CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Nitro-based attorney and MetroNews legal analyst Harvey Peyton thinks the number of elected office-holders on the Board of Public Works should shrink.
“Money is such an issue and good government is such an issue,” Peyton said on Tuesday’s edition of “The Mike Queen Show” on the AJR News Network. “I think the lack of a reputation for good government is a real hindrance to our economic development. We have a terrible reputation around the country.”
His issue with the Board isn’t about the Board’s necessity, but rather the combination of democratically elected positions that are administerial in nature that also lack term limits.
“I really like John Perdue,” he said. “I think he’s done a really good job as state Treasurer. But, at the end of the day, if the treasurer of the smallest, poorest county in West Virginia–that being the sheriff–can’t serve more than two terms because somebody wants to check the books every eight years, why do we not do the same thing at the state level?”
Certain positions, like attorney general and state auditor, he believes should be filled through elections. He believes changes are needed for other positions–like treasurer, secretary of state, and agriculture commissioner.
“The agriculture commissioner is a policy position,” he said. “The way the state pays attention to and promotes it’s agricultural interests as a tool of economic development is a policy issue.”
Those positions, he suggests, would be more accountable to voters if they were appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the state Senate.
“Is that not a function that can be served administerially (sic) within an agency that’s headed by a policy-making Governor?”
Similarly, he feels the secretary of state’s primary role is as an administrator. As such, he says it makes little sense for an office to be filled by campaign operatives when it could be filled in other ways.
“It’s not an office that requires a multi-tens of thousands of dollars redo of a website so that the office holder’s picture can appear at every click of the mouse,” he said.
At bare minimum, Peyton believes term limits should be enacted for every position on the Board.
Thus, Peyton believes it’s time for a fresh approach.
“If we find there are significant savings to be had and efficiencies (sic) that we can show the rest of the country that we are serious about, what would be the harm in trying?”
The last time an effort was made to change how the Board of Public Works was comprised was 1989.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected any changes to the process that year.