A West Virginia House of Delegates leader has asked state agencies to review the licenses of four men who have admitted to taking part in a kickback scheme involving the Division of Highways.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports House Government Organization Chairman Gary Howell sent letters last week to the Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, the Contractors Licensing Board and the state Purchasing Division.
Howell wants the agencies to submit reports and timelines that detail whether they have taken steps to revoke the licenses of the men who’ve entered guilty pleas.
DOH engineers Bruce E. Kenney III and James Travis Miller have pleaded guilty, as have Bayliss & Ramey President Mark R. Whitt and Marshall University professor Andrew P. Nichols.
The House of Delegates has passed a Senate bill that would legalize medical marijuana in the state. But the bill has seen a number of changes since the 28 to 6 vote last week in the upper chamber.
During a late night floor session Monday, delegates voted on a handful of amendments to Senate Bill 386, including a committee substitute that completely replaces the Senate’s version of the bill with one sponsored by House Judiciary Chairman John Shott of Mercer County.
Senate Bill 386 would now put the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act under the control of the West Virginia Department of Public Health. It would create a 6 percent excise tax on marijuana and pushes the rollout date back one year to July 2019 instead of the Senate’s July 2018 implementation date.
The latest version of the bill does not allow distributors to sell forms of the drug that can be smoked or eaten, but does include prescription oils, pills, or patch versions and a form that can be vaped. Judiciary Chair Shott says the bill would allow patients to make their own baked goods using the oils. Medical marijuana would also not be covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
Delegate Shott has called this version of the bill a cautious approach to a controversial issue.
Delegate Tom Fast, a Republican from Fayette County, spoke in opposition to the bill as it was put to a final vote Tuesday. He argued since it is still classified as an illegal drug by the federal government, states shouldn’t make their own rules about using medical marijuana without the Federal Drug Administration’s approval and guidance.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Tom Fast, R-Fayette.
“We’re declaring that we are no longer a state under the law,” Fast said, “We’re just going to join 28 other states and say we’re not going to obey the law. That makes no sense to me. If 28 people are gonna jump off a bridge, are you gonna jump off the bridge with them? Are we a nation of laws or are we not? That is the decision that you are faced with today.”
Republican Charlotte Lane of Kanawha County, who introduced her own bill this session to legalize medical marijuana that was never taken up in a committee, says this bill is a step in the right direction.
“People might not be 100 percent happy with it, but folks, this is a lot further than we ever thought we would get this session,” Lane noted, “and we all know people who are sick that can benefit from this or might benefit from it. Now, yes you can talk about maybe we should wait for the Federal Drug Administration, well folks, if you’re dying, it doesn’t matter. So, if something can make you feel better and ease those last days, last weeks for the patient, and for the members, then we ought to pass it.”
Many supporters of the bill have said legalizing medicinal use of the drug could help veterans suffering from PTSD. But Delegate Roy Cooper, a Republican from Summers County argued the legislation will just add another substance to the list of drugs that are abused in the state.
“The veteran’s suicide issue can be answered by the paper in my hand. We’ve now prescribed to veterans ever how many’s on this page; Prozac, Zoloft, sinequan, Wellbutrin, Valium, Ambien, Xanax, morphine, fentanyl, codeine, Ultram, Percocet, Vicodin – veterans are getting these pills shoved in their hands at veterans hospitals all over the country in combination with each other. That’s where our suicide issue’s coming from with veterans,” Cooper explained, “Now, so we put another drug out there and say, okay, you can take that on top of all this other stuff and then go ahead and drink a little alcohol with that. It’s a deadly cocktail folks; a deadly cocktail.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Roy Cooper, R-Summers.
Delegate Gary Howell, a Republican from Mineral County, supported the bill.
“I’m not a doctor, and I don’t know all of the medical benefits; I don’t know all the medical downsides, but I do know that people in the end of life; it gives them hope;” Howell said, “they’ve tried many other things, it hasn’t worked. They know this won’t cure their problem, but it will make ‘em a little bit more comfortable, and if you’ve been with someone at the end of their life, you want them comfortable, and that’s why I support this bill.”
Judiciary Chair Shott pointed to a study from the American Medical Association, that argued there was “high quality evidence” medical marijuana has done a lot of good for sick and dying patients.
“So shouldn’t we give, based on studies like this, shouldn’t we give our physicians the authority to use that type of tool to help their patients? And that’s really what we’ve done, and we’ve instilled in this structure protections to be sure this is not abused and is used properly,” Shott explained, “and for that, ladies and gentlemen, I strongly urge that we give our physicians this tool, that we pass this bill and provide some relief for those who can benefit from it.”
After an hour of debate, Senate Bill 386 passed 76 to 24 and now heads back to the Senate for consideration. If the Senate approves the bill, the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act will head to the governor for a signature, but if the Senate refuses the House changes, the bill will go to a conference committee.
