Charleston, West Virginia
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Charleston is the capital city of West Virginia.
[edit] Website evaluation
- Main article: Evaluation of West Virginia city websites
This website was last evaluated on 2 May 2012.
[edit] The good
- Meetings
- Elected Officials
- City Council members are posted with full contact information including name, address, phone number, and email address [3]
- Administrative Officials
- Administrative Officials are listed by department. Names, addresses, and phone numbers are included in all entries. [4]
- Building permits and zoning
- Contracts
- Bids and RFPs are posted online. [7]
- Public Records
- The records officer is the city clerk, and there is full contact information available for this position [8]
[edit] The bad
- Budget
- Current year budget is not posted
- The budget is only posted for two previous years.
- Meetings
- Agendas are not archived
- There is no calendar of meetings
- Administrative Officials
- Not all administrators have email addresses listed
- Building permits and zoning
- Audits
- There is a place for audits on the "Documents and Forms" page, but the links to the audit are broken. [6]
- Contracts
- Approved contracts over $10,000 are not posted
- Lobbying
- No lobbying information is available
- Public Records
- No records policy is available
- Taxes
- Mill levy information is not available
[edit] Introduction
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.
[edit] Elected Officials
Charleston functions under the Mayor-Council form of city government. The Mayor is the designated Chief Executive Officer of the city with the duty to see that all of the laws and ordinances of the city are enforced. The Mayor gives general supervision over all executive departments, offices and agencies of the city government and is the presiding officer of the Council and a voting member thereof.
[edit] Mayor
The current mayor is a Republican, Danny Jones, who was elected in 2003, and re-elected in 2007 and 2011.
[edit] City Council
Charleston has 28 city council members. 21 are elected from separate wards and 7 are elected at large. For the 2012 year, the Charleston City Council consists of the following members:
| First Name | Last Name | Ward | Party |
| Bobby | Haas | 1 | R |
| William | Kirk | 2 | D |
| Joe | Denault | 3 | D |
| James | Ealy | 4 | D |
| Mike | Nichols | 5 | D |
| Edward | Talkington | 6 | D |
| Mike | Stajduhar | 7 | R |
| Bob | White | 8 | D |
| Cubert | Smith | 9 | I |
| Robert | Sheets | 10 | D |
| Marc | Weintraub | 11 | D |
| Shannon | Snodgrass | 12 | D |
| Susie | Salisbury | 13 | R |
| Jack | Harrison | 14 | D |
| Courtney | Persinger | 15 | R |
| Samuel | Minardi | 16 | D |
| Bobby | Reishman | 17 | R |
| John | Miller | 18 | R |
| Rick | Burka | 19 | R |
| Brent | Burton | 20 | R |
| Mike | Clowser | 21 | D |
| Mary Jean | Davis | At-large | D |
| Tom | Lane | At-large | R |
| Andy | Richardson | At-large | D |
| Jerry | Ware | At-large | R |
| Chris | Dodrill | At-large | D |
| Kasey | Russel | At-large | D |
[edit] Administrative officials
Charleston also has a City Manager who is appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Council. The City Manager has supervision and control of the executive work and management of the heads of all departments under his control as directed by the Mayor, makes all contracts for labor and supplies, and generally has the responsibility for all of the business and administrative work of the city. The current city manager is David Molgaard.
[edit] Spending
The following is a list of the largest sources of revenue and the largest expenditures for the city of Charleston, West Virginia.
| Category | FYE 09 | FY \'10 Approved | FY \'10 Actual | FY \'11 Approved |
| Top 10 sources of city revenues | ||||
| Business & Occupation Tax | $39,691,857 | $40,500,000 | $18,583,965 | $40,229,313 |
| Property Taxes | $9,200,606 | $9,511,000 | $5,706,915 | $11,656,749 |
| City Service Fee | $5,406,934 | $5,200,000 | $2,606,293 | $5,400,000 |
| Utility Tax | $2,776,258 | $2,700,000 | $975,877 | $2,900,000 |
| Hotel Occupancy Tax | $2,779,180 | $2,900,000 | $1,173,042 | $2,780,000 |
| Fire Protection Fees | $2,033,130 | $2,125,000 | $793,984 | $2,050,000 |
| Ambulance Levy | $2,017,788 | $1,835,000 | $1,305,302 | $2,283,768 |
| Lease Proceeds | $2,195,496 | $1,985,500 | $1,985,726 | $2,266,500 |
| Landfill/Incinerator Fees | $2,850,000 | $2,900,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,793,247 |
| Ambulance Fees | $1,751,821 | $1,700,000 | $782,911 | $1,807,753 |
| Top 5 Expenditures | ||||
| Salaries and Wages | $33,075,905 | $35,656,637 | $35,656,637 | $35,800,546 |
| Medical and Life Insurance | $8,645,823 | $10,071,484 | $3,361,673 | $8,909,726 |
| Uniform Pension | $4,989,342 | $5,388,489 | $2,245,205 | $5,819,568 |
| Commodities | $3,689,132 | $4,079,084 | $1,176,351 | $3,864,140 |
| Capital Outlay | $4,987,423 | $4,833,355 | $879,144 | $529,211 |
[edit] Lobbying
Charleston does not disclose information about taxpayer-funded lobbying. No information about lobbying associations is readily available.
[edit] Public Records
The city has been embroiled since 2007 in an open records lawsuit, Charleston Gazette v. Charleston, filed against it by the Charleston Gazette when the city declined to honor a request made under the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act for police time sheets and activity logs.[9]
The Charleston Gazette was (and still is) looking for records for 28 police officers after four others pled guilty to working at paid jobs outside of the police department while on duty.
A Kanawha County Circuit judge ordered the city to turn the records over and in September, the city appealed this decision to the West Virginia Supreme Court. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that the city must turn over the requested records. [10]
[edit] External links
- Official site of the city of Charleston
- City of Charleston West Virginia
- Charleston Community Profile
- City of Charleston links
- City of Charleston census facts
[edit] References
- ↑ Charleston, WV - Council Journals
- ↑ Charleston, WV - Meetings
- ↑ Charleston, WV - City Council Committees
- ↑ Charleston, WV - City Departments
- ↑ Charleston, WV - Building Commission
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Charleston, WV - Documents and Forms
- ↑ Find RFP.com
- ↑ Charleston, WV - City Clerk
- ↑ W.Va. Supreme Court set to hear police FOIA case, September 23, 2008
- ↑ State Supreme Court rules against city in FOIA case, Associated Press, December 9, 2008
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