West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Telling West Virginia's Story
On this West Virginia Morning, We’ll bring you information on a large pro-union rally that took place over the weekend at the capital, and Catherine Moore…
On this West Virginia Morning, We’ll bring you information on a large pro-union rally that took place over the weekend at the capital, and Catherine Moore brings us the story of a community organization from Clay County that is fighting for a better future.
Early one morning this past January, two Clay County school busses pulled up at the state capitol complex in Charleston. Inside were members of the group “What’s Next, Clay County?”, one of twenty-five communities across the state that is organizing to strengthen their local economy as a part of the “What’s Next, WV?” initiative.
Sign up to bring "What's Next" conversations to your community today! http://whatsnextwv.org/organize-discussion
Over seventy people attended their first community meeting last fall—not a small feat in a community of their size. They chose five areas to focus their work: youth and education; infrastructure; small business; drugs; and cleaning up trash and dilapidated properties.
Since then, they realized they would need outside help to accomplish all they have set out to do, so they set off for a day at the capitol. This is a story about a small, rural community fighting for a brighter economic future for their families and neighbors.
To get to know these Clay Countians in living color, check out this short documentary about their day at the legislature.
What’s Next, WV? is a partnership of the WV Center for Civic Life, the WV Community Development Hub, and WV Public Broadcasting.
Find more stories in this series! wvpublic.org/programs/whats-next-wv
A special joint-session of the legislature was held in the House chamber Friday in response to the recent crises caused from this week’s storm. Officials wanted to explain Governor Tomblin’s State of Emergency declaration and to update lawmakers about current conditions and what they can tell their constituents affected by the storm.
Heavy rains began earlier this week that soon turned to heavy snow. Flooding and power outages have been huge problems in many parts of the state, and especially in some southern counties.
Peter Marcum, General Counsel to Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, reminded legislators of some of the different possibilities that could occur during a Governor’s declared State of Emergency. Marcum says the Governor may decide to evacuate residents, provide temporary housing, declare disaster zones, suspend the sale of alcohol or explosives, and may even close schools.
“It’s important that you look at each particular state of emergency declaration, because each emergency is unique, and the governor, the legislature, the local emergency service providers will be offering specific guidance to deal with the emergency,” Marcum said.
Last year, the legislature passed a governor’s bill that required a state of preparedness for emergencies and situations like the current winter storm.
Peter Marcum says this has allowed first responders to act quickly in light of this storm.
“Thanks to a governor’s bill that this body passed last year, we now have the power to declare a state of preparedness,” Marcum explained, “This enables the governor to exercise all of his emergency powers well in advance of an eminent emergency, so that we can marshal resources, put them in place in preparation of problems. It also allows us to warn the public, you need to be on high alert, because a severe winter storm’s coming.”
Major General James A. Hoyer with the West Virginia National Guard says the state of preparedness has helped to get a head start on the crisis.
“From the standpoint of my role and our responsibility as the National Guard, what you provided us last year with the state of preparedness; I think it’s important to understand the benefit to our ability to respond and to the National Guardsmen,” Hoyer said, “By allowing us to move in early, it allows us to put men and women in place ahead of time that makes the response more effective in the front end, which hopefully reduces the time and the cost on the backend.”
This morning in the 20th district in Mingo County, there was a mudslide that left many residents trapped. Delegate Justin Marcum says he’s very concerned for his constituents in his home district.
“I’ve talked to county commissioner, John Mark Hubbard and Greg Kody Smith, they’re on the ground,” Delegate Marcum explained, “We’re working now to implement the National Guard. We’re trying to bring in other resources. I will praise our county commission; they’ve done a great job with these in the past and moving forward. We’re just praying for these individuals that are trapped with the mudslide. Yeah, we have around fifty people trapped; we have boats and dozers that will be going in. The issue is with the trap, where it’s trapped, the mudslide is coming in, the water is rising. Most places, the water’s receding, but we’ve got the water’s rising here, and that’s our main concern, so the evacuation process is ongoing. Luckily, praise God, we have no injuries at this point.”
Delegate Lynne Arvon of Raleigh County oversees the 31st District, which has seen a lot of water outages in the last few days. She says her district has been declared a disaster area.
“The portion of Route 3 that is in my district, District 31, goes down Route 3 and to the Boone County line, has been declared a disaster area,” Arvon said, “We now have two deployments of the National Guard in that area, and they are able, people who are stuck in their homes and can’t get out, their roads have been washed out, whatever the cause may be, they can call the emergency services number, which I have put on my House of Delegate page, and the National Guard will be sent to get them. They will go on foot and get them, or deliver water or whatever needs they have.”
