One fact in "the letter" was that our city council routinely omits minutes from the record, What do our public officers have to fear other than reprisal for unethical behavior > The only way to ensure honesty is full and honest reporting to the public. My question is why omit records of the discussions about fire fees unless someone did something, they wanted to hind. Also if a county employee demanded raises for family members they would lose their job, Not Mr. Lopez he gets the corrupt system to clear him and then attack the whistle blower , worked out great for Mr. Lopez. If you want to know this is true ask a city employee at public works

Someone said growth of clarksburg, as an adult, i only lived here 6 years, was born and started my life here, but in the 6 years i have been here i have to ask WHAT GROWTH? i have seen nothing but buildings being torn down since i have been here, i have seen many businesses come and go and i have just seen businesses go, the only growth i see in clarksburg is unemployment, and people going on welfare (i am not talking down to welfare by no means it is there to help people) i have seen the growth of parking lots, and empty lots, it is time to rebuild clarksburg, back to what it was before my time, a city that was proud and flourishing, when u can walk down main st. with out passing empty lots and empty buildings.

Anyone who has lived in Clarksburg for any length of time knows that the problems inherent in city government (not limited to city council) are arrogance and egotism. Add to that a lack of vision, foresight, curiosity and intelligence and the present situation is the end result. The answer: vote out all the incumbents.

Very interesting points, everyone. But lets keep a level playing field and not post any false or misleading information (Not saying names but their initials are HarrisonCountyResident). I agree with Harrison County Resident on one point,though, that there has always been some discord between city managers and council members, and that the discord has increased since Mr. Shaffer has been elected. The question is... Is this increase in conflict good or bad. I think it is great that someone is challenging the council. If everything in the letter is wrong then prove it. There are some facts in the letter. The parking lot should not have cost $5 million. Where did all the money go? Can we see receipts. The city council/manager hasn't provided the residents with answers. The ethics commission investigation did not find Mr. Lopez did nothing wrong. The result of the investigation did find problems. There are investigations that are ongoing. It is not time for apologies and "I told you so" just yet. I don't think Mr.Shaffer is denying he had anything to do with the letter either. Didn't he say he provided information for it in a radio interview? I believe that Clarksburg voters are pretty smart (not naive) and will make voting decisions based on their own acumen. I don't see the point of an investigation into the letter. It was not "illegal" as Mr. Howe claimed. He didn't even read the letter according to his press conference. But then made the statement that none of it was true. Personally, I'd like to see some revitalization in downtown Clarksburg instead of demolishing. I hope more people attend City Council meetings now. City Council meetings are Thursday nights at 7pm at the Clarksburg Municipal buildings. Go there and ask questions.

If I would have known that the only thing I had to do as a city manager to be considered successful was to make some sidewalks and tear down some buildings, I would have ran for the position. At first glance I thought deb was being sarcastic. "Look at those street lights and side walks." It takes a really bright person to put up some street lights at intersections. Also look at those vacant lots where those historical buildings once stood. Don't those vacant lots look beautiful!

It took me several days to digest the tripe that was written in the infamous "news letter" sent to citizens of Clarksburg. Martin Howe is the brightest bulb we've had in our local government for many years, the depressing side of this fact is the small faction of dim-wits who insist on wrecking havoc on progressive thinking and actions that will sabotage Clarksburgs' growth and progress for their own adgenda. We all should know where this "factual information" was rooted, not in the seeds of our citizens best interests but in the seeds of the self interests of those said dim-wits who instigated this news letter.Take a stroll through our city, notice the sidewalks, street lights, vacant lots where abandoned houses once stood( for decades), Martin Howe did and is continuing to do much good for our city. These inane distractions are not in our best interest, only some coward would print this garbage and try to feed it to the public without facts to back up the claims.Agreed, there should be an investigation but only to disprove these allegations and to take legal action against any and all persons who probagated this attack.

I am a resident of Harrison County but not Clarksburg, so I do not have a vote in any of this. However, after reading the comments of others on this site, and after observing the the discord in Clarksburg government, I feel compelled to comment on this situation. First, have any of the commenters, who seem to blame all problems on Martin Howe and the City Council members who are up for reelection, been paying attention for the last twenty years? A certain level of discord has always existed between many former City Managers and former City Council members. However, the level of discord seems to have significantly increased since Mr. Shaffer was elected. This is not a coincidence and I believe that Mr. Shaffer is to blame. He has made many allegations of wrongdoing against many people since his tenure started. First, he alleged that corruption existed in the City's sidewalk program. An independent investigation by the Harrison County Prosecuting Attorney's office found that no corruption existed. Did Mr. Shaffer apologize to those that he had accused? NO! He instead tried to use twisted logic to say that he was right. Secondly, he made allegations of wrongdoing gainst other city officials. After Mr. Shaffer's allegations, a WV Ethics Commission investigation (also an independent investigation) found that Councilman Lopez did nothing wrong. Did Mr. Shaffer apologize to Mr. Lopez? NO! Yet, an ethics investigation involving Mr. Shaffer is still ongoing, and interestingly enough has not had the same quick finding of innocence of the Lopez investigation. Mr. Shaffer appears to have personal axes to grind , and if people would do a little investigating of their own, they would probably find out the benefit that Mr. Shaffer would gain, if he could get any of his allegations to "stick". I suspect that Mr. Shaffer is behind the recent letter mailed to Clarksburg residents, and I suspect that he did so in order influence the pending election, in order to fill the seats with those that will literally turn Clarksburg government into Mr. Shaffer's personal "good ol boy" organization. Clarksburg voters are naive if they don't see that Mr. Shaffer's motives are not pure. I do not believe that he has all of Clarksburg's residents best interests at heart, but his motives are purely in the interests of himself and a few select Clarksburg residents.

