Published: October 14, 2008 09:40 pm      

Weeks: DOH official landed state contract

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Russ Weeks stuck to his guns Tuesday on a debate accusation that an unnamed Division of Highways official landed a state road contract with the Manchin administration in violation of state law.

Yet, the former state senator refused to identify either the official allegedly involved or name the source of his information, except to say it was a DOH employee he couldn’t identify out of fear the whistleblower might come in for some measure of retribution.

“I’ve got the proof,” Weeks said when pressed to make good his accusation in a televised debate Monday night that a DOH official was, in effect, “double dipping” by collecting a state paycheck and profiting through a highways contract.

“But I’m not coming out with this immediately. I’ve done this before, and under the whistleblower law, when I divulged this information, people suffered. That is not going to happen (again).”

Lara Ramsburg, communications director for Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin, said Weeks needs to present any information he has of any wrongdoing because without it, the governor cannot act.

Weeks leveled the charge in the first of four planned debates with Manchin, asserting the administration has caused highway needs to suffer by selling off vital road equipment. He called it further evidence that the “good ol’ boy network” is running the state.

Manchin invited Weeks to show any evidence that such a crime occurred.

“But he has yet to provide us any details,” Ramsburg said.

Weeks said he once presented Manchin with a laundry list of crimes occurring at state-run Pinecrest Hospital in his hometown of Beckley, sitting across from the governor in the company of two fellow Republican senators, one of them a lawyer.

“Noting came out of this information that I gave to the governor,” the former 9th District senator said. “No investigation was forthcoming.”

Weeks has maintained that felony offenses are swept under the rug at Pinecrest — including sexual assaults against elderly female patients — and no inquiry was pursued.

“So I’m going to do things a little bit different this time,” the candidate said.

“I wouldn’t make a statement unless I can back it up. Anything I tell you, I can back it up. Right now, it’s going to be done in my time.”

If Weeks is concerned about the deep throat in the DOH, he needn’t reveal his source, Ramsburg said.

“He could just give us the information on who the alleged person is,” she said.

“If that’s something he truly has a concern about, then we share that concern and need that information or else we don’t know what it is to be looking for. At this point, he has not done that. We take it seriously. We would look into anything he brings us, but we can’t look into it until we know what it is we’re looking for.”

Asked if he would divulge his information before the Nov. 4 election, the Beckley resident said, “Maybe, maybe not. I’m in consultation with some other people.”

Reminded what he is claiming entails a criminal act, not mere political ideology, Weeks said, “I know it. People’s lives and livelihood are at stake here. I realize that.”

“They’re afraid,” Weeks said of highway workers and why he is reluctant to identify his informers.

“The state does retaliate. In different ways. Job harassment. Keep pushing until they fire them. One individual had all four tires flattened. Had a hole punched in his gas tank. It’s not make-believe. These are not the rantings of an irate politician.”

When a reporter suggested the atmosphere he sketched smacked of a police state, Weeks said, “That’s a very apt description.”

“My main concern is the safety and anonymity of the people giving me information,” he said.

Weeks recalled how the attorney general’s office sought to force him to identify witnesses he lined up a few years ago in a grand jury investigation of alleged crimes at Pinecrest.

“I did not divulge that then, and I’m not going to divulge anything now until I’m assured that my sources have protection,” he said.

“The whistleblower law in West Virginia is not enforced the way it should be. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com