EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a letter to the editor submitted by Councilman Dave Sowers, followed by a response by mayoral candidate Roger Newlin.

To the Editor:

In response to Roger C. Newlin humbly seeking to once again serve you, the good citizens of Keyser, as your mayor:
“Despite the many rumors and back-room allegations of the last two years,” Mr. Newlin wrote in a recent ad, “I assure you, my friends and neighbors, that I have never and will never do anything unscrupulous, unethical and certainly not illegal while serving as your mayor ...”
The sad part of this is: You're telling the people what you think they want to hear, not what actually went on during your administration.
Mr. Newlin, what would the ethics committee say about that if you “did” tell them exactly what you have done? Does the prior city council need to jog your memory? What about the mayor's expense account, was it over-expended during your term in office? Did you use the city credit card to live on, charging Netflix and XM Radio? Did your ex-wife have a city cell phone for over a year after your divorce, and why would she have one to begin with?
While we are on the tree service, as city administrator you had three tree jobs done on the North End when all tree service was supposedly stopped! How did you become city administrator to begin with? Did you not appoint yourself? And in a previous article you blamed the administration for having to leave?
I am really tired of the tree service being bashed constantly for doing work they were contracted to do by the city of Keyser.
Yes, I am a new member of the council, and yes I might do things wrong, but it is with the best interest of our citizens. I took an oath, the same one that you took, to faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the city of Keyser, to the best of my skill and judgment...that I will not administer my said position with the aim to benefit any political party, and neither will I during my term of employment, become pecuniarily interested directly or indirectly in any contract with the city, or the purchase of supplies thereof. Can you honestly say that Mr. Newlin.
The city of Keyser has been through a lot of rough times, with different things coming out in the paper. It's time the citizens of Keyser know the truth about things! These receipts are public records, and can be viewed by anyone.

— Dave Sowers
Keyser City Councilman


By Richard Kerns
rkerns@newstribune.info
tribune staff writer

KEYSER — In response to allegations that he used a city credit card to purchase movies and satellite radio, provided his wife with a city-owned cell phone, and ran up excessive trip expenses, former Keyser Mayor Roger Newlin acknowledged that he made mistakes, but said such practices were common in city government at the time, and that he has learned from his mis-steps.
“I did make some mistakes, I made some poor judgments,” he said in an interview Thursday morning. “That was actually a fairly common practice then. That didn't mean it was right, but it was being done before my time.”
City records show that Netflix charges of about $10 a month were charged to the city’s credit card for Newlin's use. The former mayor, who served from 1999 to 2006, said he didn't have a personal credit card at the time, and used the city's card for the movies.
He said he only charged about three months' worth of movies — or about $34 worth — before deciding on his own that the practice was not right, and reimbursing the city in cash.
“I did charge that to the city credit card, I don't deny that ... ,” he said. “No one told me it was wrong. I decided it was wrong and paid back the city.”
Newlin also charged the city for XM satellite radio,



which he used in his car and at City Hall both for music and news/talk radio programs. He said he gave his password to other staff in City Hall so that others could use it as well. “That was available to the girls in  the office,” he said.
Newlin also acknowledged having the city pay for a cell phone for his former wife, which she used for a year or more. City officials  said former councilman Marques Rice also provided a city cell phone for an

see RESPONDS page 7
acquaintance. Newlin noted that city workers at the time would take home back-hoes, chain saws and other city-owned equipment as a perk of the job.
“It's not right, but it was the status quo at the time,” Newlin said.
The former mayor also filed for monthly travel expenses that dwarf those of current Mayor Glen “Bunk” Shumaker, who has run up about $12 over the past year, city officials said. For Newlin, monthly totals for lodging, meals and gas amounted to $932, $837, 620, $487 and $483, among a sampling of bills available at City Hall.
Newlin defended those expenses, saying he was active in the West Virginia Municipal League. One such trip, he said, resulted in making connections with banking representatives who enabled the city to refinance its debt, saving $1 million.
“Our relationship to the municipal league was very beneficial to the city...,” he said. “We made a lot of contacts through the municipal league that saved us in a lot of ways.”
Referring to Sowers' letter, Newlin denied running down the tree service for the work it performed.“This letter is pathetic in a way,” he said. “I have never once said anything about the tree service.”
Newlin applauded the current city council for instilling a new era of accountability in Keyser, and said he is running for mayor because he can be an asset to the council in that regard. He said he has learned from his mistakes and would not make them again. “It's got to completely stop; no personal use of anything by city employees ... the only way to correct the problems of the past is to 100 percent stop it,” he said. “I recognize we need to do that. I pledge to do that.”
The former mayor also encouraged residents to seek him out and ask him about any issues of concern, including past spending practices. “Just ask me about it,” he said. “I'll tell you. I'll sit and talk about it.”
He also noted that State Police and the State Auditor's Office looked into his spending  as part of their investigation of Rice's involvement with the wood-cutting contract, and they “had no problem with it.”
“I fell into doing what was always done and what everybody else was doing,” he said. “I won't even try to defend that. I made a mistake and I recognize that I did.”