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CHESTER -- When city Mayor Ed Wedgewood phoned a friend -- allowing a councilmember to participate in a meeting last week by cell phone in order to meet quorum requirements and vote -- a West Virginia Ethics Commission staff attorney later declared it was allowed legally.
As promised to resident John Hissam's request, City Clerk Tara Ayers had reached out to John Roush with the state Ethics Commission later in the week to verify that Nathan Wright indeed could attend the meeting telephonically to allow council to meet their quorum last Monday night and vote on financial matters.
Hissam also is the chief of the Chester Volunteer Fire Department and was in attendance to provide his report to council.
According to Roush, if the city has not adopted any special rules as a body specifically prohibiting members from participating by telephone, W.Va. Code 6-9A-2(5) permits it and doesn't distinguish between financial and other types of action.
"Although conducting meetings telephonically or on a social media platform became more common during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was recognized long before that time. Opinions on telephonic participation, one before and one after the CoVid-19 pandemic," Roush said, citing opinions from Monongalia County in 1999 and 2023.
In 1999, the Monongalia County Board of Education considered whether to allow a member to vote by facsimile if unable to attend in person in opposition to the prohibition to voting on a written ballot.
In 2023, the Monongalia County Commission case looked at whether that board had to meet a physical space literally. Roush explained that the ruling was that the public just had to have access to the meeting (i.e. zoom).
Chester council regularly meets at 5 p.m. the first Monday of the month in council chambers within the city municipal building.