Two dozen Tucker County residents sat down with candidates Deborah Stiles and Jon Bush Sept. 16 at the Tucker County Senior Center in Parsons to talk over the issues facing the County this election season.
Both Stiles and Bush took questions from the audience throughout the time allotted on a range of subjects. Many questions throughout the evening centered on the controversy surrounding the current Tucker County Commissioners and their legal woes with the misdemeanor charges of Unauthorized Expenditure by Local Official.
Most of the questioning in the beginning centered on how the process of appointment by Governor Patrick Morrisey would proceed should one or all three current Commissioners be convicted of the charges. Bush explained how he was contacted by the former Governor in 2019 and asked if he would be willing to complete the term of Commissioner Patrick Darlington, who resigned due to relocation to Martinsburg for employment. Bush said he was asked because he was a Republican and he said he felt it may follow the same pattern, should a conviction occur.
“We’ll just have to let that play out,” Bush said.
Following questions on the court case, the subject of the Governor removing the Commissioners from office was also raised and whether the Governor would need to follow party lines for appointments. Bush said he thought the Governor would likely follow party lines for appointments, but was not entirely sure.
The issue of the HOPE Scholarship and Education was raised by Tucker County Board of Education member Cathy Hebb. Both Bush and Stiles answered on this question. Stiles was the first to comment on the subject.
“Charleston has, the State government has, become a major collection entity but it’s not giving the money, but we’re not getting good value for the tax dollars,” Stiles said.
Stiles said that the funding formula for education in the State needed changed, first and foremost, and find a funding level for the system that does work and is frugal for the State, as well.
Stiles commented on the HOPE Scholarship program. She called the program “Hollowing Out Public Education.”
“We are hollowing out a sacred trust that has been part of this country since the mid nineteenth century,” Stiles said.
Stiles said the public education system is being drained of funds by the HOPE Scholarship program. She said the program has “no guardrails,” which has led to teachers and administrators’ concerns about the quality of HOPE Scholarship funded activities. Her goal in Charleston, should she be elected, would be to seek guardrails on the program to ensure accountability and standards for excellence in homeschooling education.
“My job in Charleston would be to work with as many of my colleagues as possible to get some guardrails on that, academic guardrails, making sure that somebody doesn’t take the money and homeschool for a year and put their child back into the school system ill prepared for the next grade. We have to have guardrails on that program.” – Deborah Stiles
Bush said that his children were homeschooled in Nashville four decades ago, well. However, that is not always the case, he said. He said he felt the HOPE Scholarship was felt the HOPE Scholarship was “loosely put together to pander to taxpayers” and “bash the public school system.” Like Stiles, he said the system needed accountability. The program was designed to make it easy to homeschool kids, he said.
“Is it (HOPE Scholarship) totally wrong, no. Is homeschooling totally wrong, no. There is a place for homeschooling and there are great curricula out there, but those people have to answer for that, too…I’m not a big fan of the HOPE Scholarship, I don’t think it is doing what it was intended to do and you’re right it is pulling away from the public school system where our emphasis needs to be reinforced.” -Jon Bush
Where Bush expanded was on the subject of the need for more expansive trade programs in the Tucker County School system. Bush said there was a real need for more trades in the workforce and he said the public school system could be of great help in filling that need.
“We need to diversify. Now the State is not going to put a lot of money into that. But there are certain agencies that have said that just recently such as Eastern College that they are willing to put money into Tucker County. They want to bring in equipment, they want to help teachers. They want to make this a college charter trade school. Not just a secondary education school.” – Jon Bush
Bush said that many students today believe that college is the only path. That has led to an increasing number of college dropouts. Bush sees a High School trades program as the answer to these trends and a way for Tucker County students to not only stay in the area after high school, but find high paying, rewarding careers immediately following graduation.
Bush also spoke about economic growth. He spoke about the interest of a New Jersey business in the area, as well as reiterated his position on the need for tradesmen in the area. But, he also spoke about the subject of Zoning.
“I’m sitting in my restaurant and one of the great things about the restaurant is that I entertain a lot of the major people involved in what’s going on. It’s been a microcosm of who’s who from the Department of Highways, with the Federal Government at the Federal level of highways, the bridge builders, the data center issues, the power plant issues. In all of that, though, a gentleman comes to me and he’s at the highest point with the issue of roads and he says, ‘Jon, here’s what I can do for you,’ – and this is how important this is – ‘We have to see this HB 2014 and data centers as a gift horse here. We’re not seeing it for what it really is. What we have a chance with being insulted like we’ve been insulted and being called stupid and being told we don’t have a dog in the fight, what we have a chance to do, he said, ‘I’ll give you a half a million dollars to go to Thomas, to Davis, to Parsons, whether you can make it happen or not,’ he said, ‘if you can get them to go along with some sort of zoning. To make sure that this never happens to them again.’ This is someone that you think is your enemy. It is someone within that government saying, let’s make sure this doesn’t happen again.” -Jon Bush
When asked if changes should be made to current immunity laws, Stiles said that she preferred to instead look into increasing the penalties for the misdemeanor charges of Unauthorized Expenditure by Local Official, the charges the current Tucker County Commissioners are facing. She said she felt the current penalties are too light, given the heavy burden the public office holds and the trust the public gives its officials.
The subject of how the Commission’s agendas are posted was raised. Bush said that the matter was the symptom of a larger issue of lack of transparency by the Commission. It was brought up by the audience that some community members have complained that the agendas are only posted on the courthouse doors and not on the website or Facebook and that those on the mountain have to travel to Parsons to physically see what matters will be taken up by the Commissioners. Bush said that he had noticed the trend, himself, and it was a matter he sought to remedy should he be elected.
Bush also said that he did not feel that the meeting schedule was fairly distributed between the top and bottom of the mountain or that the time of the meetings were convenient for most citizens of the County. He proposed changes in the time, as well as finding a location on the mountain where meetings could be held to alternate between the mountain and Parsons. He also felt the Courthouse closed too early for those who worked and proposed later hours.
Stiles said that she had been “door knocking” since February to find out what the voters of Tucker and Grant County needed most. She felt while Tucker County currently had tourism and hospitality, diversity was needed if the economy was to truly grow and sustain in the future. She said she was hosting a series of “brainstorming sessions” in Tucker and Grant Counties on the subject.
Stiles is a Democratic candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates for District 85, which represents Tucker and Grant Counties. She has a background in agriculture, as well as rural policy research and education. She is currently a farmer.
Jon Bush is a Republican candidate for County Commissioner. He previously served on the Commission in 2019-2020. Bush is a local small business owner who has been in the Tucker County community for almost four decades. He is the owner/operator of Piccolo Paula’s in Parsons.
Also present at the gathering was Tom Dabney, a representative for Rachel Fetty Anderson. Anderson is running for U.S. Senate for the State of West Virginia. She grew up one of six children. She is currently an attorney in Morgantown. She served on the Morgantown City Council from 2017-2021.
