Mayor Steve Williams Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Ohio Valley Mayors Ask For New ‘Marshall Plan’

Mayors from eight cities in the Ohio Valley, including Pittsburgh, Morgantown, Huntington and Louisville, have joined forces to call for a new effort to revitalize the region.

In an essay in the Opinion section of the Washington Post, the group called for a 21st Century version of the World War II-era Marshall Plan, the U.S. aid program that helped rebuild Europe after the war.

Now the mayors want to see that type of investment in the Ohio Valley. They are requesting the equivalent of $60 billion a year, over 10 years, in private and public investment, and tax breaks.

Mayor Steve Williams, from Huntington, West Virginia, was one of the signers of the Washington Post essay. He spoke with Eric Douglas to discuss the group’s ideas.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Douglas: The analogy that’s used in the essay is the Marshall Plan, the post-World War II reconstruction plan for Europe. Why do you feel that’s an appropriate analogy to what we’re facing in, in the Ohio Valley?

Steve Williams, mayor of Huntington, West Virginia.

Williams: I believe, particularly in the Ohio River Valley, and Appalachia, we are the forgotten part of the country. Everybody seems to talk about the Northeast and the South and the Midwest, and the West. But when you look at the Ohio River Valley, the mountainous area that we’re in, including the Great Lakes area, there are a lot of folks that come in wanting us to help them but when we absolutely need the help, all of the sudden we’re forgotten. And that’s why I believe that we’re the forgotten America.

Douglas: I see the point made that Appalachia powered the Industrial Revolution, powered the great build up of the nation.

Williams: None of us here will ever allow ourselves to be seen as a victim. Ever. That’s within our culture. You look at what has happened here. There are some things that we have within our DNA that we need to take full advantage of. And we believe that we need to have a federal partner in order to be able to accomplish these things.

Douglas: You mentioned the Appalachian Regional Regional Commission. Are you thinking this would be a program under the ARC?

Williams: It could be part of the ARC. None of us are coming in saying that we have to build a new federal agency. I believe that the ARC would be perfectly capable of doing this.

Douglas: You mentioned that this is not a Green New Deal. That’s not the direction you’re heading. But you made several points in the essay that you are looking for greener jobs.

Williams: It just makes sense. Much like when the automobile was coming into the Detroit area. What do you think happened to those horse and buggy manufacturers? Did they continue doing that? Were they a buggy manufacturer? Or were they a transportation company?

Are we oil and gas? Are we coal? Or are we energy? We’re starting to see these companies focusing on energy. And in that regard, we’re saying green energy. Let’s make sure that we’re doing things where the investments are being made.

Douglas: The estimate for this program is $60 billion a year over the next 10 years. So $600 billion in federal block grants, tax credits. It’s not just cash, obviously.

Williams: The way that I look at it, that’s a small price to pay. A $600 billion investment will turn into a trillion dollars — trillions of dollars. I’m not looking at something that turns over five times, where then all sudden it is $3 trillion. I’m looking at thousands of times.

My background is finance. I used to be a stockbroker. I was an investment banker. If somebody is coming to me saying, “You place an investment here and you’d be able to get a tenfold return.” But the fact of the matter is, you recognize what the return on investment truly could be, we can’t afford not to do this.

Huntington Mayor: Home Rule Key to America's Best Community Finalist Spot

The city of Huntington’s advancement to the finals of the America’s Best Communities competition presents a unique opportunity for a city striving to improve itself.

Huntington was selected by a panel of judges to be one of eight finalists in the national competition for America’s Best Community.

Huntington and Charleston were both semifinalists in the competition. Charleston wasn’t selected as a finalist, but Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said the key for both cities in his mind is the Home Rule Pilot Project. The project, which started in 2007 with four cities, and has expanded to other communities in the state, shifts power from the state to the local level.

“The home rule pilot project does actually work,” Williams said. “Every community has its own unique needs. It shouldn’t be a cookie cutter, one size fits all, a decision is made in Charleston and now everyone has to put that square peg in a round hole.”

As one of the eight finalists for the America’s Best Community Project, the city received $100,000. Huntington’s proposal, called the Huntington Innovation Project – or HIP, outlines projects and ideas that will jumpstart the local economy. The top three communities that make the largest impact and show the greatest potential for sustaining revitalization will be the grand prize winners. The top community will receive $3 million, second place will earn $2 million and $1 million will go to third place.

West Edge in the West End of Huntington, part of the revitalization project.

Williams said Huntington’s plan is different than other communities, which concentrate their ideas on one, specific area. Huntington went all in on four different projects at once.

“The decision that we made in Huntington, is that in order for us to transform our city, we absolutely don’t have time to wait to have each of these neighborhoods redeveloped,” Williams said.

Those projects include:

The development of brownfields areas in the Highlawn nieghborhood.
Development of the West End of the city for commercialization.
Revitalization of Fairfield through the tearing down of the Northcott Court Housing projects.
Development of high-speed broadband throughout the city.

Williams says the projects won’t be finished in 11 months, but the city has to show they’re making headway on making changes.

