The State of Huntington

     In his State of the City address on Feb. 13, Huntington Mayor Kim Wolfe laid out a worst-case scenario when it comes to how to handle a recession-weakened Huntington.

            Wolfe announced during his address that furloughs and layoffs could be in the near future.   This is unless there was an occupation tax or sales tax adopted which could eliminate the need for layoffs.

            Layoffs and furloughs could be necessary because when compared to this year’s original budget; the proposed budget shows an 11 percent reduction in spending.  This loss comes from the expectation that the business and occupation tax, as well as the $3 user fee for anyone who works in the city to bring in nearly $2.3 million less than expected.

            Furloughs, which consist of taking required, unpaid time off, would start in September or October for all city employees.  While furloughs may be necessary for the city employees, a more extreme measure to save money may take place within the police and fire departments.

            In lieu of police officers being laid off, many clerical workers could lose their jobs and have their hours picked up by the officers who would be pulling double duty.  This proposal would leave eight civilian employees without jobs.  This means that only one civilian employee would be left within the department. 

            The fire department faces the same outcome with a proposal to lay off all three of their civilian employees.  This would leave the department with no civilian staff.

            The main concern with replacing the clerical staff in these departments with officers is there will be less police patrolling the streets and the 3.9 percent decrease in the crime rate in the past year will be a loss.

            While the city is facing hard economic times, Wolfe did touch on some of high points in the past year.  A $1 increase in the user fee has led to the much-needed paving of streets and the purchase of equipment for the Street and Traffic Engineering Department.

            Wolfe also mentioned the success of the Weed and Seed program which has been showcased at national conferences and has led to a 13.5 percent increase in drug-related arrests.

            Even as Wolfe laid out proposals for a worst-case scenario, he ended his address with hope that the citizens of Huntington will work through this hardship and leave the city a better and more beautiful place.

The Good, The Bad and The Budget

            Huntington Mayor Kim Wolfe released his 2010-2011 proposed budget to city council on Saturday, Feb. 13.

            The proposed budget is much lower than that of the past two years.  This year’s it is nearly $1.5 million less than the 2008-2009 budget and $5.1 million less than the 2009-2010 budget.

            When taking a look at the 2010-2011 proposed budget one can see that all but three expenditures have had their budgets cut.   Among these three expenditures, two of which had no change in their budget. These were the insurance programs and city council departments.  Most notably of these three departments, the mayor, is not scheduled for cuts, but instead has the only raise in the budget, which is $1,692.

            There are several key items that were addressed within the $39.5 million budget.  Some of these include furloughs, layoffs and paving projects.

            Furloughs, or required, unpaid time off, would start in September or October.  These 20-day furloughs would be for all city employees with only Mayor Wolfe and 11 representatives of the city council left exempt.  These furloughs are expected to save $1.1 million for the city.

            Layoffs are anticipated within the police and fire departments.  The police department is expected to layoff eight civilian employees, which will leave the department with only one civilian employee.  The fire department may have to cope with laying off all three of their civilian employees.  These layoffs would leave the clerical work in the hands of the officers of these departments, which will have to pull double duty.

            These layoffs and furloughs are in relation to the $852,969 cut in the police department budget, as well as the $365,191 cut to the fire department.

            The biggest cut in expenditures comes in the form of grants, which is losing $2,142,703 with the police department coming in second.

2008 Presidential Election campaign fundraising in the Huntington, Ashland and Ironton area

A large fundraising base is often regarded as an advantage when it comes to winning a political campaign, but numbers for 2008 Presidential Election fundraising in the Tri-State area shows that is not always the case.

According to FundRace at The Huffington Post, citizens in the cities of Huntington, Ashland and Ironton gave a total of $287,863 to the political campaigns combined.  In these three cities, 63 percent of all the funds raised were for the Republican Party.  The only city that raised more funds for the Democrats than the Republicans was Huntington, which barely edged out the competition.

Within the city of Huntington, $170,080 was contributed to the 2008 presidential election.  Out of an estimated population of 49,185 in 2008, only 208 residents made a contribution.  According to CNN, West Virginia voters selected John McCain with 56 percent of the votes, which totaled 397,466.  This is off pace with the contributions made to the candidates within Huntington.  The Democratic Party received $86,755 in campaign funding in Huntington, which would make one question whether raising the money was worth the time.

For the most part, financing a political campaign is of the utmost importance to anyone who is running for office. It is very important for any political candidate to know his or her resources and constituency.  Knowing a constituency and really connecting to them gives any political candidate an advantage when it comes to fundraising.  As fundraising becomes more and more prevalent it becomes imperative that one knows how to use their resources and how to organize and use the money.

In Ironton, Ohio the results were much like that of Huntington.  The political contributions didn’t quite match up with how the rest of the state decided to vote.  The big difference between Huntington and Ironton was the amount of contributions.  People living within Ironton donated only $6,854 to the campaign.  While the state of Ohio ended up voting Democratic, when the numbers are broken down the people in the Ironton area were more supportive of the Republican party with 63 percent of the funding going to them.

