T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Former St. Clairsville City Council member Holly West attends a past council meeting prior to her recent resignation. From left are council members Terra Butler, Lucien Murzyn, West and Mike Smith.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Holly West officially announced her resignation from St. Clairsville City Council, citing her belief that her voice is not being heard.

West, who was sworn in Jan. 2, said there were many reasons why she is stepping down, but the final straw was a piece of proposed legislation that states all members of council are in favor of giving non-union city employees a 2% raise instead of the 4% raise that was originally suggested by Mayor Kathryn Thalman.

“Those non-union workers are the people that actually run the city. And I will tell you that I am for the workers, those workers work their butts off. When you really have a limited amount of employees that work for the city, they work hard for that money,” West said. “I never knew anything about it. I’m for the workers, so why would I agree to have something changed from 4% to 2%?”

West said she was sent an email hours prior to the March 17 meeting where the 2% change was first considered.

“I knew from the meeting prior (Feb. 26) that we all said that some of the wording needed to be changed on one of our legislation. So I was like, ‘Oh, that’s just the update because we’re going to have to vote on it.’ That’s all I saw on there, so when that was read at the meeting, the look on my face, it must have solidified like I had no idea it was about changing it to 2%. And I went back and I looked at the email, and the email says that all the council wanted it changed and that’s not true,” West said. “I wasn’t even told about it, which was another lie, and that’s not the first time that legislation has been rolled up stating that all of the council was on board with it.”

During the Feb. 26 council meeting, St. Clairsville Finance Director Annette Nichols confirmed to council that the 4% raise was already worked into the city’s 2025 budget. Still, council proceeded to seek legislation for the 2% raise at the March 17 meeting, which did not sit right with West.

“I think that the law director didn’t take the time to ask every one of us if we were aware of it,” she said.

She added that she understands that Law Director Joe Vavra is a busy person and said she isn’t trying to speak negatively about him, but she feels like she was left in the dark about this specific issue.

Vavra said council initially had legislation implementing a 4% raise that went through the required three public readings. But when it came time to vote, council chose to table it.

He added that following the tabling, a few council members reached out to him and asked him to prepare new legislation, which was for a 2% raise.

“Neither one has been voted on yet. The 4% was tabled, and the 2% is waiting on a second reading now,” Vavra said.

He added that even if the legislation for the 2% raise is read the required three times, it doesn’t mean that council has to take action on the matter and can table it until members decide to act.

Prior to officially submitting her resignation, West sent out an email to the non-union city workers affected by the change to inform them that she was sorry and did not agree with the change and would be stepping down. She added that multiple non-union workers replied to her email, telling her that they were unaware that she wasn’t in favor of the change.

She said she was also questioned about why she would step down before being able to confront the rest of council at the next meeting at 7 p.m. April 7 at the City Building.

“My personality is not like that, because here’s what I said to them. I said, ‘Listen, if I wait ’til the next council meeting and I say what my thoughts are to each one of them, I’m jeopardizing the media being there to hear what’s going on.’ I don’t like attention drawn to me, so that would just draw more attention to me. I don’t want to do that. I’m not going to do that, so I kind of don’t want it to be such a big deal,” West said.

She added that she was disappointed that none of the council members had reached out to her to discuss her grievances since she submitted her resignation.

Following West’s resignation, the city released this statement:

“St. Clairsville’s City Council has a vacancy for the Council-At-Large position. It is seeking applicants who have been a resident of the City for at least two years and a registered voter. Interested qualified residents should submit a hand-delivered or emailed letter of interest detailing any special qualifications that would benefit the City, along with a current resume and contact information. Applications must be submitted to the Municipal Building at 100 N. Market St. or emailed to jmcmillen@stclairsville.com by April 9, 2025, at 4:00 PM. The City Council will interview applicants to select the most qualified candidate. If you have any questions, please contact the City at (740) 695-1324.”

“The council has 30 days from the vacancy to vote on a new member as long as they meet the standard requirements of council,” Vavra said. “They have to appoint that person within 30 days, and if they don’t appoint within 30 days, then the mayor picks the replacement.”