Commissioner Kent Carper submits his resignation

Longtime Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper resigned just moments before it was announced that a federal investigation into him will not result in any charges. Carper, who had served as commissioner for nearly three decades, announced the move in a statement Friday. Eyewitness News reported that he made the announcement so that voters knew he would no longer be serving on the commission regardless of the result of this month’s election. Carper had been selected consecutively as the commission’s president since 2006. He was first elected to the commission in 1996. Carper had been at the center of a state and federal investigation surrounding a May 15, 2023, incident where he is accused of exposing himself to a woman at Daniel Boone Park in Charleston. The county commission said in a statement that it will discuss an appointment of the vacant seat at its next meeting.