MORGANTOWN — Morgantown Communications Director Brad Riffee stood before Morgantown City Council Tuesday evening and laid out the concept behind what he believes would be the first municipal identification program in the state of West Virginia.
Based on the initial reaction, it appears council is interested in taking a closer look.
While no details have been finalized, potential perks of the ID could include easier access and interactions with city services and personnel, access to bus and library services, discounts at participating city businesses, and even access to checking and savings accounts.
Initial thoughts are the cards could be offered to residents starting at 14 years of age and include information like veteran status, donor status and allergies.
Riffee said receiving an ID card would require a fee as well as multiple points of proof establishing both the individual’s identification and residency in the city.
However, the city could set up a mechanism through which the fee could be waived. Further, the list of identification accepted would be expanded beyond state and federal requirements to include things like registry in the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS.
“We’ve made it to where; while we acknowledge that we need a process and we need to make sure we’re collecting the right documents, we also don’t want to create any more barriers,” Riffee said. “So, we’ve included pieces of information that we could use and verify as a municipality to help individuals who are in an unhoused situation.”
“Barrier” is a word that came up more than once during the discussion.
While Riffee reiterated his belief that the program would ultimately be beneficial to all city residents, it was noted that its origin dates back to a program pitched by Councilor Brian Butcher to help unhoused individuals get established.
Butcher said this program won’t be a magic bullet in those instances, but it would be a step in the right direction.
“There’s still going to be difficulty with certain people in terms of proving residency and stuff like that, but it’s to try to lower the barriers a little bit,” Butcher said. “Some municipalities have used these sorts of systems as a low-level bank as well. That’s something that obviously would require a lot more infrastructure, maybe many years down the road, but up to $200 in a bank card that somebody could have, and that could be really useful for people. I think even just having it as a bus pass or library card to get into any number of our municipal facilities would be great as well.”
Obviously, the cards could not be used as a driver’s license or any other form of federal identification.
Riffee said he pulled aspects of the proposal from various municipalities across the country and spoke to representatives from cities ranging in size from Madison, New Jersey, with a population of 17,000 to Detroit, Michigan, with a residency north of 630,000.
He said the program could likely be launched for approximately $2,000. Each photo identification card would cost the city approximately 33 cents to produce and could include watermarks and a holographic component similar to state IDs.
Among the major questions to be answered is who on the city’s end would be responsible for vetting identification sources and running the program.
“I’d like to emphasize that the Morgantown Municipal ID benefits all residents, regardless of age. Whether someone is a longstanding citizen or a newcomer, this program is designed to enhance accessibility,” Riffee concluded.