Was anyone suprised by this information? To quote someone famous let all the candidates run on "Change" Time to clean house. Let's get rid of all the cobwebs.

Martin Howe is about as qualified for this job as a manager at Auto Zone. For someone who is responsible for overseeing day to day operations in the city of Clarksburg, he sure lets a lot of questionable things slip through. Martin Howe talks about how the newsletter is slanderous but does he even know what slander is? Slander is defamation in oral form. Libel is defamation in written form. He states in the news conference that he didn't read through all 6 pages of "slanderous material" but he also says that nothing in the letter is true. How can you make that statement without reading it? Getting the FBI involved is a little ridiculous. Don't they have something better to do then to solve the mysterious case of the anonymous letter. The hardy boys wouldn't even waste their time with this nonsense. Quit worrying about this stuff and do your job.

Anyone concerned about the city council should have attended the candidate forum tonight. The solution is simple all of the incumbents need to be voted out. With 7 fresh candidates from which to choose there is no reason to return any of the incumbents to office. They have had their opportunities, it is time to try something new.

I scanned all 8 pages of the uncopyrighted newsletter and placed them online, since everyone seems to want to see the newsletter for themselves.

This is not in any way an endorsement, just providing what the people are asking for.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MyCityServices/ClarksburgWVNewsletter#

The only people who should be put under investigation is the Council itself. Lots of the claims in that newsletter cited numerous sources. Investigate the sources and determine what is true.

I received the Press Release from the City Council. They only touched on a few of the allegations that were actually published in that paper. Lets hear an explanation for those that were conveniently left out.

I for one applaud this for trying to expose any underhanded dealings or corruption in our city government. Hopefully next week's elections will put us on a new path for Clarksburg instead of the same old road filled these bums and cheats.

I received a copy of the newsletter and, after browsing through it briefly, tossed it in the trash...which is exactly where it belonged...it was merely a gossip letter and anyone with any common sense would simply ignore it!

What a waste of the FBI's time. The council should be ashamed!

Let's see a pdf of this infamous newsletter. The WBOY viewers who weren't on the mailing list would like to see what all the fuss is about.

All these statements aside lets not forget the things accomplished by Martin Howe all the dilapidated buildings demolished these structures put people like my elderly parents at risk I feel much better since it was torn down. Takes yrs to build a reputation and only minutes to destroy one, how quickly we forget the positives. As far as the council members go, I guess soon the truth or untruths will come out, I wonder would this have even surfaced if there wasn't an upcoming election? A true motivation for sure.

I think the Clarksburg City Council is forgetting about freedom of speech (the 1st amendment?). Anyone remember Larry Flint/Hustler & Jerry Fallwell?

The Clarksburg City Council is composed of elected officials, who are intelligent, and dedicated servants of the public. As an outside observer of City Council Meetings, I have observed too much political in-fighting on unimportant issues, and promotion of self-interest agendas by Council Members.Sadly, this political hacking of each Council Member demeans the spirit of public service, and diminishes the accomplishments of each Council Member. Presently, all Americans are confronted with financial and social burdens that will strain municipal revenues and budgets for years to come, and accordingly, the public's faith in addressing pressing City problems must reside with the City Council; therefore team work, cooperation, and a resolve to strategic planning in a team environment is mandated in these harsh times, to solve some of the most difficult problems on the horizon. It certainly would be more interesting to attend City Council sessions where City Council members address the critical issues that every City in America in now facing; moreover, each City Council member has the vision,the ideas, strategies, and inner strength to promote the interests of their constituency, all the citizens of Clarksburg ,who are relying on their teamwork and teamspirit of problem solving which is absent.....the real issues facing Clarksburg will become more intense, and thought provoking, than ever imagined in the future. Investigations and accusatory remarks rob the City of valuable time to address tax,educational, unemployment, budget, and environment issues, These issues are the real news of today, not veiled investigations, or self- interest promotion, as they seem truly insignificant and unimportant in light of our Country's problems globally and domestically.

I just received a copy from my neighbor, who was on the mailing list and I heard the WAJRFM 9:00AM broadcast today. I asked Martin Shaffer who published the newsletter and he said it was a John Peterson. Who is this Mr. John Peterson?

It's nice to have a different source of local news, unfortunately the quality of this first issue leaves a lot to be desired.

So does anybody have a copy of this newsletter? If so please send me a copy to TDavidFranklin@gmail.com I'd be interested in at least reading it.

This is better than any soap opera! Between Howe and Shaffer and Mike Queen and the board of education, you get some pretty good talk radio of the mornings!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! I personally say congrats to whoever stood up and wrote the letter. At least we know 1 citizen has at least half a backbone!

Any one could have written a newsletter similar to the ethics complaint. Does Howe think Martin Shaffer is the only person in Clarksburg who thinks the current city council is doing a questionable job? He should consider the fact that there is a city council election coming up. What crime was committed that the FBI needs to get involved? And who appointed Howe prosecutor? Will the city of Clarksburg ever cease to embarrass itself?

HAHA seems like a possible cover up to me, i think their should be another investigation in to if those allegations are true, and have a neutral person brought in to do the investigation.