The West Virginia Municipal Home Rule Board recently announced 16 additional municipalities have been selected for West Virginia’s Home Rule Pilot Program. After reviewing applications and hearing presentations from 22 applicants, the Home Rule Board added the following entities to the pilot program: Bluefield, Buckhannon, Charles Town, Clarksburg, Dunbar, Fairmont, Martinsburg, Milton, Morgantown, Nitro, Parkersburg, Ranson, Shinnston, South Charleston, Vienna, and Weirton.
The West Virginia Legislature created the Municipal Home Rule program in 2007. The initial phase included Bridgeport, Charleston, Huntington, and Wheeling. Last year, the Legislature modified the program and tasked the Municipal Home Rule Board with expanding the program by 16. The Board accepted applications and then heard presentations at five regional meetings over the last three months.
Members of the Municipal Home Rule Board are Patsy Trecost II (chair and designee of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin); Floyd McKinley Sayer III of the Business and Industry Council; Brian Jones representing Labor Organization (AFL-CiO); Chris Fletcher of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Certified Planners; Herb Snyder, chair of the State Senate Committee on Government Organization; Jim Morgan, chair of the State House of Delegates Committee on Government Organization; and Joshua Jarrell, designee of the executive director of the West Virginia Development Office.
Information about the West Virginia Municipal Home Rule Program is available at www.wvcommerce.org/homerule.
