West Virginia Senate Government Organization Committee Chair Patricia Puertas Rucker, R-Jefferson, speaks during a Senate floor session on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
West Virginia Senate Government Organization Committee Chair Patricia Puertas Rucker, R-Jefferson, speaks during a Senate floor session on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
The West Virginia Senate passed three bills requested by Gov. Patrick Morrisey Tuesday afternoon that would strip many state workers of civil service status and access to grievance procedures in moves feared to encourage partisan loyalty throughout the state workforce.
in a 25-9 vote, House Bill 2008, which would remove classified civil service status and grievance access from future Department of Economic Development employees
in a 24-10 vote, House Bill 2009, which would impose the same prohibitions on future Department of Tourism employees
in a 24-10 vote, House Bill 2013, which would impose the same prohibitions on future employees of the Bureau of Senior Services, Department of Administration, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Revenue and Department of Veterans’ Assistance
Current employees of the agencies covered by the three bills who leave for another position within those agencies also would have their civil service status and access to grievance procedures stripped.
HB 2008 and HB 2009 also would reorganize the executive branch. HB 2008 would rebrand the Department of Economic Development as the Division of Economic Development and place it within the Department of Commerce. HB 2009 would abolish the Department of Arts, Culture and History and reorganize its sections and commissions under the Department of Tourism.
Spun off from the Department of Commerce in 2021, the Department of Economic Development houses the state’s Small Business Development Center, Office of Energy and other business, industrial and community advancement units.
All three pieces of legislation would take effect July 1, 2025 if they become law. They required House of Delegates concurrence with mostly technical changes made to them in the Senate. That concurrence had not yet come as of press time Tuesday.
Senate Government Organization Committee Chair Patricia Puertas Rucker, R-Jefferson, led defense of HB 2008, HB 2009 and HB 2013 on the Senate floor Tuesday after her committee advanced them with little discussion. Rucker asserted the bills are “about moving our state forward and having the best employees that we can have.â€
Senator Scott Allen Fuller, R-Wayne, agreed, claiming the civil service system protects people “who aren’t doing their job†and that undoing it would better reward “top employees.â€
“It’s the best way to get productive work out of your employees,†Fuller said.
Morrisey applauded the Senate for passing the bills in a statement Tuesday.
“I pledged to make state government more efficient and accountable to the people we serve, and these bills will help us do just that,†Morrisey said.
Morrisey has criticized the state’s civil service system, suggesting the legislation would make state government more meritocratic and dismissing concern it would result in state agencies hiring based on politics. He has asserted that as West Virginia’s governor, it’s his job to choose who serves in state government.
But opponents of the bills predicted they would usher in a political spoils system that rewards state employees based on who they know and support rather than the quality of the work they do.
“We're opening the door to political connections, patronage, nepotism and the kind of government we don't want,†Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, said.
In a civil service system, government jobs are awarded based on merit rather than political affiliation. Chapter 29, Article 6, Section 1 of West Virginia code states the purpose of the state’s civil service system is to “attract … to the service of this state personnel of the highest ability and integrity by the establishment of a system of personnel administration based on merit principles.â€
State grievance procedures, outlined in Chapter 6C, Article 2 of West Virginia code, allow claims by employees alleging a violation of state statutes and rules regarding compensation, hours, employment terms and conditions, employment status and discrimination. The procedures cover incidents of harassment and favoritism.
Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, 74, who was first elected to the Legislature as a House delegate in 2002, recalled state employees who “changed their politics†at the county clerk’s office when leadership would change in the governor’s office.
“[T]his is moving us back 50-plus years, and I don't want to see that, and neither do the employees of our state of West Virginia,†Hamilton said during a Senate floor speech prior to the vote on HB 2009.
The Senate rejected amendments from Woelfel and the chamber’s other Democrat, Assistant Minority Leader Joey Garcia, D-Marion, that would have preserved civil service and grievance procedure access to be stripped by HB 2008 and HB 2009, respectively.
Bills would weaken State Library director requirementsÂ
Per HB 2009, the Department of Arts, Culture and History would be abolished effective July 1. The Department of Tourism would be reconfigured to include Arts, State Library, Museums, Historic Preservation and other sections, as well as the National Coal Heritage Area Commission and Educational Broadcasting Commission.
HB 2009 would eliminate requirements for the director of the state’s Archives and History division to have a graduate degree in a social science or equivalent training and three years’ experience in administration in West Virginia or other history or in records, library or archives management.
Similarly, the bill would remove requirements that the State Library section director have a master’s degree from an American Library Association-accredited program in a library-related discipline and three years of management or administrative work experience in a library.
The Senate rejected an amendment proposed by Garcia that would have restored existing requirements for the State Library section director after Rucker argued doing so would reduce state flexibility in how it fills the position.
The Senate-approved version of HB 2008 has removed a House amendment that would move West Virginia Natural Resources Police from the Department of Commerce-housed Division of Natural Resources control to the Department of Homeland Security.
