December 16, 2007 Web Tools: [print] [email]
Purchase of auto causes stir
Poor Kay Goodwin.
As secretary of Education and the Arts, not only does she have to clean up Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith’s mistakes, but now she has controversy on her hands at West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Shortly after taking over as executive director earlier this month, Dennis Adkins apparently decided he needed a state vehicle.
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(After spending more than 30 years as an executive at commercial TV stations, including 25 years at WCHS-TV, he probably just assumed that perks such as a vehicle are a given.)
However, instead of going through the laborious process of requesting funding and ordering a car off the Purchasing Division’s statewide vehicle contract list, Adkins and some Public Broadcasting executives decided to buy a car off the lot — using West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation funds.
(I’m told a senior staff member in Charleston and a manager in the Beckley office helped instigate the deal, and that the vehicle was purchased from a dealership in Beckley.)
When foundation board members learned that $25,000 of their funds had gone to buy a car for the executive director, they were not amused. At a meeting last week, they refused to take ownership of the vehicle.
They also asked Goodwin to investigate what they regard as a serious personnel matter involving misuse of foundation funds.
(I’m guessing that contributors to Public Broadcasting probably wouldn’t be thrilled to know the donation they thought they had given to keep “Antiques Roadshowâ€
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