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

As we get closer to the end of the administration of Gov. Jim Justice and transition to the incoming administration of Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey, I’m looking forward to a change in how state government communicates with the public and press.

For example, once again the West Virginia Department of Human Services decided to take something that should not have been all that controversial and make matters worse all because of their dislike of media scrutiny.

On Tuesday, DoHS announced the closure of the West Virginia Children’s Home in Elkins effective Dec. 31 due to issues with the building’s age and condition. But you didn’t hear about this because instead of sending out a press release to statewide media or even media in Elkins and Randolph County, they sent it to — as near as I can tell — only one media outlet last weekend and quietly published the press release on the DoHS website last Tuesday.

Amelia Knisely is a friend, colleague, and investigative reporter for the online news outlet West Virginia Watch. She is a dogged but fair journalist who has been reporting on DoHS — and previously DHHR — for years. DoHS is not a fan.

Knisely was working on a story based on a news tip about the impending closure of the West Virginia Children’s Home before DoHS sent out their press release to what appears to be only one news outlet. Her story was published last Monday morning. It wasn’t until that afternoon that some of us started seeing the press release on social media that evening.

I never received a press release. My fellow statehouse reporters I speak to regularly never received a press release. I’m told DoHS sent the release to “relevant” media, but when I checked in with my Ogden Newspapers colleagues at The Inter-Mountain in Elkins — the city where the West Virginia Children’s Home is located — they also had not received a press release. They are the ones who noticed the press release on the DoHS website dated Nov. 19.

If you’ve heard this story before, DoHS pulled this same trick over state child care subsidy funding over the summer. DoHS officials said to lawmakers in April they needed an additional $23 million by the end of August to keep funding the childcare subsidy for the remainder of the current fiscal year based on the new federal enrollment formula.

Naturally, we reporters started asking DoHS what the status of this situation was as we got closer to the end-of-August deadline. DoHS ignored requests from me, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and West Virginia Watch — including asking DoHS Secretary Cynthia Persily in person — only to be rebuffed. And again, DoHS planted stories with at least one other media outlet stating that they found additional funding for the child care subsidy and calling our reporting “inaccurate.”

I have no idea why this is the tact DoHS takes with media. I’d think when it comes time for Governor-Elect Morrisey and his new DoHS secretary nominee to come in, they would be disinclined to keep a communications team in place that acts this way. And I would think it would be hard to get future communications jobs in the private sector after you’ve burned bridges with the people you need to pitch stories to.

All I can ask a future Morrisey administration is to do better than what is currently being done.

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For a funny story, I was kicked out of a meeting last week at the Public Service Commission. But so was another reporter and even a legislative attorney for the House Technology and Infrastructure Committee.

In all seriousness, the PSC was in the right and we were not supposed to be there. It was the first meeting for a PSC task force working on rules for pole attachments for broadband expansion projects. It’s really one of the last big hurdles when it comes to getting fiber broadband to homes.

The task force will advise the PSC on recommended changes to rules governing pole attachments, dispute resolution processes between internet service providers (ISPs) and utility pole owners — usually power or telecommunication companies. The task force is also charged with reviewing how pole inspection reports are shared between pole owners and the contractors who will install the fiber as pole attachments, as well as requiting pole owners to provide periodic reporting to the PSC on compliance with its rules.

I’m following this issue closely and look to have a deep dive article about it soon. That’s why the task force has been on my radar after being told about this upcoming meeting. But I should have reviewed the PSC order creating the task force more closely.

“Only persons directly involved in the pole attachment process for expansion of broadband are invited to participate in the Pole Attachment Rules Task Force.”

It turns out that unless otherwise exempted, all task forces formed by the PSC are not open to the public. They made an exemption for a recent task force on fire hydrants.

But here is the difference between DoHS and the PSC: the PSC communications staff are far more friendly with the press. They were polite and even apologetic when they didn’t have to be. They even pointed out that we could certainly speak to task force members later if they are willing to talk.

Government communications staff have two masters: their department leaders and the public/press. There is a way to serve both. I know. I’ve been in those shoes before. But at the end of the day, it’s a public servant job.

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