In a special edition of this column last week, we discussed the process by which the Jefferson County Commission suddenly and precipitously dissolved the Jefferson County Development Authority and summarily fired all it members.

But what kind of Development Authority might we want?

State law mandates that the Authority have a minimum of seven members and a maximum of 21. Beyond that, county commissions may appoint however many and whoever they want. State law doesn’t require a county to even have an economic development entity. In the counties lacking one, the county commission is the development body.

Apparently, a sticking point with some of the members of our county commission regarding the makeup of the now-dissolved Development Authority, is that each of the county’s five municipalities were assigned a slot on the body. Why would that be a problem?

I think it’s critical to have municipal representation on any countywide economic development body. Many ideas and perspectives would be shut out of the discussion were municipalities to be denied. I believe each of our five municipalities should have its own representative on the Development Authority, and I do not live in a municipality.

Arguing that 15 members makes for inefficiency seems ludicrous. Is this a smoke screen for something else?

Another rumored sticking point is what type of development our county should have. Apparently, many of the fired members of the Development Authority want to strengthen agriculture. They’ve been working on getting a slaughterhouse for our county, which would be a boon for farmers. Did this earn them the County Commission’s disapproval? Does the County Commission desire that many of our county’s farms be replaced by data centers, solar arrays and other factory-type development? Why else would they say they want to support Governor Morrisey’s development plans (which include data centers) for our county?

And there appears to be a requirement for appointees to the (yet to be created) new Development Authority to sign a loyalty oath to the County Commission. I thought the Soviet Union collapsed in 1995.

The latitude given to counties, as to the structure of development authorities, is unusual, compared to state rules about other entities of county government. State law mandates certain requirements for appointment to the planning commission, the health board, parks and recreation, the library board, emergency services or any of a number of other county entities.

State law requires the planning commission to have one member officially representing organized labor. I don’t think the Jefferson County Planning Commission has such a member. Should the AFL-CIO discover this, will there be a lawsuit? (Hey, will there be a lawsuit over the Commission’s opaque process?)

The mission of the Development Authority should be to determine what kinds of economic development would most benefit the county, and put into practice a plan to pursue that end. It would seem logical that the more ideas, the better. And the more voices, the greater the chance that an inferior proposal or a scurrilous one might be caught in time.

John Doyle is a 26-year former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. He can be reached at rjohndoyle@comcast.net.