HOUSE RESOLUTION 203

(By Delegate Sponaugle, Barrett, Bates, Boggs, Brewer, Byrd, Campbell, Canestraro, Caputo, DiSerio, Eldridge, E. Evans, Ferro, Fleischauer, Fluharty, Hartman, Hicks, Hornbuckle, Iaquinta, Isner, Longstreth, Love, Lovejoy, Lynch, Maynard, Moye, Pethtel, Pushkin, Pyles, Rodighiero, Rowe, and Williams)

[Introduced August 13, 2018]

Recommending the public reprimand and censure of Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry, II, Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis, Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman, and Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Walker.

Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry, II, unmindful of his duties of his high office, and concurrent with other Justices of the Supreme Court, has exhibited a pattern and practice of wasteful spending on his personal office at the state Capitol, undertaking renovations that were unnecessary and lavish, with a total cost in excess of $363,000, to personalize the office to his personal tastes, including a $31,924 couch and a $33,750 customized floor;  further, these renovations were undertaken without consideration to the fact that all state officers are tenants of their offices, not owners thereof, and although it is appropriate to update and modernize these spaces when needed, the citizens of this state expect reasonableness and frugality with the use of government funds; further, that the costs of these renovations, during difficult financial times in our great state, when so many citizens are struggling to earn a living, showed a true loss of perspective of his role as a steward of government resources and the Supreme Court, and his spending was wasteful, excessive, and outrageous, and although not unlawful, exhibited extremely poor judgement; and

Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis, unmindful of her duties of her high office, and concurrent with other Justices of the Supreme Court, has exhibited a pattern and practice of wasteful spending on her personal office at the state Capitol, undertaking renovations that were unnecessary and lavish, with a total cost in excess of $500,000, to personalize the office to her personal tastes, inconsistent with the historical design and dignity of our beautiful state Capitol; further, these renovations were undertaken without consideration to the fact that all state officers are tenants of their offices, not owners thereof, and although it is appropriate to update and modernize these spaces when needed, the citizens of this state expect reasonableness and frugality with the use of government funds; further, that the costs of these renovations, during difficult financial times in our great state, when so many citizens are struggling to earn a living, showed a true loss of perspective of her role as a steward of government resources and the Supreme Court, and her spending was wasteful, excessive, and although not unlawful, exhibited extremely poor judgement; and

Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman, unmindful of her duties  of her high office, and concurrent with other Justices of the Supreme Court, has exhibited a pattern and practice of wasteful spending on her personal office at the state Capitol, undertaking renovations that were unnecessary and lavish, with a total cost in excess of $111,000; further, these renovations were undertaken without consideration to the fact that all state officers are tenants of their offices, not owners thereof, and although it is appropriate to update and modernize these spaces when needed, the citizens of this state expect reasonableness and frugality with the use of government funds; further, that the costs of these renovations, during difficult financial times in our great state, when so many citizens are struggling to earn a living, showed a true loss of perspective of her role as a steward of government resources and the Supreme Court, and her spending was wasteful, excessive, and although not unlawful, exhibited extremely poor judgement; and

Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Walker, unmindful of her duties of her high office, and concurrent with other Justices of the Supreme Court, has exhibited a pattern and practice of wasteful spending on her personal office at the state Capitol, undertaking renovations that were unnecessary and lavish, with a total cost in excess of $131,000; further, these renovations were undertaken without consideration to the fact that all state officers are tenants of their offices, not owners thereof, and although it is appropriate to update and modernize these spaces when needed, the citizens of this state expect reasonableness and frugality with the use of government funds; further, that the costs of these renovations, during difficult financial times in our great state, when so many citizens are struggling to earn a living, showed a true loss of perspective of her role as a steward of government resources and the Supreme Court, and her spending was wasteful, excessive, and although not unlawful, exhibited extremely poor judgement; and

Whereas, Justice Allen Loughry, II, Justice Robin Davis, Justice Margaret Workman, and Justice Elizabeth Walker, being at all times relevant Justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, unmindful of the duties of their high offices, and contrary to the oaths taken by them to support the Constitution of the State of West Virginia and faithfully discharge the duties of their offices as such Justices, while in the exercise of the functions of the office of Justices, in violation of their oaths of office, then and there, with regard to the discharge of the duties of their offices, did, in the absence of any policy to prevent or control expenditure, waste state funds with little or no concern for the costs to be borne by the tax payers for unnecessary and lavish spending for various purposes including, but without limitation, to certain examples, such as: to remodel state offices, for large increases in travel budgets—including unaccountable personal use of state vehicles, for unneeded computers for home use, for regular lunches from restaurants, for framing of personal items, and other such wasteful expenditures not necessary for the administration of justice and the execution of the duties of the Court; and, did fail to provide or prepare reasonable and proper supervisory oversight of the operations of the Court and the subordinate courts by failing to carry out one or more of the following necessary and proper administrative activities:

A) To prepare and adopt sufficient and effective travel policies prior to October of 2016, and failed thereafter to properly effectuate such policy by excepting the Justices from said policies, and subjected subordinates and employees to a greater burden than the Justices;

B) To report taxable fringe benefits, such as car use and regular lunches, on Federal W- 2 forms, despite full knowledge of the Internal Revenue Service Regulations, and further subjected subordinates and employees to a greater burden than the Justices in this regard, and upon notification of such violation, failed to speedily comply with requests to make such reporting consistent with applicable law;

C) To provide proper supervision, control, and auditing of the use of state purchasing cards leading to multiple violations of state statutes and policies regulating the proper use of such cards, including failing to obtain proper prior approval for large purchases;

D) To prepare and adopt sufficient and effective home office policies which would govern the Justices’ home computer use, and which led to a lack of oversight, which encouraged the conversion of property;

E) To provide effective supervision and control over record keeping with respect to the use of state automobiles, which has already resulted in an executed information upon one former Justice and the indictment of another Justice;

F) To provide effective supervision and control over inventories of state property owned by the Court and subordinate courts, which led directly to the undetected absence of valuable state property, including, but not limited to, a state-owned desk and a state-owned computer; and

G) To provide effective supervision and control over purchasing procedures which directly lead to inadequate cost containment methods, including the rebidding of the purchases of goods and services utilizing a system of large unsupervised change orders, all of which encouraged waste of taxpayer funds.

Whereas, The failure by the Justices, individually and collectively, to carry out these necessary and proper administrative activities constitute a violation of the provisions of Canon I and Canon II of the West Virginia Code of Judicial Conduct; therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Delegates:

That Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry, II, Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis, Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman, and Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Walker be hereby publicly reprimanded and censured for and because of this aforementioned conduct; and be it

Further Resolved, That the Clerk is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry, II, Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis, Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman, and Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Walker.