Draining the Swamp.....
- Thread starter bornaneer
- Start date
Slime balls? Aside from Ketchum, who already resigned and Loughery, who has multiple articles against him, what did the rest of them do? Drive a state vehicle home and back to work? Oh what a travesty.
You are intelligent enough to realize what is really going on, right?
Robin Davis resigned.......blamed it on the Repubs. The House of Delegates approved articles of impeachment against four justices of the state Supreme Court.
For starters.......the renovation of Justice Robin Davis’s office. That cost $500,278.23. According to Realtor.com, the median listing price for a house in Charleston is $150,000.
Davis’s office work included over $23,000 for “design services” by Ed Weber Architects. The glass countertops, glass door and floor cost $90,000. Stainless steel cabinets and shelves cost $40,000. Two Edward Fields rugs priced out at over $28,000.
The governor wants to pick the entire Court, duh. And he will...until the next election. And once these Justices are seated, it will be an uphill battle to unseat them.
Damn, we've flashed back to the "good ole days" of corrupt WV politics - W.W. Barron and Arch Moore.
Well 2 have resigned...which means special election and not Governor's pick. The rest should resign.
Why would it be hard to unseat them? They are appointed until the next election. Unseat them.
A broke *** poor state like WV that can't afford to pay teachers or fund public health ins plans does not need this repulsive spending of taxpayer money. I actually thought this is something everyone would be against. Drop the criminal charges if they resign and pay full restitution, let's move on.
A half million dollars is over the top for an office renovation. I thought the rest was simply driving a state vehicle back and forth to work and a few random places.
The vehicle usage is one of those add ons to send a message to the rest of the population, imo. That said, the Justices on the Supreme Court know better and should have acted better.
I think they have to be on the ballot today for the November election because the state has to get the ballots off to print for precincts withpaper or punch ballots.
Not sure but if they are removed the next state election can be used to fill their remaining term.
True.......the one that resigned and the one that retired last night will be replaced by the voters in Nov.. If the others are removed their replacements will be selected by the Gov..
You forgot that "good ole boy" Darrel McGraw.....the ******* who spent millions of taxpayer money on trinkets,keyfobs and refrigerator magnets all with his mugshot on them.
This is bad news for the state. Frankly this mess is on the hands of the legislature, they had oversight on the budget and should have had better control over the spending.
And it royally screws me.
Is that correct? I thought the justices had control over their own spending but just went way overboard with it. I will look through articles on this.
My understanding was that the legislature releases funds for their budget, but the judiciary has oversight over that money. I also read that there is a bill on the floor to push the budgetary controls over those funds back to the legislature.
Just for giggles, I'd be curious to see spending on renovations on the legislative side of things, executive too. I'm not saying there's a double standard, but I'm curious.
One other thing I read was that they didn't really see anything criminal with 2 justices, but opted to impeach them anyway due to lack of oversight on the budget for the remodeling. I'm not sure of affiliation of those justices, so I can't say that I think they are politically motivated. They could lean left, and this move still might not be politically motivated.
I don't live in West Virginia so I'm not as familiar with this story as some of the ones posting in this thread but as a general rule I think would be a good idea to have elected officials pay for their own office renovations out of the salary that they're already being paid by taxpayers.
That's what I've been under the impression of. That the judiciary gets an allocation, but spends it as it sees fit. Where the legislature failed IMO is to allocate that money without going, "Gee... that's a bit much... let's see where it's going." Especially in light of the issues that the SBA are dealing with in funding, as well as other state agencies.
Loughry, who faces 23 federal charges is a Republican. Margaret Workman is a Democrat. Beth Walker is a Republican. Menis Ketchum, who resigned and also faces federal charges, is a Democrat. Robin Davis who retired last night is a Democrat.
Last edited:
What I've seen (NYT) says that Chief Justice Loughry is a Republican. A Democrat, Justice Ketchum, resigned before entering a guilty plea for misuse of a government vehicle (driving to golf outings). Justice Davis retired after the impeachment was announced. I'm not sure what her party affiliation is, but some comments she made led me to believe D. That leaves Justices Workman (D) and Walker (I - lean to R according to NYT). Loughry was the start of the mess - using state employees to move furniture from his office to his home, spending a ton on furniture, etc. Davis spent a ton on remodeling as well, over $500k. The other 2, Workman and Walker, spent over $100k on remodeling expenses for their offices. I didn't see anything about remodeling costs for Ketchum, only misuse of the government vehicle.
Those are the facts that I know. I can see how some would see this as a power grab by the Republicans. I can also see it as concern about misuse of state funds. I would argue that the justices left themselves open to this by their actions, regardless of party affiliation. It sounds like Loughry really needs to go. Davis and Ketchum have opted to leave. I could see a good argument to be made about Walker and Workman staying in office, and maybe that's the outcome of the trials. I could probably be swayed on those last 2, but I don't really know how much input they had in the spending process outside of their own renovations. That would probably be a deciding factor for me, along with what was included in those over $100k renovations.
Do you pay for your own office renovations at your place of work, assuming you are not self-employed? I have no problem with renovations within reason being paid by the employer, the state in this case. I think the issue here is that they went well beyond reason.
Umm, wrong.
Workman, Davis and Ketchum are Democrats, Loughry and Walker are Republicans.
It is amazing how stupid you are.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/08/6367...e-panel-votes-to-impeach-entire-supreme-court
Agreed. My point is they are already paid by taxpayers so to me if their furnishings that are supplied as part of the budget to run their offices are inadequate for their specific types of preferences or renovations they prefer, why is it unreasonable to have them pay for those specific requests out of their own salaries since it is above and beyond what taxpayers are already providing?