ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The amount of money generated by mayor’s court during a previous administration was a topic of debate for St. Clairsville City Council again on Monday.

Councilwoman Beth Oprisch broached the subject.

Councilwoman Linda Jordan, who is also a mayoral candidate in today’s election, has disagreed with Mayor Kathryn Thalman, who is seeking reelection, about the frequency of mayor’s court proceedings and the revenue it has generated.

Jordan maintains that during the previous administration, mayor’s court was generating an average of $44,000-$45,000 a year.

During Monday’s meeting, Finance Director Annette Whealdon referred to funds generated by the mayor’s court under the previous administration.

“I have all those reports here for that year,” she said.

She elaborated after the meeting.

She said meeting minutes from January 2017 listed mayor’s court collections at $13,878.25, but the actual amount collected would have been $1,545.

“They were not accurate as mayor’s court receipts. There were other receipts with mayor’s court,” she said.

Whealdon said in October of this year, $940 was collected of which the city keeps $759.

Oprisch said she had also looked at records from prior years.

“Last council meeting there was a discussion about mayor’s court,” she said, adding that she looked through four years of minutes, ending in 2019, to review mayor’s court reports. “Some of it didn’t make sense to me because the numbers seemed exactly the same numbers in consecutive months, and a couple months they were significantly higher — $13,000 in a particular January, some for $6,000 and some for $5,000. It seemed like the average was more the $1,000-$2,000 mark, so I did some research myself. … Those minutes, those numbers reported in the minutes were a combination of building permits, zoning permits, yard sale permits and other sources of revenue, not just mayor’s court.”

Oprisch questioned why Jordan brought up mayor’s court income and said Jordan had not been forthcoming with the source of the numbers she cited.

“I just found that really disrespectful,” Oprsich said.

Jordan answered.

“I’m going to say this and then I’m totally done with this. I’m done talking about this mayor’s court. This is what we, the council, voted on as the mayor’s court,” she said. “If you want to dispute four years’ worth of mayor’s court, please feel free and do that, go back and dispute them. These came, as you know, from a former state auditor and finance director who taught finance directors throughout the state. She was contracted for over 25 years, so I don’t think there are a lot of mistakes here. Seems we would have disputed it during this four-year period. I’m done with it.”

Jordan has said she had gotten the figures from Lee Anne Pytlak, who had worked in the finance department before being dismissed in 2020.

Thalman said the figures were “dishonest” or “sloppily” gathered.

Jordan disagreed.

“This is what was reported as mayor’s court collections,” Jordan said.

Oprisch referred to a quote from Jordan from September, asking that city leaders put politics aside and concentrate on what is best for the city.

Jordan agreed with that comment. She did not wish to comment further after the meeting.

Oprisch also asked Safety and Service Director Jeremy Greenwood if the city would be answering an email from W.E. Quicksall regarding a 4-year-old, 500,000-gallon water tank at St. Clair Commons. Council had voted to “mothball” the tank in July on the grounds that it could not be fully utilized since it was not built at an optimal elevation. Quicksall, which installed the tank, has since given an opinion that the tank might be made usable.

Greenwood said a response will be sent but the issue touches on matters discussed during a closed-door session.

“We’re looking at all options and will make a determination as to what’s going on there, based on what we had in the executive session before,” he said.