Against Allegations
HTS Story
Ferguson claims that commissioners Richards and Blankenship did not comply with the building of the Law Masters' office, when they had $1.4 million to do so.
Richards claims otherwise.
"Everything we did was approved by the Supreme Court," Richards said. "On September 6, 2000, we put in the last nail, and Ron Anderson moved into the new Law Masters Office. We started on Dec. 7, 1999 and finished September 6, 2000. We completed it with money from outside the budget. In nine months, it was finished."
Richards then said that someone in the office wasn't happy with how it was laid out, and complained. They had to strip the walls, and Judge Ferguson sent a letter saying the commission had to hire a "competent contractor" to do the job. Richards said their maintenance crew would have finished the job in three weeks, but instead they had to advertise for a 'competent' contractor, wait on a meeting, and have the work done.
"They just want the $1.4 million to build a fourth courtroom and the 'L. D. Egnor Annex'," Richards said. "This is a disaster. The problem is, there's no separation of power anymore. That's the problem. There's no separation of power, and I don't think the public cares."
Richards also claims that there was no way to know that the commission would have that much money left over until after July.
"They accused us of knowing we had a $1.4 million carryover long before we actually did," Richards said. "There's no way we could have known that until after June 30. Then we'd have to wait until July to get all the bills in, pay them, and see what's left in the bank!"
According to Richards, they bought a building next to the EMS office with $85,000, for more law offices. They used their own maintenance staff and prison inmates to fix it up because it would save money. She said that even with all of this work, the judges still weren't happy.
"There're four judges that think the world should revolve around them," Richards said. "(Fellow Commissioner) Egnor is one of them. That man is terrible. I wouldn't walk across the street if he was on fire."
Also according to Richards, the city hasn't helped the problem.
"No one sees what good we've done, because the city won't acknowledge it," Richards said. "We're soon to have 97% of people in our county with running water. 97%! That's better than any other county in West Virginia! But the city won't help us. The city wouldn't even help pay for the new Votronic voting machines."
When asked why, Richards explained that the city wanted the voting system so the local elections would fit on the ballot, but they didn't want to spend any money for it.
"The wanted a free ride," Richards said. "They wanted the voting system, but Mayor Dean turned us down when we asked for some money from the city. The paid us $55,000 for the optical scan system, and that was a total disaster. The Poll Officials told us they would quit if we used that system again; the city wanted a new system to hold all the names on the ballots, but nobody wanted to spend any money to do it. The city wanted a free ride, and, so far, that's what they've gotten."
Commissioners Richards and Blankenship will appear in Chief Judge Ferguson's court to face charges of contempt, on Monday, September 18th at 1:30 p.m.
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T. Michael Murdock, Staff Editor & Reporter