After the presentation, Speaker Tim Armstead reminded members as they deal with constituents’ troubles related to the storm, have them turn to local sources of assistance rather than going straight to the state to address their needs.
“I think it’s very important as my discussions with each of you is to just reiterate that when you have constituents that do have needs, whatever those needs are, I think you start with that local, rather than trying to go up to the state level immediately with, when they’re trying to, to get all these things handled from the various counties to go through your county originally is very important. And I know each of us have had, unfortunately flooding and other situations in our districts.” – House Speaker Tim Armstead
Governor Tombin’s State of Emergency continues with updates as weather and flooding in the state continue to be addressed.
The Charter Schools bill made its way into the House Wednesday. The House Education Committee debated the bill until almost midnight that night. It ultimately passed and will soon be on first reading in the full House.
Senate Bill 14 was the focus of a lot of debate in the Senate, and passed Monday on a vote of 18 to 16. Public Charter Schools still receive government and county funds, just like regular public schools, but charter schools would not be overseen by the county Board of Education. This in turn would give teachers at charter schools more flexibility in the way they deliver their curriculum, but they would still be subject to state education standards.
Delegate Amanda Pasdon of Monongalia County, the House Education Chair, says charter schools will provide more options.
“I don’t have any concerns with the progression of it,” Pasdon said, “I think that there are those that support charter schools; public charter schools, I think there’s a lot of support, because it gives our students a choice, and I think that’s what this is really about is focusing on our students, making sure that we’re meeting their needs to the best of our ability, and this is really just a county option and a community option to allow communities to develop school choice and options that really benefit our students.”
In the House Education Committee meeting Wednesday night, there were a handful of amendments proposed by members. One of those amendments came from Delegate David Perry of Fayette County, the Minority Education Chair. It provided more auditing and oversight of charter schools.
“I proposed an amendment that the offices of education performance audits would monitor the charter schools,” Perry explained, “and this means that they would check on school climate, that they would monitor finances, that they would monitor instruction to ensure there was some accountability.”
Perry’s amendment was rejected, and he says he’s concerned that will make it difficult to make sure charter schools are providing quality educations for West Virginia students and spending their funds properly.
“Well I have concerns, number one, that there was not a fiscal note with the bill that we discovered, hadn’t been prepared after changes in the Senate, and I still have very much concern over accountability and when we’re dealing with public funds and the education that those children would receive or not receive,” Perry said.
Delegate Sean Hornbuckle of Cabell County also proposed two amendments to the bill. One would require three parents on the charter school governing board be proportionate to the demographic of the students attending the school. This amendment, however, was rejected, as well as a second amendment that dealt with a new idea not raised in the Senate.
“The other amendment that I proposed is we’re going to have two charter schools in the first five years of this program allowed to open up. The amendment simply stated that at least one of those schools need to be aimed at student populations of at risk pupils,” Hornbuckle said, “So this could be in super rural areas of the state, it could be in inner, inner cities of the state, but I feel again that if we’re gonna do this thing, and I think it has great, great potential, we need to make sure that we’re uplifting the students who truly, truly need it.”
Hornbuckle says by not adopting his amendment, it will set the state back.
“The concerns that I have is that we will go backwards. It will be, has potential, has potential to sort of segregate people as far as lower socioeconomic kids and higher socioeconomic kids, and I just don’t think we can afford that in our state. With the potential of charter schools being very, very good, we need to make sure that we craft it as best as we can to fit our demographics here in West Virginia,” Hornbuckle noted.
Delegate Pasdon says there were other amendments offered in the committee that, like Perry’s and Hornbuckle’s, she doesn’t believe are necessary.
“Well there were various amendments, you know, and for different reasons,” Pasdon said, “What we wanted to do is preserve the integrity of the bill. We wanted to be sure that we were making children and students the focus of this legislation, and we’ve steered away from anything that did the opposite.”
Senate Bill 14 will be on first reading in the House this weekend.
On this West Virginia Morning, we bring you the latest from the House and the Senate including a move by Delegates to overturn Governor Tomblin’s veto of the 22-week abortion ban.
After a session that lasted almost until midnight Tuesday night, members of the House got an early start Wednesday morning to pass a flurry of bills. Here’s a look at three of those bills, but first a look at a proposed constitutional amendment that passed protecting homeowners from creditors after the passing of a spouse.
House Joint Resolution 13 was first on the agenda. Delegate Eric Nelson of Kanawha County, the House Finance Chair, explains.