Huntington Announces LGBT Inclusive 'Open to All' Campaign

Just a day after the state Senate voted down the controversial Religious Freedom Protection Act, Huntington officials announced the kickoff of a new inclusiveness campaign.

The campaign is called Open to All. It’s an idea that stems from the Huntington Mayors Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Advisory Committee. They hope the campaign promotes an environment that seeks to include all people. Huntington Mayor Steve Williams formed the LGBT Advisory Committee in 2015 to help advance the discussion about equality and justice for the LGBT community.

The Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce joined the city’s campaign. The hope is that local businesses will take a pledge not to discriminate. Kat Williams is a history professor at Marshall and Chair of the LGBT committee.

“There is a lot of homophobia and a lot of bigotry and Huntington doesn’t tolerate that and now we have an initiative and a sticker that businesses can put on their windows and put on their doors to say we’re not going to tolerate that here, we don’t do that here, we don’t do that in this town,” Williams said.

Williams said although it shouldn’t be necessary in 2016 to have this campaign, it still is.

Huntington Creates Vacant Building Registry

An ordinance that would eliminate several vacant buildings in Huntington has been approved by the City Council.

The ordinance will create a vacant building registry. If a building is vacant for 30 days, property owners will have to notify the city and have their building placed on the registry.

If that property remains vacant for a year, the owner will be issued fees to cover city services including fire and police protection.

Once that property isn’t vacant, it will be removed from the registry and all additional fees will cease.

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams says similar regulations are in place in Wheeling and Charleston.

Those against this ordinance said that forcing property owners to either sell or rent their properties may increase the likelihood of drug activity in their area.

Huntington Mayor Won't Face Charges over Ex-Chief's Payout

A grand jury has decided against bringing charges against Huntington Mayor Steve Williams over a payout issued to a former Huntington police chief.

Special prosecutor Craig Tatterson confirmed the grand jury’s findings Thursday. Tatterson told The Herald-Dispatch that he does not plan to pursue the case further.

The legality of the 2015 payout to former police chief Skip Holbrook by Williams was investigated by the West Virginia State Police at the request of the Cabell County prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutor Sean Hammers requested that his office be recused from the case, and Tatterson was named special prosecutor.

City councilman Scott Caserta had complained to Hammers that a $35,000 payout to Holbrook was for unused sick leave and in violation of a city ordinance.

Huntington Holds Meeting with EPA Focused on Revitalization

Huntington officials have joined forces with state and federal agencies to develop a plan for boosting economic development in the city. A forum held Tuesday focused on cleaning up toxic industrial sites, dealing with blighted areas and developing the waterfront. Huntington could become a model for other cities dealing with similar issues.

Huntington was recently selected as one of 53 communities in the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Making a Visible Difference in Communities Initiative.” EPA Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin said that through the initiative the agency wants to provide cities like Huntington a chance to gather resources.

“What we’re really focusing on is how do we marshal all our resources, how do we work together as federal, state, nonprofits, citizens to put a framework in that helps the city of Huntington and helps cities throughout the country,” Garvin said.

Tuesday’s forum was one of the first of its kind in the country and took a step toward implementing the initiative.

The idea is to bring city, state and federal officials together to examine how Huntington can overcome barriers to economic development.

Among the issues discussed were how to continue to examine and revitalize brownfields throughout Huntington, how to develop and change the riverfront and how to deal with areas of blight. Brownfields are contaminated areas left behind when industrial and commercial facilities close without being cleaned up first.

“There is a lot of stuff to accomplish and no one entity can do it by themselves and so for the ability for us to leverage resources and leverage visions and for us to find the little pieces to help out somebody else, every city needs, the country needs that,” Garvin said.

Along with the forum, Huntington officials discussed a newly released Huntington Innovation Project to revitalize parts of the city. The plan focuses on areas like the Highlawn neighborhood located along the river near 75 acres of brownfields. One of the neighborhood’s major issues is the increasing number of abandoned structures. The plan looks at changing the riverfront to make it friendlier and how to deal with a flood wall that isolates the riverfront from the rest of the city.

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said each part of the plan has many moving parts. For example, he said improving a brownfield is not just about cleaning up the property and putting something else there.

“We also have in that area a problem with flooding, how do we address the ground water and the storm water issues,” Williams said. “We also have dilapidated housing in the area so we have HUD here to talk about that. We also know that we have state highways coming through the area.”

The EPA has already provided $600,000 in grants in the past year to clean up brownfields in the city. Williams said the key to the project’s success is developing a good relationship with the federal entities.

“They are becoming familiar and excited about what we’re doing and as a result I’ve had an easier time in Washington to be able to go to the agencies and talk to them,” Williams said. “It’s easy to do business with people who you know and the more familiar they become with us, the better opportunity that we have to do be able to do things that otherwise would be a long-distance dream.”

Mayor Williams says he doesn’t know how long it will take to see the results of Tuesday’s meeting, but he thinks it will make a big difference for successful economic development in Huntington.