(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

One of the things I like to do with my weekly Reporter’s Notebook is take you behind-the-scenes of how I decide what stories I write.

Two weeks ago, I wrote two stories involving major announcements and how properties owned by Gov. Jim Justice are in the mix.

The first was an infrastructure project to connect the Morgantown Industrial Park to I-79 via a direct interchange and a new bridge to connect the park to U.S. 119 and to I-68. It’s a much-needed project in a growing part of the state that already suffers from poor road conditions. But it turns out that Justice is part of a limited partnership that used to own the park and still maintains some mineral rights which he earns dividends from.

I’ve read Justice’s financial disclosure reports filed with the West Virginia Ethics Commission many times and had never noticed the mention of “Morgantown Industrial Park Associates LP,” but it is there. It is also in his new financial disclosure report filed for his U.S. Senate race, showing he earns some income from the limited partnership.

Apparently, it was also a surprise to the Governor’s Office, because they were unaware Justice had reported any interests at the Morgantown Industrial Park. The only thing anyone could nail down at the time of my initial story was that Morgantown Industrial Park Associates had sold its interest in the park in the mid-2000s. A call to the current owners confirmed as much. But how was it that Justice was still reporting dividend income?

Justice explained during an Oct. 19 administration briefing. He said that Morgantown Industrial Park Associates still has ownership of some mineral rights on the property due to natural gas.

Now, will a new interstate interchange and a new bridge cause the value of those mineral rights to increase? Beats me. It is certainly important for the public to know what Justice’s connection to the industrial park is.

The other project is the Marshall University Institute for Cyber Security which received $45 million from the Legislature in the August special session called by the governor. The new facility is going on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Hal Greer Boulevard. But across the street there is a small mostly empty parking lot. Guess who owns that?

The James C. Justice Companies Inc. have owned that parking lot since the mid-2000s. No big deal, except now it is in the middle of expansion by Marshall University into Fourth Avenue. The Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation is built just down the block. The Marshall University Advanced Manufacturing Center is just further down.

Again, good projects that will do amazing things for Marshall University and Huntington. But once again, Justice has an adjoining interest. Improvements around the parking lot will cause its value to increase, making for a nice sale price down the road. Or if the governor donates the land, it would be a tax-deductible gift to Marshall.

To be clear, Justice didn’t put the $45 million appropriations bill for the cybersecurity center on the special session agenda on his own. It was a request by Marshall and legislative leaders. And Justice claims to not know that the Institute for Cyber Security was going to be built right across from his parking lot, even though demolition on the site began the day after the Legislature passed the bill.

But unlike Morgantown Industrial Park Associates, which shows up on multiple Justice financial disclosure reports, you won’t find Justice’s Huntington parking lot on public disclosure forms. I had to do a property search through the Cabell County Assessor’s Office to find the information on the property, and a search on the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department website to find that James C. Justice Companies Inc. still owe taxes on the parking lot.

I don’t think Justice is trying to be shady in either the Morgantown or Huntington property issues. I think Justice and his family own so much property around the state that it simply can’t keep track. Justice listed 147 different assets on his U.S. Senate financial disclosure report in September. And tucked away within those assets includes all sorts of properties and interests.

Justice wasn’t happy with me for asking about the parking lot near Marshall University, much like he wasn’t happy with me when I wrote a story about his companies in the middle of a lawsuit brought by FirstEnergy while a FirstEnergy spinoff was seeking a tax break for the Pleasants Power Plant in 2018.

Again, the tax break was good and fair, as Pleasants Power was the only plant in the state still required to pay business and occupation taxes. But the lawsuit didn’t look good, as one could argue Justice was trying to curry favor with FirstEnergy so that they would drop their lawsuit.

I’ll say now as I said then: all of this could and can be avoided if only the governor would place his businesses in blind trusts, which would provide a firewall of protection for him. It would protect him against real and perceived conflicts of interest. But as long as he refuses to place his assets in blind trusts, media will have to constantly keep an eye out.

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