CHARLESTON — A judge that struck down Huntington’s requirement that firefighters and police officers live within the city limits or face “immediate” firing wrongly interpreted the ordinance, the city’s lawyer told the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Attorney Scott McClure said the city never meant to deny employees their right to due process with the 2002 residency ordinance.
“It doesn’t say, without liberty of a hearing,” McClure told the justices. “Such language does not appear in the ordinance anywhere.”
But a lawyer for firefighter Jason Eastham and police Officer Josh Coffey, who are challenging the requirement, argued that Judge John L. Cummings correctly concluded that “immediate” meant just that.
Bert Ketchum cited a November 2006 letter from Mayor David Felinton that ordered all workers the law covered to deliver proof of residency to City Hall by the following month or be “dismissed immediately for cause.”
The letter underscored the city’s intent, Ketchum said. The ordinance governs all employees hired after July 1, 2002. The legal challenge is about the right to due process under the state and U.S. constitutions. Civil service employees, including police and firefighters, are also protected by rules that allow them to appeal firings.
“(The ordinance) clearly and unambiguously calls for termination without delay, and without due process,” Ketchum said.
McClure countered that Cummings could have erased the word “immediate” from the ordinance to remedy confusion over the meaning, but he didn’t.
“They’ve construed it for the express purpose of declaring it unconstitutional,” McClure said.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of the year. Justice Joseph Albright listened in on the hearing as he continues to recover from surgery on his esophagus.
Eastham and Coffey sued over the ordinance before the December 2006 deadline set in Felinton’s letter.
“There has been nobody discharged,” McClure said. “Not a soul.”
The high court affirmed the right of municipalities to enact employee residency requirements in 1999, after Wheeling passed such an ordinance. But Ketchum argued Wednesday that such provisions prevent places like Huntington, with a declining population and a struggling economy, to recruit and keep qualified employees.
“It’s an antiquated law,” he said.
Ketchum also suggested that Huntington may be the only city or town in the state with such a provision.
The West Virginia Municipal League is unaware of how many of the state’s 234 incorporated places have residency rules, executive director Lisa Dooley said. That group’s national counterpart has a similarly hard time tracking such laws.
Some states forbid cities and towns from using them, while others direct them only at police and fire, said Chris Hoene, director of policy and research for the National League of Cities.
Neighboring Ohio blocked such ordinances with 2006 legislation. But some of Ohio’s larger cities, including Cleveland, have asked the state Supreme Court to overturn it.
Huntington was trying to ensure employees had a stake in their community with the law, while also seeking racial diversity and to increase its tax base, McClure told the West Virginia court.
“It’s a policy choice, with all due respect to Mr. Ketchum,” he said. “It’s not up to he and I. It’s up to the elected legislature, the city council.”
West Virginia
Residency at heart of Huntington police, fire dispute
- West Virginia
-
-
Veterans cemetery dedicated on Memorial Day
West Virginia’s new $14.1 million veterans cemetery has been dedicated at a Memorial Day ceremony in Institute.
-
Big outside spending may await W.Va. races
West Virginia can expect some hefty spending by non-candidates on some of its major general election races, if recent history is any guide.
And just in time for this potential flood of political ads, a new court case is challenging the state’s rules on the topic. -
Big outside spending may await W.Va. races
West Virginia can expect some hefty spending by non-candidates on some of its major general election races. And just in time for this potential flood of political ads, a new court case is challenging the state’s rules on the topic.
-
Man gets life sentence for ex-wife’s death
A man was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in the beating death of his ex-wife.
Thomas Charlie Lee Runner, 46, of Galloway, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Wednesday at the Barbour County Courthouse in Philippi. -
State campaign finance limits challenged in court
A political group formed to aid West Virginia incumbents this November won a partial victory Thursday after suing over the state’s limits on campaign contributions and a policy addressing corporate spending.
-
Relatives other than parents raising kids
Sharon Davis jumped in and obtained custody of her young grandson when her daughter got tangled in a web of drugs. A decade later, her daughter is straightened out and now has her own little girl, while her son remains with Davis.
-
Project aims to get West Virginians active
A new wellness project aims to motivate West Virginians to get off their couches and be healthy.
LiveWell West Virginia is a collaboration of the West Virginia University Extension Service and the Charleston Gazette. -
Missing girl’s mother gets eight months for welfare fraud
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the mother of a 3-year-old girl who vanished eight months ago this week to spend eight months behind bars for welfare fraud.
U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey ruled that Lena Lunsford must begin serving her sentence June 28. -
West Virginia seventh in death rates for accidents, violence
Drug overdoses and motor vehicle crashes helped push West Virginia’s death rate involving accidents and violence to the seventh-highest in the nation, according to a report on injury prevention released Tuesday.
-
W.Va. could add hurdles to primary ballot
West Virginia officials have several options if they want to avoid repeating an outcome of this month’s primary election, when imprisoned felon Keith Judd attracted nearly 41 percent of the vote against President Barack Obama.
- More West Virginia Headlines
-
Veterans cemetery dedicated on Memorial Day
