WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

CHARLESTON- Teachers in the Eastern Panhandle region claim in a lawsuit that they deserve better pay than other teachers in West Virginia.

Teachers, principals and other school employees in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties seek automatic salary adjustments in a Kanawha County suit against the State Board of Education.

They attached to the suit a map showing that a teacher in Virginia or Maryland makes thousands more than a West Virginia teacher.

They intend to press for raises retroactively, as far back as 17 years.

Their attorney, Paul Taylor of Martinsburg, wrote in an Aug. 24 brief that salary adjustments "will obviously be necessary as the case proceeds ..."

In response, Attorney General Darrell McGraw's office has advanced an argument against automatic raises and an argument in favor.

On one hand, McGraw Deputy AG Kelli Talbott has deplored the suit as a raid on the treasury.

On the other hand, she has filed a third party complaint seeking to hold the state Development Office liable for any raises the court might order.

McGraw, the constitutional attorney for state government, thereby sued an agency he would normally represent.

Taylor filed the suit June 7, on behalf of education associations and principals associations in all three counties, plus the American Federation of Teachers and Berkeley County School Service Personnel.

He wrote that in 1990, West Virginia legislators passed a law requiring a study that would have compared the cost of living in the Eastern Panhandle to the rest of the state.

He wrote that the Development Office did not provide statistics that would have allowed the Board of Education to carry out the study.

Five days later, Talbott passed the buck, filing her third party complaint against the Development Office.

She wrote that the Board of Education could seek relief through a writ of mandamus requiring Development Office action.

She wrote that the Board of Education could seek monetary relief from the Development Office.

"Education, not economics, is the mission of the State Board," she wrote. "The economics of the state is the mission of the Development Office."

On July 2, she tried a different approach, asking Circuit Judge James Stucky to dismiss the suit.

"Any wages or back wages petitioners may be entitled to recover would constitute a raid on the public treasury," she wrote. "No money may be drawn from the state's treasury unless it is pursuant to a lawful appropriation by the West Virginia Legislature."

She wrote that the court might have authority to order a salary adjustment plan but it could not order an appropriation.

She wrote that the statute of limitations had run out and that calculating retroactive raises would require information that no one could find.

"Do petitioners really believe that the respondent can now ascertain what the cost of a loaf of bread was in Roane County in 1991?" Talbott wrote.

Talbott amended her third party complaint July 13, expanding the claim for monetary relief against the Development Office to a claim for any relief.

She asked for an order requiring the Development Office to provide necessary data.

The Development Office, under fire from McGraw, retained Thomas Flaherty of Charleston to defend it.

On Aug. 17, Flaherty moved to dismiss the suit. He wrote that legislators imposed a duty on the Board of Education, not the Development Office.

Taylor opposed the motions to dismiss Aug. 24. He suggested that Stucky should "leave to another day whether the cost of living to be awarded is retroactive to 1990 or a later date."

He wrote that his clients asked for a plan, not for money.

He asked Stucky to "begin the process now and go back as far prior to 2007 as this court feels it is legally permitted to do so."

He wrote that his clients want to know why legislators have not funded data gathering activities and why they have not adjusted salaries.

At a hearing Aug. 29, Stucky orally denied the motions to dismiss.