Governor Jim Justice has said he could support medical marijuana in the state.
Delegates voted on 12 pieces of legislation in the House yesterday, including one that creates a centralized state vehicle inventory system. The bill was the result of both an interim study and a request from Gov. Jim Justice.
One of the first bills presented to lawmakers on behalf of Governor Justice was to create and maintain a vehicle inventory system for state cars.
That bill was introduced and sent to the House Committee on Government Organization, but the committee decided instead to push their own version of that bill; House Bill 2004, which was up for a vote in the chamber Monday.
The bill’s goal is to figure out exactly how many cars the state owns. According to the Legislative Auditor’s Office, that’s a difficult question to answer and the number depends on who you ask. The Auditor’s Office estimates West Virginia owns anywhere between 7,600 to 12,600 vehicles.
The bill keeps in code many of the same measures that are in law today, but essentially starts the inventory from scratch. It says all the data about state vehicles would be housed at the Fleet Management Office. The inventory system would still distinguish state, county and city vehicles with different color plates.
House Government Organization Chair Delegate Gary Howell is the lead sponsor of House Bill 2004.
“What this bill will do will begin to get a handle on it,” Howell explained, “We’re changing the color of the license plates on it; to get the old green ones out of the system, because we know that some of those tags have disappeared and may be on private cars and stuff like that.”
Howell says new state vehicle license plates will be gold with blue letters. The plates on county and city owned vehicles would remain the same – red with white letters for counties and blue with white lettering for municipalities.
Howell says by creating the new inventory, the state will be able to track spending more closely.
“We know where our personal vehicles are, we know how much we have in them, we know what our maintenance costs are, we know how much we’re buying on fuel, and when times are tough, we track that,” Howell said, “We decide, is this trip needed? And stuff like that. The state should be doing the same thing, and when you don’t know what you have, you can’t do that.”
The bill passed 99 to 0 in the House and now heads to the Senate for consideration.
One of the first bills introduced on behalf of Governor Jim Justice is one aimed at organizing the number of state-owned vehicles. The governor’s version of this bill, House Bill 2492, was introduced in the House of Delegates last week and referred to the committee on Government Organization. But lawmakers in that committee took up a different yet similar bill drafted by members in the House.
Members in the House Government Organization Committee took up a single bill Wednesday morning; House Bill 2004 – to create and maintain a centralized state vehicle inventory system. Under the bill, the data and information regarding state vehicles would be housed in the current Fleet Management Office and would distinguish state, county, and city vehicles with different color plates, much like the system West Virginia has in place today. The problem is that system hasn’t been working the way it’s intended to.
In fact, according to the Legislative Auditor’s Office, the number of state vehicles ranges anywhere between 7,600 to 12,600. Green license plates are how state vehicles are identified, but the problem is organizations that are considered quasi-state agencies, such as community senior centers or public service districts, also get green plates even though the state doesn’t technically own them.
“When the state can’t answer a question of a $200 million plus asset, how much is actually there, we got a problem,” said House Government Organization Chair Del. Gary Howell, R-Mineral, “so we started looking into it. And for the past, roughly ten months, we’ve been working on this with Fleet, DMV, and BRIM trying to come up with a solution.”
Howell is the lead sponsor of House Bill 2004. He says he and other members have also worked closely with the governor’s office in drafting his version of the bill. He says the state hasn’t been tracking the vehicles very closely and considering the state’s budget crisis, Howell says reorganizing the system, or essentially starting the count from scratch, will help.
“It won’t help the budget this year, but next year, once we get a number, we’re gonna be able to look at this and say, here’s some serious cost savings,” he noted, “I expect to save tens of millions of dollars in subsequent years by getting control of the fleet.”
Bob Ashley, who was previously a member of both the House of Delegates and state Senate, is now the governor’s legislative director. He says having so many quasi-state agencies with green-plated vehicles, has posed a real problem that he says is addressed in another version of the bill presented by the governor. That bill would also create a new vehicle registry and change the plates issued to non-state agencies.
“If you’re a state vehicle, you’re a green and white license, if you’re a quasi-state vehicle, you’re a black and white license, and the people will know the difference on the road,” Ashley said.
The two versions of the bill, from Del. Howell and from Gov. Justice, are very similar, but the committee voted to advance the Legislature’s version of the bill.
Ashley says creating a reliable tracking system for state vehicles will save West Virginia taxpayers’ money.
“We’re gonna run it more efficiently,” he said, “The vehicles, Fleet Management will keep an eye, and they do, but they will have an increased look at the gasoline, the usage, the wear-and-tear, when the vehicle’s been serviced; they will also have a better maintenance program for all the vehicles. It is really tightening up to make certain, for the taxpayer, that what vehicles are owned by the state will in fact be taken care of and recognized by the state.”
Five bills have been introduced on the governor’s behalf so far this session, but Ashley says a total of 29 are expected.
