photo by: Emma Delk

Moundsville Council members discuss the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 75’s starting wage adjustment request during a Finance Subcommittee meeting Tuesday. From left, council member Don DeWitt, council member Randy Chamberlain and City Attorney Thomas White.

MOUNDSVILLE — City Council members declined the starting wage adjustment and employee insurance deductible change request from the Fraternal Order of Police Moundsville Lodge #75 during a recent Finance Subcommittee meeting.

Some council members did, however, say the topic could be revisited when the city starts putting together its 2026-27 budget.

Council members cited the council’s and State Auditor’s Office’s passage of the city’s 2025-26 General Fund Budget as the reason they could not give the wage change. The proposed budget allocated approximately $2.7 million to the police department.

FOP #75 President Austin Pedelose made the request during an early April city council meeting. He presented council members with a breakdown of starting wages for local police departments in the area, requesting that the Moundsville Police Department’s starting wage of $57,324 be raised to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office’s starting wage of $62,000.

“There are former Moundsville Police Officers who have left and worked for every department on the list,” Pedelose said about the starting wage comparison list. “We must keep our wages within reach of our neighboring departments to remain competitive and to build for the future.”

Regarding the insurance deductible change request, Pedelose said rising health care costs had been a topic of “great concern” for the organization. He said it came as a “surprise” to MPD members that their deductible had risen as of July 1, 2024, and requested to make the current level of health care benefits offered to city employees a “top tier, non-negotiable item” when making budget decisions for the new fiscal year.

City Manager Rick Healy and council members considered FOP #75’s request during a Finance Subcommittee meeting on Tuesday. Finance Subcommittee Chair Randy Chamberlain wanted to get every council member’s opinion on the matter. He noted it would have been beneficial for FOP #75 to come to council with the request “much earlier” before their budget was sent to Charleston for approval.

Finance subcommittee member and Vice Mayor Sara Wood-Shaw agreed with Chamberlain, adding that the starting wage increase may be something the council would want to discuss when deciding next year’s budget. She noted that the employee insurance deductible changes could be considered when the city was shopping for employee insurance plans again.

Healy agreed with council members’ statements, stressing that the city has a “chain of command” on requests. He noted that they should hear from city department heads during meetings if an expected wage increase is requested.

Healy added that since 2019, the MPD had not lost an officer to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. He noted that they had lost one officer to the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office and another resigned to go to the McMechen Police Department and then returned to the MPD.

“The only other comment I’ll make on the insurance is that the comment they made that they were surprised [by the deductible increase] was a little distressing to me because they and everybody else received a memo explaining it,” Healy said. “[Moundsville Police] Chief [Tom Mitchell] sits in on all of the [city council] meetings, and everybody is now paying that extra money for the deductible.”

Healy said whether the deductible could be changed depended on the insurance packages available to the city.

Council member Don DeWitt, a retired Moundsville police officer and former McMechen police chief, noted the “violent situations” officers may encounter on the job. He added that if the city wants to “keep as many police as we have,” they must be paid enough to stay with the department.

“As a former chief of police, the most frustrating thing is when you believe you’re going to be up to full staff and the next thing you know you’re working 16 hours seven days a week because you’ve lost an officer,” DeWitt said. “If we want to keep the police, we better do something to raise their wages so they won’t leave.”

Chamberlain asked Mitchell to share his thoughts on the matter. Mitchell said that “historically,” there have been “mass exoduses” where several members of the MPD have gone to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m a member of the FOP but wasn’t involved in their [FOP #75] discussions,” Mitchell said. “We do need to try to stay competitive with the other departments so we can draw people in. We’re giving a [Police Service Commission] test on the 19th, and we have two applicants for the test. We try our best by training people and providing them with benefits to stay competitive.”

Mitchell said the MPD has three officers who “could retire at any moment.” Mitchell said it could be “pretty catastrophic” for the department to provide services with the number of residents it serves if these three officers leave.

The Finance Subcommittee did not recommend taking the request to council.