BUCKHANNON — Shelia Sines has been appointed to fill the vacancy of Fmr. Councilwoman Mary Albaugh. On August 20th, council voted 5-0, with 1 abstention, to appoint Sines to Buckhannon City Council.
In the 2020 Buckhannon City General Election, Sines received 431 votes comparative to Councilman CJ Rylands 437 votes. Rylands and Sines had both tied on election night. However, the tie was broken after a series of mail-in ballots (postmarked by November 4, 2020) gave Rylands the advantage.
Councilman CJ Rylands began the discussion, stating that there has usually been an application process for vacancies on city council, even if the next highest vote-getter was selected to serve.
“For the past 6 years, or however long I’ve been serving, we have had several appointees. I think primarily the recorder’s position. So, the list of questions were generated by the City Attorney that were rather neutral,” Rylands continued, “and I think we may ask similar questions of police candidates and everyone gets asked the same questions. We listen to the responses and then have a conversation. I think one of the points you’re missing here is that four council people have to agree. So, if we are going to have a decision like that, four of us I don’t think out of the gate are going to agree to anything. So, the process we’ve used the whole time I’ve been here is that people submit a letter of interest, and submit if you deem to view it that way to these questions, and then we make a decision based upon current accurate information in talking to these individuals.
Amby sent out some information on the historical precedence, of the last 9 appointees, 7 were interviewed, 2 back in 88 and 90 the Mayor put forward someone’s name and the council agreed to that appointment. So, I think that by changing that process we would be changing what we’ve been doing up to this point. I don’t disagree with the points that all the speakers have made. There is validity to all of them. As a fiduciary and as a businessman, I want to make my decisions on the best accurate information that I have. And the best candidates are available and willing to serve for the next 9 months or so. I think we sign up for an election in January. So, that’s my position.”
Councilwoman Pam Cuppari-Bucklew stated that she believed, “we don’t automatically take the first runner up.”
“My position is if Mary had resigned two weeks or two months after her last election, I could see us immediately going ahead and filling it with the first runner-up. But that’s not the cause. It’s been almost 16 months. That’s why I feel we should take letters of interest.
There were other people who ran for the same position. They paid to run for it. They had support. And there’s probably people that would’ve run, they didn’t want to run against me, they didn’t want to run against CJ. And if there was an election today, I think there would be people who would run right now. Because they wouldn’t have to run against me or CJ. And I’m sure there are other people who will come out. They will sign-up in January.
I would personally like to see younger people start getting out and take interest in their city. That’s where I stand because, like CJ said, we don’t automatically take the first runner up, and I don’t think that too often happens anywhere. If that was the case, something happened to Biden today, Trump would be in there. That’s not going to happen. That’s my position.”
Councilman Jack Reger expressed that he believed Sines should be appointed to fill Albaugh’s vacancy, due to the number of votes she received in the prior election.
“I think that my position, I have to agree. I feel that Shelia should be appointed to the position. I’ve given this a considerable amount of thought. I’m one year in from the election, a year and a month really. Shelia received a considerable amount of votes and support, and when people resign for whatever reason, I think all things need to be considered, and my vote will be to place Shelia in the vacant seat at this time.”
Councilman Dave Thomas delivered an extensive declaration of support for Sines’ appointment, acknowledging that she nearly received the same amount of votes as Councilman CJ Rylands in the 2020 general election.
“I’ve been here 18 years, the end of June. I’ve seen many things. I’ve been involved in lawsuits. I’m probably the first councilperson in the state of West Virginia that sued themselves,” Thomas stated.
“We all have different opinions. I have seen persons that were the next highest become an interim person filling a position that was unexpired. I’m committed to doing what’s right for the community.
Now, if Shelia had received 250 or 300 votes. I could maybe say okay, let’s go ahead and get letters of interest, but she received basically the same amount of votes that CJ received. And I think that we should honor that for the people who voted for her. Why waste another month asking for letters of interest and then going through an interviewing process, when we have someone who is already qualified and that ran?
I think at some time after this particular appointment, we need to sit down as a council and say okay ‘What do we need to do for the future? Should we take the next highest person?’
There are some of us who have said, ‘Well, we’re a little bit worried about that because what if the next highest person has less than 250 votes than the person who got elected, and they’re some kind of proactive doofus or something? Maybe we don’t want our hands tied. We’ve gotta have a little bit of flexibility.’
I don’t think it was one vote. I think it was four, five, or six, but the point it’s a lot of votes. And it’s for 10 months. And maybe, we’ll find out if Shelia is a councilperson, she’ll find out, ‘Oh my God, why did I want to do this?’ Or we may say, ‘Oh my God, why did we appoint her?’ And the citizens will have an opportunity to evaluate her also. We’re all being evaluated up here, all the time.
I’m going to announce right now, I’m not going to run again period. I’ve been elected 5 times. That’s enough. That will be 18 years. I do want to get some people, younger people, like Robbie like our Mayor. I supported Robbie. I thought here we have a fresh face. I think that’s really important. So, I would like to make a motion, eventually Robbie, to appoint Shelia. I think it’s really important for the community; important for the city.
Councilman Thomas also properly scolded two members of the community who attempted to invoke a religious litmus test, claiming that Sines should not be appointed due to her personal religious beliefs as an evangelical Christian.
