PRINCETON — A man claims Bluefield State College and its president, Robin Capehart, violated the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Governmental Proceedings Act when they continued negotiations into the acquisitions of Bluefield Regional Medical Center without giving the public notice.
Jay Folse filed the lawsuit against the school, Capehart and the city of Wheeling after they violated the Open Governmental Proceedings Act by continuing the negotiations on Dec. 4. Folse alleges that the agenda for that day's meeting only included three items, none of which were the Bluefield Regional Medical Center, according to a complaint filed in Mercer Circuit Court.
"This agenda was nothing more of an insult to the requirement to put the public on notice of what will be discussed or decided on at the meeting," Folse wrote in his complaint. "Additionally, the requirement to put the public on notice through the Secretary of State of the meeting time, location and purpose five businesses days before the meeting was not followed."
Capehart
On Dec. 18, Folse saw an article in The Beckley Register-Herald about the school buying the hospital and contacted the school's general counsel about the meeting not being held in accordance with the Open Governmental Proceedings Act. After raising concerns, the hospital purchase was put on the next month's meeting agenda.
Folse claims he then discovered that the college also was planning to lease an abandoned hospital in Wheeling.
"Even the leaders of other colleges opposed Bluefield State leasing the old hospital and opening a campus," Folse writes. "The other college's leaders went as far as to discredit Robin Capehart's explanation of why he thought there was a need to open a campus in Wheeling."
Folse claims he sent Capehart two emails requesting information related to the purchase under FOIA and only one email brought about a response. He claims the FOIA was not complied with.
Folse is seeking for the court to compel Capehart to abide by the FOIA request and that the college and Wheeling violated the Open Governmental Proceedings Act. He is representing himself.
Folse has been in the news before in 2019 after he claimed the West Virginia University Board of Governors attempted to keep him from attending a meeting at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Fayette County.
In that lawsuit, Folse claimed two university officers attempted to harass and intimidate him when he was trying to attend the meeting.
Mercer Circuit Court case number: 21-C-64