CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Figuring out what’s happening inside the West Virginia Department of Commerce, which has been rocked by controversies, is getting harder and harder.
“Lots of problems getting answers. It’s been that way from the beginning,” state Senator Ed Gaunch said today.
The agency isn’t taking media calls. It is asking for long extensions to provide written information. And its employees have not appeared before legislative committees asking for information about West Virginia flood relief.
There appear to be three reasons for the silence.
Commerce, generally, isn’t allowed to speak up for itself any more. Many of those who know about the controversies have left or been forced out. And the controversies have created an unusual amount of attention that has overwhelmed those who remain.
Controversy broke out in late May over West Virginia’s response to long-term flood relief. Gov. Jim Justice’s office halted a key contract to manage flood relief efforts over questions about whether it had received proper authorization.
Scrutiny grew over whether the state has been efficient enough in providing relief, now two years after devastating floods that killed 23 people and damaged hundreds of homes.
As Justice grappled with those problems, he named Adjutant Gen. James Hoyer of the West Virginia National Guard as his point man on flood relief and promised a “realignment” of the Commerce department. Media queries about flood relief issues were directed to the National Guard, even if the focus was Commerce.
This month, the Governor’s Office revealed another investigation involving the Department of Commerce. The Governor’s Office hired outside investigators to look at whether private investors had cozied up to Commerce to gain greater access to an investment deal with China.
A separate but related program to embed private executives in aspects of the Commerce department was shut down.
Out of all that, the department has lost its top three officials.
Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher was forced to resign this month, Development Office executive director Kris Hopkins left of his own accord and Josh Jarrell, the deputy secretary for Commerce, was pushed out prior to Thrasher’s departure.
Thrasher has been replaced by interim Secretary Clayton Burch, whose background is with the state Department of Education.
Days before Thrasher was out, he wasn’t allowed to discuss his own situation.
And this week it was revealed that two officials who were key to the Rise West Virginia disaster relief program have resigned.
Those officials were Russell Tarry, deputy director of the Development Office, and Mary Jo Thompson, director of community advancement and development. Thompson is a niece of Sen. Joe Manchin and a former constituent services director for Manchin when he was governor.
As state lawmakers took a critical look at problems with long-term flood relief during two separate meetings this week, Commerce had virtually no representation.
No one from the Commerce department or the Governor’s Office appeared at the presentation of an audit that found the state had entered into millions of dollars of flood relief contracts without appropriate oversight. “I’m disappointed that there’s no one here,” Senate President Mitch Carmichael said at that meeting.
Tarry and Thompson were supposed to appear before the Legislature’s Committee on Flooding, which still had them on the Tuesday morning agenda.
Instead, another Commerce employee, Jennifer Ferrell, community sustainability manager, was called to the front to account for her colleagues’ whereabouts. “They no longer work for the Development Office,” said Ferrell, who added that she had not worked closely enough with Rise to speak about it.
The only one from the Justice administration to appear at either legislative meeting was Hoyer, who is appropriately focused on improving the long-term flood relief response and not as focused on what went wrong.
Senator Gaunch, R-Kanawha, said he is examining the committee’s subpoena powers to compel those with knowledge of flood relief to talk. Gaunch, co-chairman of the flood committee, spoke this morning on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
He would like to know why Commerce gained responsibility for long-term flood relief in the first place. One of those who pushed for its placement, behind the scenes, was Thompson.
Gaunch said that when he learned the two Commerce representatives were no longer employed and would not appear before the committee, “frankly I was red-faced and angry about it.”
More broadly, Gaunch wants to know “Where was the ball dropped? Why did we get to the point where the dollars had arrived but we still weren’t spending them? Why was there such a delay from when we sent in the request for the funds and got approval and then a huge delay in asking permission to start to spend those funds?”
WV State Senator Ed Gaunch (R-Kanawha) joins @HoppyKercheval to talk about the status of long-term flood recovery & the $1 million dollars spent on unused office space by the state. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/FsGpC4Bxi3
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) June 27, 2018
Delegate Kayla Kessinger, R-Fayette, released a statement expressing frustration over the lack of answers from Commerce. Kessinger is a member of the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding.
“Twice this week we have had hearings to discuss the inappropriate and likely illegal allocation by the Department of Commerce of tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds related to flood relief programs that have to date failed to adequately benefit those directly affected by the floods, and twice this week Commerce Department officials have failed to show at these hearings,” Kessinger stated.
“It is an absolute outrage that while residents in my district and in areas around the state are still living out of campers and using the restroom in buckets, that bureaucrats in Charleston can’t bother to walk across the Capitol complex to tell these people’s elected representatives why they aren’t getting the help they need.”
Senator Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, expressed outrage during the meeting that Thompson and Tarry had abruptly resigned. He wanted to know the nature of their resignations and publicly suggested that the state press corps should help figure that out.
West Virginia MetroNews has sent a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to the Department of Commerce over the past month about both the agency’s handling of long-term flood relief and then the controversies over how private executives interact with Commerce.
The earliest of the requests was sent May 23.
On Tuesday, the Department of Commerce responded to four of the requests, saying it would be at least another month, until July 31, before responses would be available.
“Please be advised that Commerce has received numerous FOIA requests and many of those requests seek large amounts of documents,” wrote Wesley White, assistant general counsel.
“Commerce is collecting and reviewing the documents responsive to those requests in the order in which they were received.”
Kessinger, in her statement, said West Virginia citizens deserve to know more about the agency’s handling of long-term flood relief.
She made reference to an audit released Sunday concluding that, as of June 1, it did not appear that anyone had received full assistance for new homes under the Rise West Virginia flood recovery program.
“The results of this audit are appalling, and sadly, I know our continuing investigation is going to reveal even more malfeasance in the coming weeks,” Kessinger stated.
“Lawmakers and the public deserve to know how and why this despicable situation occurred and what officials are going to do to fix it and prevent it from ever happening again. But that cannot happen so long as people from the Commerce department keep refusing to show up for our hearings.”