In June 2007 Shepherdstown will see a major change in the membership of the Planning Commission. Roger Munro, chairman of the committee, will step down, along with Jim Schmitt and Guy Frank.
 “Roger has done a very good job,” says Mayor Lance Dom. “He doesn’t inflame people. He is very polite and has been a very good chair. He came in and has taken us from the old days to where we are now—dealing with annexation, subdivisions, and historic landmark commissions.”
“I have had a very nice time; it has been very educational,” said Munro. “I’ve enjoyed being able to give back to the community. It came time for me to move on and for someone else to move in and take it in a new direction. My goal was to make the process as fair and consistent as possible.  I believe we achieved this goal.”
The new members of the Planning Commission will include Pam Berry, Hank Willard, Harvey Heyser, and Butch Sanders.
Pam Berry’s husband Rusty Berry sits on the town’s Board of Zoning and Appeals (also known as the “BZA”) that, among other things, oversees decisions made by the Planning Commission. According to Teresa Kirk of the W.Va. Ethics Commission, this does not present a conflict of interest under the West Virginia Ethics Act.
According to Skip Garten, counsel to the Judicial Investigation Commission of West Virginia, no ethics violation is apparent when a husband who sits on the BZA reviews a case voted on by the wife sitting on the Planning Commission. This would not be the case, says Garten, if, for example, a husband sitting as judge on an appeals court reviews a case by a wife sitting as judge on a circuit court. In this situation, the husband would be expected to recuse himself.  The key difference is that the BZA does not fall under the West Virginia judicial system. It is instead seen as a quasi-judicial body that sits within the town government.