February-March 2013 Morgantown Newsletter

What D’ya Know … About City Government?

Our March meeting for members and the public will focus on what you always wanted to know about local government – what’s happening now, and what may change in the future. The meeting will be held at the Aull Center (Garlow House), next door to the Morgantown Public Library on Spruce Street, from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13. There will be speakers introducing issues and responding to questions related to “City Manager/Council Form of Government”, “A Downtown for All”, and “Home Rule”. Morgantown residents and everyone in the Morgantown area will find this forum helpful in increasing their awareness of the operations of our local government, and hopefully will lead to increased participation of citizens at local levels of government. The forum will be followed by refreshments.

City Council Candidate Forum

There are 13 Candidates running for the seven seats on Morgantown City Council. Each council candidate has gathered at least 75 signatures from his or her ward, but will be elected “at large”; that is, everyone in the city votes for all candidates, one per ward. The City Charter determined that this system would ensure ward representation, but each councilperson would be responsible to the city as a whole. In the upcoming election on April 30, there are two wards that have only one candidate; four have two candidates; and one has three candidates. In order to decide which candidates will best represent you, please plan to attend our candidate forum on Wednesday, April 17, at Suncrest United Methodist Church, 7-9 p.m. The question and answer period will be followed by refreshments and informal discussion.

City Council Candidates

The following are candidates for Morgantown City Council, to be elected April 30, 2013. Incumbents are listed in bold font. There is no incumbent in the 6th Ward.

1st Ward: Ron Bane
2nd Ward: Bill Kawecki, Jim Manilla
3rd Ward: Wes Nugent
4th Ward: Bill Graham, Jenny Selin
5th Ward: Mark Furfari, Marti Shamberger
6th Ward: Mike Fike, Lisa Mardis, Jay Redmond
7th Ward: Nancy Ganz, Linda Herbst

Action Alerts

Contact the Governor to include Medicaid Expansion in WV’s Affordable Care Act reform!!
Our Board would like you to be part of a calling/mailing/e-mailing outreach to Governor Tomblin and our legislators encouraging them to ACCEPT MEDICAID EXPANSION AS PART OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IN WEST VIRGINIA.

Medicaid expansion means putting 125,000-130,000 more WV low income people on Medicaid as their way of having health insurance under the ACA. If a family or individual earns 133% of the poverty level, or less, they may qualify.

Find excellent talking points and contact information at http://tinyurl.com/wvaca !

Lobby as a Citizen for Strong Shale Gas Rules and Legislation! Free support!
The WV Legislature 2013 Regular Session is open.  Please remind your representatives that we have not forgotten that the Horizontal Well Act still has many problems, and needs to be strengthened.

For many of us, Charleston is far away, but that should not deter us from contacting our representatives by phone, mail, or email.

Please visit http://tinyurl.com/shalegaslobbying to find out how you can contact your representatives, or become a citizen lobbyist in Charleston!

Also in this edition, learn about our leadership changes, read about Renate Pore’s AHA presentation, how two League Members attend the Largest Environmental Gathering in History, and how to become a League Member.

Mark your Calendars!

March 13 and April 17 League Events!

LWV Newsletter February-March 2013


Posted

by

Tags: