CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former School Building Authority member Tom Lange said he left the body last week because of orders not to meet with school officials or visit proposed project sites.
SBA executive director David Roach sent a letter to board members advising against them meeting with school officials or conducting on-location visits.
Lange said last week on MetroNews “Talkline” Roach told the board there is a process regarding learning about projects; county representatives come before the board and the SBA determines if the funding request is acceptable based on a related presentation.
“Since 1990, board members have gone out or have been invited out to look at different projects because half of these are competitive grants,” he said. “There are $200 million in requests, $50 million worth of state dollars, and a lot of superintendents will use any advantage they can to get their projects funded.”
Lange said visiting schools helped him better understand requests.
“I just think to be a good steward of the taxpayer dollar, I want to see what our dollars are being spent on,” he said.
Lange officially resigned from the board July 13, citing the direction under Roach. Lange, however, did not blame Roach for the directional change.
“I have thought a great deal on the changes you have been directed to make and philosophically believe the changes aren’t in the best interest of West Virginia taxpayers,” he said in a letter.
Brian Abraham, SBA chairman and Gov. Jim Justice’s counsel, fired back at Lange in a press release.
“If he is referring to continuing the decades-long practice of backroom deals and private meetings that have taken place, instead of an open, fair and transparent process we are now putting into effect so that every county receives the same treatment and consideration, then we will just have to agree to disagree,” he said.
Lange said no backroom deals were made during his time on the board.
“We’ve put things in place,” he said. “When you give a county $10 million and it goes out the window and it’s the state’s dollars and you don’t have any control over it, it’s pretty frustrating.”