PARKERSBURG – Despite the committee seeking a referendum on Parkersburg City Council’s approval of a sanitation service contract with Waste Management obtaining an additional 1,000 valid signatures, the city reported the petition insufficient on Friday.

“The committee is dismayed, but not surprised by the city’s latest action in this matter,” said Edward Escandon, a member of the referendum committee. “It’s a good thing for the citizens of Parkersburg that the city attorney’s opinion is not the final word on this point, far from it.”

In a release from the city, the total valid signatures submitted by the committee exceeded the required 3,074 by Section 8.102(1) of the City Charter.

But despite the validity of the signatures, City Attorney Blaine Myers said the ordinance was not subject to referendum and therefore the petition was invalid.

“In accordance with the opinion of the city attorney as set forth in his memorandum dated March 5, 2026 … it has been determined that the ordinance is not subject to referendum under the provisions of Section 8.101 of the City Charter,” the release read. “Accordingly, the petition and supplemental petition are hereby determined to be insufficient.”

The committee seeking a referendum has the opportunity within two days of receiving the city’s notice to request for Parkersburg City Council to review the matter at hand.

“The city attorney claims that this ordinance was not subject to referendum because it regarded the spending of money,” said Escandon. “This opinion will not stand up to judicial review which will be happening directly.”

In February, the committee submitted about 3,000 signatures but after review from the county clerk’s office, they deemed only 2,091 were valid leaving the committee 672 short of what was needed.

After the committee received explanations on why those signatures weren’t valid, they spent the next few weeks gathering more signatures by the deadline in April.

On Thursday, Myers said there were some delays with validating the supplemental petition signatures due to the election in May.

Due to the uncertainty of the referendum, Waste Management has not signed the contract as of Friday.

If the contract doesn’t come into fruition, customers will have the option to sign up for their own trash service.

Escandon said the committee is “confident this opinion will be nullified in court and that the petition will be certified as sufficient.”

On behalf of the committee, he said they will continue to advocate for those who signed the petition and it may require further review depending on the actions taken by city personnel.

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com