MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — If Morgantown’s deputy mayor is not prepared to voluntarily remove himself from his position, Ron Dulaney suggests city council should be prepared to do that for him.
“I think the best scenario would be if that happened voluntarily, but I believe that there is support on council to move that he does step down if he doesn’t do it voluntarily,” he said Tuesday on WAJR’s Morgantown AM.
Mark Brazaitis has been the subject of significant scrutiny this summer, following the highly controversial attempted purchase of Haymaker Forest — considered to be a pet project of Brazaitis’ and something that he campaigned on last year. A large turnout of residents who spoke against the purchase led to the postponement of that land acquisition. Over the course of the next two months, Brazaitis engaged in very public verbal disputes with several fellow council members, the Monongalia County Democratic Committee, the Hazel-Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust, the BOPARC Board, the Mylan Park Board, and his own employer — West Virginia University.
“I think over the past couple of months that the tone and tactics that have been communicated by that voice no longer represent where council as a whole is right now.”
Dulaney said a number of those relationships might require a more deft hand to mend any open wounds.
“I think that we are in a situation where we need to rebuild trust with our constituents and other potential partners and stakeholders in the community,” he said.
On Saturday, Brazaitis informed members of the media that his employer was removing him from the classroom and barring him from campus, at least temporarily, to focus on research activities from home.
The announcement followed a bizarre situation early last week, when police were requested at Brazaitis’ home in Morgantown. He was not there when police arrived and was not heard from for around 15 hours. The matter was considered “non-criminal,” but he eventually turned himself over to a Monongalia County Sheriff’s deputy before being admitted to Ruby Memorial Hospital and later University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Echoing past sentiments from fellow council members Barry Wendell and Ryan Wallace, Dulaney does not believe Brazaitis should be forced to step down as a council member.
“The bottom line is 1,600 people in our community used their best judgment and cast their vote for Mark,” he said. “I think that for a body of six individuals to overturn the choice of 1,600 people, there’s got to be great care and really undisputable reasons for doing that. I do not believe that we have undisputable reasons at this point.”
“I don’t believe that he’s violated any express prohibitions of the charter. By expressed prohibitions, those are the shall nots and the sections that list prohibitions. For me, it’s not a black and white issue, and I don’t see that we have any ground to stand on to act as a council.”
Brazaitis immediately returned to work Wednesday, one day after he claimed to be cleared by a UPMC physician. He went to the Monongalia County Commission last Wednesday morning to advocate for a three year, $8.5 million excess levy to fund upgrades to the Morgantown Municipal Ice Arena.
That’s one of two levies that local groups are requesting Monongalia County Commissioners place on a ballot in November that pertain to specific projects inside the Morgantown city limits. The second levy, a five-year, $5.2 million excess levy, would provide maintenance funding for Morgantown’s parks and recreation body — BOPARC. The levy has been substantially altered since it was first submitted at a work session Aug. 8, when the proposal initially included a funding request for the purchase of the highly controversial Haymaker Forest.
Morgantown City Council chose not to place any levies on a November ballot due to — among several things — concerns over time constraints.
“What else can we say? We are not considering a levy at this time. Council and the City is not considering a levy at this time. I don’t know how much clearer we can be,” Dulaney said.
Monongalia County Commission meets Wednesday. Morgantown City Council does not meet until next week. An agenda for their next meeting has not yet been released.