MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A number of city employees have received subpoenas to appear in court Friday in an attempt to remove 4 Morgantown council members from office.
City Manager Jeff Mikorski confirmed those subpoenas were being delivered Tuesday.
George Papandreas, local businessman, resident and former council candidate, filed a petition that included signatures from 3 council members to remove council members
Bill Kawecki, Jenny Selin, Nancy Ganz and Mayor Marti Shamberger.
In an interview with WAJR, Papandreas said he expects a lengthy hearing before three circuit court judges on accusations of “misconduct, malfeasance in office, incompetence and neglect of duty”.
“We’ll have a number of witnesses that will come up. Some will be designated expert witnesses. Some will be witnesses because they’ve been a party to things or seen things happen while they were there or they were included in actions that happened,” said Papandreas with some hesitation. “I can’t predict too much.”
According to Papandreas, the city manager, assistant city manager, clerk, police chief, city engineer, and staff in the manager’s office and at the police department are expected in court later this week.
In a December hearing before Circuit Court Judges Richard Facemire, David Wilmoth and John Lewis Marks, most people there regarding the petition for removal were experiencing a three- judge panel hearing for the first time.
The panel decided to hear witness testimony and consider evidence in a second hearing.
“I don’t really expect the judges to make a decision right then. I think there’s going to be a lot of information for them to go through,” Papandreas said.
The council members targeted in the petition for removal were all re-elected amid accusations stemming from ward and boundary changes described as self-serving to keep two council members from running against one another for office. Some are accused of breaking campaign rules and regulations.