(Publisher’s Note: This is the second of two parts featuring Wheeling Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum and her experiences while serving her constituents in Ward 3 during the past 16 months.)
She faced three opponents, two men and one woman, and after 731 ballots were cast by Ward 3 residents on June 9, 2020, Rosemary Ketchum had won an improbable victory in a West Virginia city where the median age is over 45 years old.
Why improbable? A member of the transgender community had never won a seat on Wheeling’s City Council let alone a publicly elected position in any of West Virginia’s 55 counties. Until Ketchum, that is.
Because of a pandemic-delayed Election Day, she had to wait only three weeks to be sworn in on the third floor of historic West Virginia Independence Hall, but she knew there was a lot to learn about the operation in a municipality in West Virginia and the function of a city’s council that works under the City Manager-Mayor operational plan.
“I think for any newly elected official there is a learning curve that lasts for six months to a year,” Ketchum explained. “In city government, particularly, there are a lot of dynamics about how the work works and how you can get things done. Being able to develop relationships with the members of the city’s administration and with my fellow members of the Council have been great opportunities, in my opinion.
“It may have taken longer to accomplish those things than I wanted it to, but it’s also been very exciting. What I have found with the Council and with the administration is that on 99 percent of things we align, and our values are really, I think, in the same space as far as what we want to see for the city of Wheeling,” she explained. “How we get there won’t always be the same, but I believe we all have the same end-goal for the residents of Wheeling.”
A Covid Curse?
The newcomer to politics had served on the city’s Human Rights Commission for less than a year when Ketchum filed the necessary paperwork to run for City Council. She has resided within Ward 3 for about three years now, and she has gained an understanding of the problems that face all residents in every single neighborhood.
While Ward 3 may be the city’s most ethnically diverse, the East Wheeling, Center and South Wheeling, and Mozart areas do not contain ritzy developments like Arbordale, or Forest Hills, or Stamm Lane. In fact, the only gate-like-communities in Ward 3 are a group of houses surrounded by chain-link fencing in preparation for demolition.
Those facts were part of her platform, but Ketchum and her opponents were forced to complete the final two months of their campaigns secluded as a pandemic precaution. Covid-19, the coronavirus that has infected more than 5,000 Ohio County residents since March 2020, has limited council members in many ways, but the federal government has supplied a silver lining.
“The virus has been an enormous obstacle that has stopped us from doing some things, but one positive thing that has come from the pandemic is the American Rescue Plan Act. The City of Wheeling, in two installments, will receive a total of $29.5 million, which is near our annual city budget,” Ketchum reported. “I joke with folks that if we can’t get it right with $29.5 million, they should never hire us again to do this job.
“This is an unprecedented investment into our community by the federal government. It’s incredibly reassuring to find the federal government believes that municipalities know best because that’s not typical,” she insisted. “That’s because usually the money is given to the state and then the governor and his staff make all of the decisions. In reality, the cities know best.”
Out of the Box
She favors the decriminalization of marijuana in the municipality, and she wishes to improve the small business environment within Ward 3 by working directly with the members of the recently reinstated Centre Market Commission.
Ketchum also believes the city of Wheeling can do better when it comes to the large population of homeless currently living along Big Wheeling Creek, the Ohio River, and within large encampments in East Wheeling. That is why she was the driving force with the initiative to create a city-funded Homeless Liaison position to collaborate with all other non-profits involved with providing shelter, food, clothing, and social assistance.
Amanda White was hired in early September for a term of three years at a $48,000 annual salary.
“I will say that it was a contentious and difficult position to create here in the city of Wheeling because there are two mindsets here. One is when people say the homeless folks are going to be here regardless so let’s not give them any attention. They believe that until it’s their problem, it’s not a problem at all,” Ketchum said. “Then there is any group of people who believe we should do what we can to resolve the issues with homelessness or else our city can’t grow.
“Ward 3 has the highest concentration of homeless in our city, so regardless of my fellow council thoughts on this position, we couldn’t decide to do nothing,” she said. “So, I am very excited for Melissa Adams to wrap her arms around this situation, and she’s not going to be doing it alone. My hope is that we can eventually talk about what a task force would look like so we can be sure we’re covering all of our bases.”
