Senate Government Organization Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker defended several bills Tuesday that would eliminate civil service and grievance protections for new hires and those promoted within several state departments and agencies. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON — Gov. Patrick Morrisey is a step closer to being able to merge several state departments and exempt future employees from civil service protections with the passage of House bills by the West Virginia Senate Tuesday.

The Senate amended and passed three bills Tuesday morning: House bills 2008 and 2009, both reorganizing the executive branch; and House Bill 2013, transferring certain state employees to classified exempt service. The bills go back to the House for that body to concur with Senate amendments.

HB 2008, which passed the Senate 25-9, would return the Department of Economic Development to the Department of Commerce as a division. The current cabinet-level position of secretary of the Department of Economic Development would become an executive director beneath Department of Commerce Cabinet Secretary Matt Herridge.

The original intent behind the separation of Commerce and Economic Development has just not been achieved,” said Senate Government Organization Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson. “The idea was to emphasize the importance of economic development to businesses, but businesses expected commerce to be at the center of economic development.”

HB 2009, which passed the Senate 24-10, would eliminate the Department of Arts, Culture and History and transfer its divisions, boards and agencies to the Department of Tourism. Morrisey retained Chelsea Ruby to continue leading the Department of Tourism.

Building 3 on the grounds of the Capitol Complex in Charleston is home to the headquarters of the Department of Commerce, which could soon absorb the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Tourism, which could soon be in charge on the Department of Arts, Culture and History. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

In 2018, Justice renamed the Department of Education and the Arts to the Department of Arts, Culture and History, elevating former Division of Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith to the new cabinet-level title of curator. The Legislature changed Reid-Smith’s title last year to secretary. Reid-Smith retired effective Feb. 14.

The Department of Economic Development and Department of Tourism were formerly divisions within the Department of Commerce. But former Gov. Jim Justice and the Legislature split off the West Virginia Development Office and the Division of Tourism from Commerce in 2021, with both becoming cabinet-level departments.

Not everyone was pleased with this reorganization. Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, offered an amendment to keep the departments of Economic Development and Commerce separate. The amendment failed on a 17-17 tie.

“I don’t think that West Virginia should take its eye off the ball on being laser-focused on sending our message around the planet that you need to come to West Virginia to open up your business here,” Tarr said. “I think that by putting the Department of Economic Development back into the Department of Commerce, we lose the ability to have that laser focus.”

Both HB 2008 and 2009 would prohibit new hires or those promoted within the reorganized departments of Commerce and Tourism from being covered by classified civil service protections beginning in July. The Senate’s two lone Democratic members offered unsuccessful amendments to both bills to keep the civil service and grievance protections in place.

“We created the merit system in this state in 1947 and that is contained in our civil service system…codified in 1961,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell. “So why in the world are we taking away the grievance process and the civil service protections of our employees? And you can have an employee that’s not new but that’s been employed by an agency, but they changed positions. They’re going to lose their civil service protections.”

“It’s deja vu all over again with this amendment, as the great Yogi Berra would say,” said Senate Assistant Minority Leader Joey Garcia. “The thing about this amendment and the civil service provisions, the grievance provisions…we’re getting to a deja vu era because this is meant to prevent some of the abuses that have happened in the past in state government, across the country, where cronyism is what happens.”

The third bill recommended by the committee Thursday, HB 2013, would exempt future state employees and current state employees who transfer or are promoted within the Bureau of Senior Services, the Department of Administration, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Revenue and the Department of Veterans’ Assistance from the classified civil service system and state employee grievance procedures.

Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, said he believes that there will be additional legislation next year exempting more state departments and agencies from civil service grievance protections, opening the door to hires in exchange for political favors or nepotism.

“Today’s a sad day. We’re doing away with civil service. We’re doing away with the grievance procedure,” Hamilton said. “This is moving us back 50-plus years, and I don’t want to see that, and neither do the employees of our state…this is just a forebode of what’s coming.”

Rucker argued that most state employees will likely never notice a change with these bills as long as they are doing their jobs.

“Fortunately, we have mostly great, wonderful, hardworking individuals, and those individuals are the ones who are not worried about this because…they show up on time. They know that they work the full hours. They know that they’re responding to phone calls and issues with constituents,” Rucker said. “They’re not concerned about this legislation. I will tell you that when it comes to this policy that we have, I do not want to see people being fired for no reason. That’s inhumane.”

All three bills were introduced on behalf of Morrisey and are part of his platform to right-size state government. Speaking Monday during a press conference, Morrisey encourages lawmakers to pass his other pieces of legislation before the session ends at midnight on Saturday.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.