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By Bob Weaver
The WV party or faction in control, Democrat or Republican, once fired nearly all their political opponents.
Over the years, the practice seemed to have waned, but Secretary of State Mac Warner brought it back with a vengeance.
Republican governor Arch Moore fired nearly all the Democrat employees of the WV Department of Highways, which led to placing those workers under civil service. Moore later went to prison for accepting bribery money.
Six more former employees of Warner's office are among a large group fired when Mac Warner took office in January 2017. They have now settled wrongful termination suits for a total of nearly $2.14 million.
That brings the cost of settlements for Warner's ouster of longtime employees in the Secretary of State's Office to more than $3.1 million, with two more cases pending.
When Warner took office in January 2017, he fired 16 employees, most of whom had between 8 and 50 years of governmental service. Fifteen were registered Democrats, and one was independent. Despite the initial claims that the cuts were in order to "streamline" the office, Warner subsequently hired 22 new employees, most with little or no government experience, 19 of whom were Republicans.
The latest settlements are with: Layna Valentine-Brown, elections division director, $725,000; Rose McCoy, business clerk and a 50-year state employee, $400,000; Anna-Dean Mathewson, business and licensing specialist, $325,000; Nancy Harrison, head receptionist, $275,000; Sam Speciale, public relations specialist, $275,000; and Tammy Roberts, elections division specialist, $137,500.
"So far, over $3.1 million has been paid, and the only reason the state did that is because there's a terrible problem in the Secretary of State's Office," said Mark Atkinson, one of the attorneys for the fired employees.
Warner has claimed legal right to fire the employees, blaming BRIM for the settlements.
"That these people were fired for allegedly being incompetent, being inept, or that they should have been fired for cause, when there is not a bit of testimony and there's no evidence in any personnel file that they had done anything improper is unfortunate," Atkinson said.
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