Huntington City Council Meeting

In tonight's meeting, the Huntington City Council voted to approve four surveillance cameras by the Huntington Police Department. Each council member voted in favor of an ordinance to expand the number of cameras the department has. One resident in attendance criticized the ordinance. He said he did not think the police department needed to spy on the city's residents, but that it what they would do with the cameras. He then when on a diatribe about what was wrong with the city, and at one point called Councilman Jim Ritter "a liar and a thief." Ritter became visibly angry and responded, "Do you want to take this outside, son?" The chairman told them both they needed to settle down immediately and told the resident there was nothing left for him to say.

At the beginning of the meeting, Tom McCallister, a Huntington resident, addressed the council about a sanitation board meeting he said he was supposed to be informed about. He said he stood in front of council at a previous meeting and asked about the sanitation board meeting, only to later find out that it had met without him knowing about it. The chairman said he agreed, and added that he (the chairman) "dropped the ball" by not letting McCallister know.

McCallister also criticized Mayor Kim Wolfe for not attending the meeting. He said the mayor has an obligation to be there. McCallister said the mayor has missed multiple city council meetings despite the fact the city charter says the mayor is supposed to be at all meetings. I thought this was interesting, and I would like to know exactly how many meetings the mayor has missed and exactly what the city charter says about mayoral attendance at meetings. I may look into it independently when I have the time, but if I were a reporter with the City Hall, Mayor's Office or a similar beat, I would research it as a possible investigative story.