payment to Cabell County for voting machines.
The administration’s contention that this is common practice illustrates the need for new blood in City Hall. To gamble with the future of the firetruck, and the fire protection afforded to the citizens of Westmoreland shows to what extent the city is willing to hide the true nature of our city budget.
Currently the city budget is in the red; by some estimates, $1.5 million dollars or more. Knowing that, it is not hard to see that this firetruck was in danger of being repossessed.
Secondly, what the money was used for directly conflicts with how and why the firetruck was purchased in the first place. The Westmoreland Fire Fund is stipulated to be spent only on fire-related items. Thus, by using a truck, purchased in that way, as collateral for something that is non-fire-related is unjust and immoral. What’s more, the citizens of Wayne County would not use the voting machines that their effective tax money went to buy for Cabell County.
These election machines were purchased because the old polling machines did not have the capacity to add city races for the elections in November. The Mayor directly benefited from the purchase of these machines, which were used only once. Not to mention the fact that poll workers threatened to quit if they used the machines again.
The original idea to move these elections was to save taxpayers’ money by combining city, state, and national elections. It is clear that they miscalculated. We’ve had to purchase two new voting systems in the past year. Two County Commissioners are facing jail time, partly because they spent $650,000+ on this folly, when the judges had mandated them to spend the money elsewhere.
Now, to have Mayor Dean say that she did not know that it was the Westmoreland firetruck and the very next day claim that the Director of Finance made that choice without her knowledge, is laughable.
Where does the buck stop at City Hall? Does Mayor Dean run the city, or does her Finance Director? These are pertinent questions that need to be answered.
HNN is pleased that Westmoreland’s firetruck is no longer in danger of being repossessed. The city council did the right thing in pushing through the resolution to free the firetruck and pay for the voting machines out of the city budget. However, it also proves that the Mayor and Finance Director Glenn White were aware of the possible illegality of their previous actions concerning the truck.
In the future, not only should the city inform its citizens of operations such as this, but it should also look long and hard at its budget before using ANYTHING as collateral, especially when there is always the chance of losing it.
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