The
state tax commissioner let the Kanawha County Commission know Wednesday that
he’s not going to get involved in the controversy involving elected Prosecutor
Mark Plants.
The
commission is talking about having Plants removed from office because of the
mounting special prosecutor bills because Plants is still charged with two
domestic related misdemeanor crimes and cannot prosecutor similar cases.
Language
in state code allows the state tax commissioner to start removal proceedings
against some court officers over financial issues. The commission began
researching the option, but Kanawha County Commissioner Dave Hardy said
Wednesday that won’t be an option.
“The
tax commissioner has declined to be involved in the situation and referred us
back to the West Virginia
Hardy
has been calling for Plants to resign for several weeks. He said it would solve
the financial problems the special prosecutor bills are causing, which has been
about $30,000 a month. But Plants has said he has no plans to resign. He
recently signed up in a community corrections program that could lead to the
charges against him being dismissed.
The
county commission plans to discuss its next step at its Thursday evening
meeting. Hardy said the county’s research shows only one elected prosecutor has
been removed from office by a special three judge panel. He said it happened in
1999 in Logan County
“There
is a very, very high presumption that once a person is elected to an office
they should be allowed to finish out the term. In other words, the public is
the ultimate decider of who is in an office.”
Hardy
said despite the difficulty he still wants to look at the removal process.
“I’m
willing to vote to institute a petition for removal if our county attorney tells
me he thinks we can have a good chance of prevailing,” he said.
