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WHEELING - Local gym owner, mixed martial arts fighter and personal trainer Johnny Haught feels Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder isn’t living up to his position, so Haught wants to give Wheeling voters the opportunity to make a change in that office.
Haught is leading a community effort to gather enough petition signatures to recall Magruder.
"It's not just him, but he is the first representative here," Haught said. "I think it is just a case where the community has come out in droves to support certain things and ask for certain things. We've been ignored so many times that you start to wonder how much we feel represented. It's just a case of being misrepresented and somebody not doing their job.
"I need the people who are taking care of my neighbors to do better,” he added. “If we have to force it, we have to force it. Maybe council will get the message and they will start listening to us. Or they won't, and we'll start doing it to them, too."
Magruder acknowledged he is aware of the recall campaign and the petition drive and learned of it on Sunday after being out of town.
"I don't know what it is about or what fuels it," he said. "Sometimes when you're in elected office people don't agree with what you do. Let the system speak, and we will see what happens.
"If that many people are dissatisfied, we need to look at it. I haven't given much thought to it yet."
Haught claimed city officials didn't listen to the concerns of the public before they closed a homeless encampment in the city last winter. He said the effort by the city was "rushed," and homeless advocates didn't have enough time to find beds and space for them before the closure.
Likewise, Haught said, a vote by council "was rushed" to prohibit the flying of a gay pride flag at Heritage Port prior to the city's "Pride on the Plaza" event this summer.
"They say that was for all the groups, but they rushed a vote with two council members out of town right before Pride to make sure they knew that wasn't going to happen," he said. "It would have hurt nobody."
Then there is the issue over data centers within the city, Haught said. Silicon Foundry Energy is eying the former Center Foundry & Machine Company property in Warwood for a new data center and energy technology campus, a possibility that has drawn strong rebuke from some Wheeling residents, Haught included.
"I do not trust we are getting all the information," he said. "Either the mayor and council are not getting all the information, or they are hiding things from us.
"There are always issues, but the data center thing is the catalyst,” he continued. “We keep asking about things, and they keep ignoring us."
According to the Wheeling City Charter, any member of council can be removed from office if, first, a petition signed by at least 10% of qualified city voters is filed with the city clerk. If the clerk deems the petition sufficient and certifies it to city council, council will order a special recall election not less than 30 days nor more than 50 days form that certification. According to the charter, if the petition receives at least 5,000 votes, the council member is suspended from office pending the results of the special election.
Haught said the 10% threshold is about 1,770 signatures and he hopes to gather at least 2,000.
"I'm not just doing this (to get public attention) - it's not my life's mission," Haught said. "This is not my life's job, and if they (city officials) did their job I wouldn't do this. And the people involved wouldn't be so excited to sign these petitions.
"You don't understand how excited people are to make change because we've been ignored on every level. This one we're not going to take anymore."
Haught is a resident of Bethlehem, but he indicated that wouldn't stop him from making a statement in Wheeling.
"My business is in Wheeling, and I own my business," he said. "The Ohio Valley is our neighborhood, and fighting for our area makes it where everybody survives better."
There are others in the area helping Haught to get the signatures, but for now he wants to have their names remain "confidential."
"If they (city officials) want to be mad at anybody, they should be mad at me," Haught said. "This wasn't my doing alone, but there's not going to be a smear campaign on anybody involved.
"They're the same people who did all the work in the flood, and the same people who do all the work in the community,” he continued. “It's the same people who go out and make sure we're not getting things done to us, that we're getting things done for us.”