“This is dealing with the Homestead Exemption Increase,” Nelson said, “As amended yesterday, the $20,000 would increase to $40,000. And again, our Homestead line item has not been increased since 1982, and I believe that the amendment also took away the county option and made this option of the authority. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage.”
House Joint Resolution 13 passed 93 to 3. If this joint resolution passes the senate the question about increasing the homestead exemption would be on the ballot in the Fall of 2016.
House Bill 2148 relates to the state’s open container laws. It creates a misdemeanor offense for having an open container of alcohol in certain areas of a vehicle; specifically in the driver’s and passenger’s seats. The language is required by the federal government so the state can keep getting federal highway funds.
Delegate Gary Howell of Mineral County supported the bill, but was concerned about cars without traditional trunks, like SUVs. Howell questioned the Judiciary Chair, Delegate John Shott of Mercer County.
“Do we have anything in this if someone, say collects beer cans for the aluminum,” Howell asked, “and they put it inside the passenger compartment, and there’s residue in them, are they breaking the law or not?”
“I don’t think there’s anything specifically exempting that,” Shott answered, “and I assume that if there’s any residue of alcohol in them, they should put them in the trunk and not in the passenger compartment, otherwise they risk violating this statute.”
“So an SUV, where you don’t have a trunk, they would be risking breaking the law,” Howell asked.
“Once again, in an SUV, you have a luggage compartment. I think what this refers to is that the passenger compartments of, I have an SUV, there’s an area in the back of my SUV where I put all types of luggage, even trash, so that’s where I would recommend you put it to avoid any, any misunderstanding,” Shott said.
House Bill 2148 passed 92 to 4.
House Bill 2939 requires the mandatory reporting of sexual offenses on school premises involving students. The bill is in part a response to an incident at Capital High School in Charleston. The Principal there was accused of knowing about an incident on campus, but not reporting it within the current legal time limit.
The case against the principal, however, has been questioned because of confusion over the current law. The House Judiciary Committee discussed a loophole in state code where there is no specific requirement of certain personnel to report such incidents. The Committee also updated the definitions of sexual offense and sexual abuse.
The bill had bi-partisan support in the full House, but some Democrats had some concerns. The bill requires an incident to be reported “immediately,” and a handful of Democrats were concerned this term, immediately, left the reporting requirement open for interpretation. Another concern related to the pressures this bill might bring on teachers.
Democrat Peggy Smith of Lewis County told her colleagues it will be a nightmare.
“I’m gonna have to tell every teacher who comes to me, you gotta report it whatever it is, don’t risk not reporting it,” Smith noted, “I’m gonna have to tell every principal that. They’re gonna overwhelm law enforcement, they’re gonna overwhelm the state police. They’re gonna overwhelm the system, and it’s gonna take a lot of time, when they already have to report it. We already have a system that requires that we report, and it’s rarely abused, and I think this is a terrible mistake.”
Another Democrat, Delegate Shawn Fluharty of Ohio County, however fully supported the bill.
“This bill was fully, fully vetted in Judiciary,” Fluharty said, “Every scenario under the sun was brought up, many of which were repeated today on the floor, and the protections were weighed; protections of the students that attend our schools and the protections of the teachers that run them. And we understand the value of protecting both of them, and we fully vetted it. As the bill is right now, the teacher sees something, they have a duty to report; duty to report to law enforcement. Many law enforcement are actually on campuses throughout our state, so their duty to report ends there. They report it to law enforcement, law enforcement then puts it in their hands because they’re well trained, established and know what to do with the facts.”
House Bill 2939 passed 86 to 9.
House Bill 2688, a bill related to forced pooling, caused a storm on the floor. When companies prepare to drill a well they create a giant rectangle of land parcels and then negotiate with each mineral owner within that rectangle for their gas rights.
The bill allows companies to pool the mineral owners within that rectangle together to purchase their mineral rights. If they can get 80 percent of the owners in their parcel to agree to the drilling, the bill allows for the drilling to occur without the consent of the other 20 percent. Those 20 percent, however, are still required to be paid for their proportion of the gas drilled.
Democrats and some Republicans are heavily against this bill because they say it forces eminent domain for economic development. Delegate Pat McGeehan of Hancock County strongly opposes the legislation and to make his point, requested the clerk of the House read through the entire 43 page bill this Wednesday morning.
After an hour of reading, Speaker Armstead gave the house four hours to debate it. But after two hours of debate, the House approved the bill, 2688, to a vote of 60 to 40.