Unlike the contributions in Ironton and Huntington, the fundraising in Ashland is right on track with how the citizens of Kentucky voted in the presidential election.  Republican candidate John McCain easily won the vote in Kentucky by a margin of 17 percent with 1,048,462 of the votes going to him.  Within the city of Ashland, there was a total contribution of $110,929 to the 2008 presidential campaign with $93,279 going to the Republican Party.  This means that 84 percent of all funds raised in the city of Ashland went to the republicans.

In the three cities that were researched, another strange occurrence came up.  In Huntington, Ashland and Ironton the top contributor always donated money to the party on the losing end of the campaign fundraising totals.  Huntington is a good example of this.  As was stated before, the Democratic Party had the highest number of contributions with $86,755 going to the campaign.  The top contributor in the city of Huntington gave $5,250 to the republican campaign with the closest democratic contributor donating only $2,300.

Investigative Story Proposal

TO: Professor Morris
FROM:  Justin Hawthorne - The Hawthorne Examiner
____________________________________________________________
RE:  Story Outline:  Cabell County's Federal Stimulus Money

Subject: Cabell County's extra stimulus money and how it is spent.

Scope:  I will research the Cabell County budget and find out how they ended up with the extra $5 million they are using to remodel the Big Sandy Superstore Arena and the $4 million that they are offering in low interest loans from federal stimulus money to Wayne County for a parking garage at Tri-State Airport.

Need: Because of increased concern about the economy and Gov. Joe Manchin's budget cuts, the public would be interested in knowing that Cabell County had so much extra in federal stimulus money that they are willing to loan it to the neighboring Wayne County for a parking garage at Tri-State Airport.  How these funds are spent could have an impact on everyone in the community.

Methods: This story can be documented by pulling together all of the budget and spending paperwork to find out where the extra money is coming from and how it is being spent.  I could also interview members of the Cabell County Commission, such as Scott Bias, who proposed the $4 million low interest loan to Wayne County and Tri-State Airport.

Sources:  As I explained above, I could interview members of the Cabell County Commission, as well as members of the Tri-State Airport Authority and the people that run and maintain the Big Sandy Superstore Arena.

Other sources that could be used would be the budget and other paperwork that shows exactly where all of the money is coming from and where it is going.

Presentation:  This would be a one-part investigative journalism piece.  I would use documents and images to trace how the Cabell County Commission came up with this extra money and if there is a better way to spend it that would benefit the community more.

Follow-up:  If there was a follow-up, it would be a good idea to see if the piece brought light to the spending of the commission and if it invoked change.  If it did, then I could write about where the money will be going instead of toward the airport parking garage and civic arena.

Investigative Journalism: Federal stimulus money and the wine train project

EDITOR’S NOTE: The article “Federal stimulus program pours $54 million into Wine Train project” by Lance Williams is an example of investigative journalism. This following post is an analysis of why it is considered to be an investigative piece.

The “wine train” article about the federal stimulus program is investigative because it is not only an overview of federal stimulus money; it also looks into where the money is going and why.

The reporter, Lance Williams, is concerned about why $54 million is being put into a wine train project. A project that was called silly by people such as U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

This project, which was said would help the economy and create jobs, has only produced 12 jobs according to reports released by the construction company Suulutaaq. While this is out of the ordinary, it is also strange that an Alaska-based construction company would win the bid to build a bridge in the Napa Valley in California. Williams said that this could be due to Alaskan natives gaining “special access to federal contracts.”

Williams gave the officials at Suulutaaq an opportunity to state their side of the story, but they declined to answer most of the questions.

This information was stated in the article:

Suulutaaq officials declined to be interviewed. In response to written questions, the company issued a statement saying that taxpayers were getting a “fair and reasonable” price on the project. The statement said that although Boyle lacked “specific construction experience,” he had “invaluable business experience” to make the Napa project a success.


But the company declined to answer most questions about the project, saying the information was confidential. It rebuffed a query about whether Suulutaaq employed lobbyists by asserting that the question “has potential undertones of a race-based presumption.”

The reporter, Lance Williams, points to the federal stimulus plan as his key document, which allowed for $54 million to be put into the wine train project. Williams also gives figures from a report that was provided by the Suulutaaq construction company.

There are no graphics or pictures to accompany the story. On the main page of the Web site there was an image of a train, but that did nothing to further the story. It was just there for aesthetic purposes.

The article for this story was published in California Watch, so the main people interested in this story would be the citizens of California. There would also be interest in Alaska and South Carolina, because the shareholders, according to Williams, are in Alaska and the CEO is from South Carolina. While these people would have the most interest in the story, the attention of the general public would also be gained because they would want to know what the federal stimulus money is being spent on.

William’s article is broken up into four parts and is lengthy. The headline is not harsh though. It reads like any other typical headline which states some facts to gain the reader’s attention. With that being said, there is a harsh tone to the article.

It seems like this article was either a follow-up on where the federal stimulus money was going or it was a project idea.

If you would like to read William's "wine train" article, it can be viewed here:
California Watch: Federal stimulus program pours $54 million into Wine Train project