“And I can’t believe we’ve had two individuals that bring in the religious thing. That’s obnoxious. I have to tell you that. I’m really disappointed. I’m disappointed in one or two other people who I’ll talk about later on. You know, I’m for Shelia. I don’t know her. I guess I met her one time 20 years ago, or 25 years ago, I didn’t have vision. But you know, I’ve talked to her a lot the last six or seven days, because I encouraged her: don’t give up, don’t give up. You deserve to be on city council because of the many votes you’ve received. And I believe in that firmly.”
City Recorder Randy Sanders also stated his support for Sines’ appointment, but making it clear that the precedence of selecting the next highest vote-getter should only be considered when it is a close election.
“I think there should be guardrails in place when you’re talking about a seat on council or a seat anywhere in a body such as this. That would be reflective of an election where you have clear winners and a distant second, where you have somebody who had very few votes, but did come in the next spot. And if a resignation happens, then you’re picking up somebody if you set precedence, with very few votes,” Sanders said.
“Let’s say next election there is going to be two seats, since Mr. Thomas has made it clear he is not running for re-election. And there probably will be an incumbent in this seat. So, let’s say three people run for these two seats. Two win heavily, and the third person gets 50 or 75 votes. I don’t want to see us in a situation, where if someone does resign within the next couple of years, that person who receives 50 or 75 votes is just automatically put in.
In this case, the votes were very very close. It was a situation where there was a tie, there was a recount, there was just a 6 vote margin at the end of the day. So, you have to give that consideration. So, I have given that consideration. I’ve looked at that closely. I’ve gone back and forth with that process in my mind. I would say strongly that if Shelia is appointed because of that situation, because she came into that spot and had that number of votes, that should never be taken into precedence. I’ve been assured that can’t be set as a precedence. I think by charter, the council always has the option of reviewing the appointment process.
So, it is a tough one. Having said that, in this situation, she did earn the position with those votes. And if it came down to the vote tonight, then she will get my vote.”
Mayor Robbie Skinner also addressed the agenda item, stating that this is not about any individual candidate, but rather about the number of people who supported her, noting that they are “all the people that helped put us here as well.”
“I too, with this particular issue, have given this a tremendous amount of thought. I’ve been all over the map with it. Jerry, where you heard, ‘Maybe we should wait until the next election,’ that was my idea. And I said that in a council meeting in executive session, that I thought maybe that was (since we are so close) maybe that was the best thing to do. Nobody supported that. So, I just threw it out there as an option. Because, Mr. Sanders is correct, the charter does not solidify a certain process. The charter says it is the council’s will to choose its path forward to fill a vacancy. So, it could be a different method each time. And you know what, that’s probably not a bad idea, because you do not know what the political landscape is at the time,” Skinner stated.
“I was at municipal league a couple of weeks ago up in wheeling, and I asked several different mayors how it happens in their cities. Some have the highest vote-getter, some of them say the charter is so specific it boils down to the exact amount of time it has to take to fill a seat. We don’t have any of that here. So, a big reason why we’re having this discussion this evening is to determine our way forward. So, a couple of comments were that we’re going to take applications. That’s not necessarily the case. The line item on the agenda is to begin the discussion to fill the vacant city council seat. That is certainly an option, or taking the next highest vote-getter is also an option.
So, the council did not come in here together predisposition to do one way or the other. Each member of council has the authority and right however they wish to do so. This week and last week, I’ve spoken to probably close to 50 people. Some have come to me as mayor, and some I’ve sought after (because I’m genuinely interested in opinions of the community) and I’ve talked to folks from across the political spectrum because we’re nonpartisan elected officials here. There is no democrat sewer. There is no republican street. There is no conservative waterline. There is no liberal highway. This council is here to do what is best for our community regardless to represent everybody that lives here, and anybody that joins this council needs to be of that belief system. We are here to do what is best for our community. We all have to check our personal beliefs and values at the door when we walk in. As mayor of this city, I don’t agree with everything that we do, but that’s okay. I don’t have to. I’m not supposed to. I love all these people up here, I would do anything in the world for them, but sometimes… sometimes they drive me crazy. And I know that I drive them crazy.
Bringing this back in all seriousness, I believe, as I’ve given this a tremendous amount of thought. I don’t know how we can ignore the fact that Mrs. Sines received a tremendous amount of support. For me, I’m looking at this without looking at a personality. I’m looking at this regardless of who it is, that individual ran and that Individual received a tremendous amount of support. No offense to Shelia, it’s not about her. It’s about whoever garnered that much support from all the people that helped put us here as well.”
The first motion to appoint Sines was made by Councilman Dave Thomas and seconded by Councilman Jack Reger.
Mayor Skinner, Recorder Sanders, and Councilmembers Thomas, Reger, and Rylands voted to appoint Shelia Sines to fill Albaugh’s vacancy. Councilwoman Pam Cuppari-Bucklew announced that she was abstaining.
In a brief statement to Mountaineer Journal, Sines remarked that she was thankful for the council’s decision.
“I am extremely grateful that council members acknowledged the citizens of Buckhannon and didn’t ignore their voices or votes.”
Sines’ swearing-in ceremony will be announced at a future date.