County government representatives from across the state gathered at Stonewall Resort in Lewis County to compare notes and prepare for the next legislative session in Charleston.
Circuit clerks, county sheriffs, commissioners, and more all came together Monday in the ballroom at Stonewall Resort. The group held a fall board meeting to form a united front before the next session of the state legislature in February. The gathered officials will break into groups and discuss their concerns before coming together as a whole to set a lobbying agenda.
"All these different entities in one room, and you actually have an opportunity to decide what issue are going to be coming up, which ones you want to lobby for or lobby against. So that's basically what this meeting is today, to help determine some of those issues," said Lewis County Commissioner Agnes Queen.
Each office holds different concerns, but unlike other groups, the entire body will decide which issues they'll work on each year. And whether the issues are election fraud, prescription drugs, or term limits, each county benefits from the discussion.
"These are things we'll talk about which will affect our taxpayers and our tax base in our county, and that's one of the things that we take from this meeting, that we learn and the different ways we can come together with the other counties," said Patrick Boyle, president of the Lewis County Commission, who acted as hosts for the event.
Although the issues between groups are varied, the entire association comes together in the end to work for its citizens.
"It's pretty open, the conversations pretty open. Everybody in here seems to be pretty much friends, there's no animosity between groups. Everybody tries to work together for the betterment of the citizens of West Virginia," said Jeff Waybright, who is the Jackson County Clerk and president of the association.
The group will wrap up its meeting Tuesday morning, where it will make some final decisions on just what its agenda will be this year.
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