CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston City Council voted Monday evening to increase the city’s user fee two years ahead of schedule.
The fee will increase in January 2018 from $2.50 to $3, with the funds going toward hiring at least 10 Charleston police officers and opening a station at Slack Plaza for K-9 and walking units.
The raise was originally set to happen in January 2020.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones had proposed the change at the council’s Aug. 7 meeting.
“At the beginning of the spring, I made an announcement that the homeless problem was going to get really bad in the summer, and it did,” Jones said Monday. “I probably should have said criminal vagrants because the criminal vagrants — and that’s the word (Charleston Police Chief) Steve Cooper and I use now — they’re victimizing our chronic homeless.”
The mayor said he wants to make the city safer, referencing a July attack in which Carl MaGhee, of California, allegedly doused 44-year-old Rachele Jarrett in gasoline before lighting her on fire. Jarrett was sleeping on the porch of a West Side home at the time.
“If you don’t believe it, I’ll show you a video of a woman being set on fire and her running in the street on fire and she died,” Jones said.
Jarrett died from her injuries six days after the attack.
Charleston Police Chief Steve Cooper said they have already “trimmed the fat” from the police department’s budget.
“We’ve downsized our staff members, but we’ve also combined resources,” he said. “Some of our officers that used to be walking beats are now what I call hybrid patrols. They walk, they ride bicycles, they’re in police cars.”
Cooper added the department’s detective bureau has downsized and every officer is working in enforcement positions.
“Now that we are going to get these 10 new officers, I can’t tell you how much we needed that,” he said. “We need more than 10, but I’ll put 10 to very good use.”
Councilmen Courtney Persinger, Andy Richardson, Cubert Smith and Jerry Ware voted against the bill. Persinger said during the council meeting he was concerned about the increase’s impact on working class individuals, while Richardson stated he would rather see funds reallocated from an unspecified area for the needed purpose.
Jones is the host of “580 Live” on MetroNews affiliate WCHS-AM.