A West Virginia prosecutor filed a petition aiming to remove two Republican officials from office on Monday.
Jefferson County Prosecutor Matthew Harvey accused two county commissioners, Jennifer Krouse and Tricia Jackson, of breaking the law by failing to perform their official duties as they have refused to attend meetings amid a dispute about who should fill a vacant spot on the commission, the complaint, first reported by West Virginia MetroNews, alleges.
The commission remained split about who should fill the position vacated by former Commissioner Clare Ath, who resigned in June. The initial attempt to fill that position resulted in an evenly divided vote, meaning the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee would then get to submit three names for consideration, West Virginia MetroNews reported.
However, Krouse and Jackson disapproved of the committee's choices and have refused to attend meetings to prevent the selection process from moving forward.
Harvey alleged that their "conspiratorial" refusal to attend these meetings denied the commission quorum to continue its regular business and has had significant consequences.
Newsweek reached out to Harvey, Jackson and Krouse for comment via email.
The commission has been unable to complete crucial business including hiring essential county employees such as new 911 dispatchers, approving contracts, approving a security contract for the county's computer systems, and allocating state ground funds, Harvey wrote.
"Preventing a replacement Commissioner by denying a quorum is Respondents' attempt to wrongfully increase their power by ignoring their legal duty—and an attempt to unlawfully extort the resignation of the Commission President, and push their own plan for the fifth commissioner, which is contrary to law," he wrote.
Jefferson County, located in West Virginia's eastern panhandle, has a population of 58,000 people. It backed former President Donald Trump by 10.5 percentage points in 2020, making it the second most competitive county in the deeply conservative state in that election.
Krouse wrote in an August 17 Facebook post that the Republican Party "failed to nominate three true conservatives," while also raising concerns about whether the nominated candidates were legally qualified to serve, arguing they must nominate someone else for the selection process to continue.
"It's a sad commentary that Republican Commissioners and elected representatives of the Republican Party are actively working to deny this seat to a true conservative. If only these 'Republicans' would fight as hard to get a conservative commissioner as they have to blanket Jefferson County in solar panels we'd be getting somewhere," she wrote.
Harvey, however, argued the political ideology of the candidates nominated by the committee is irrelevant
"Contrary to the Respondents' claims, the legal standard is NOT whether the Respondents like or dislike a replacement Commission candidate. The legal standard is NOT whether a particular candidate is more conservative or more moderate," he wrote in the complaint.
He continued, "Instead, the law requires the Commission to select one of the three candidates that the JREC has nominated. That is the extent of the Commission's discretion. The Commissioners are limited to the choice provided by law and cannot simply disregard the law to impose their own preference," he wrote in the complaint.
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