West Virginia Legislature JOURNAL of the HOUSE of DELEGATES Eighty-Second Legislature Second Extraordinary Session Held at Charleston Published by the Clerk of the House E OF W US E O S T H E V H I T R F G O I N L I A A E . S MO RI NT IBE ANI SEMPER L August 29, 2018 FIFTH DAY 2018] HOUSE OF DELEGATES 1981 ____________________ Wednesday, August 29, 2018 FIFTH DAY Pursuant to the August 14, 2018 motion to adjourn and the August 22, 2018 letter from the Speaker Pro Tempore, the House of Delegates was called to reconvene the Second Extraordinary session on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. There being a vacancy in the office of Speaker, the Honorable Stephen J. Harrison, Clerk, announced that the Honorable John Overington, the Delegate from the 62nd Delegate District, was the oldest member in point of continuous service and, in accordance with Section 18, Article VI of the Constitution, would preside over the House of Delegates until a Speaker was chosen and shall have taken his seat. Delegate Overington then assumed the Chair and called the House of Delegates to order. Prayer was offered and the House was led in recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Messages from the Executive and other Communications The following communication was laid before the House of Delegates and read by the Clerk: West Virginia House of Delegates OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER Building 1, Room M-228 1900 Kanawha Blvd., East Charleston, WV 25305 April 21, 2018 The Honorable Stephen J. Harrison Clerk West Virginia House of Delegates Building 1, Room 212-M 1900 Kanawha Blvd., East Charleston, West Virginia 25305 Dear Mr. Clerk: With mixed emotions, I hereby resign as Speaker of the House of Delegates and as a Delegate representing the 40th District of Kanawha County effective as of 12:00 Noon today. It has been a tremendous honor to serve in this Legislature and as Speaker, and I thank the citizens of the Elk River area of the 40th District for the extraordinary opportunity to have served. It has also been an honor to have served with my fellow legislators in building a greater state for our 1982 JOURNAL OF THE [AUGUST 29 people. I will leave the House with many fond memories and deep gratitude for the opportunity to serve. Sincerely, Tim Armstead Delegate Cowles arose to suggest the absence of a quorum, the Clerk opened the machine for the roll to be taken (Roll No. 621), and 95 members being present, the Speaker declared the presence of a quorum. The absent being as follows: Absent: Isner, C. Miller, Sponaugle and White. Election of Speaker The Presiding Officer announced that the next order of business was the election of a Speaker of the House of Delegates for the remainder of the Eighty-third Legislature and stated that nominations were now in order. * * * * * * Majority Nomination * * * * * * th Delegate Shott, a Delegate from the 27 Delegate District, nominated the Honorable Roger Hanshaw from the 33rd District, as follows: DELEGATE SHOTT. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker Pro Tempore. Although it doesn’t always seem that way, there are many advantages of serving in this House. And, among those advantages is the opportunity to get to know some really remarkable people, on both sides of the aisle. And, among the most remarkable person that I have met here is the person who I have the honor and the pleasure of nominating to be our Speaker, Roger Hanshaw. As I told the members of our caucus last night, sometimes during these nomination speeches, you have to rely a lot on the representations of the person that’s making the nomination speech. But, in this instance, we’ve all had, or at least most of us, unless we’re a new appointee, have had the opportunity to basically observe those who are going to be nominated. And, you can rely on your own observations, more so, than ordinarily, and certainly more so, than my representations. Roger is one of the most intelligent people that I’ve met, not just here, but throughout my life time. He has all of the degrees that come along with the mark of intelligence. He’s got a BS in JD or Law Degree from West Virginia, a PhD from Chemistry from Notre Dame, but in my experience, all those letters after a name don’t amount to much unless you couple that with an abundant supply of common sense and that’s what I’ve seen in Roger and that’s one of the things that I admire most about Roger, is that he couples the extreme intelligence that he has with an extraordinary amount of common sense. And, I think you’ve all had the opportunity to observe that. Another thing that has really impressed me about Roger is how direct he is. There are not going to be any games played with Roger. You’ll know exactly 2018] HOUSE OF DELEGATES 1983 where you stand, and pretty quickly, when you’re … when you’re dealing with Roger. He’s decisive and for all of us, that’s important as we operate the floor sessions. Each of us has a limited amount of time, and believe you me, as you enter your 70th decade, you start realizing just how little time is left, and how important it is to grasp each minute. So, we’re not going to witness any of these occasional podium paralysis episodes that sometimes we have. You will get a decisive, quick decision from Roger. His grasp of parliamentary procedures is going to give him the ability to give us quick, decisive decisions upon which we can rely, and which we can move on and move to a … through our business in an expeditious, efficient, effective manner, and spare us the loss of needless loss of time. Also, one thing…one thing that has impressed me about Roger is his ability to withstand any pressure. As I told the members of our caucus last night, in case you haven’t noticed, and I hoped this was a secret, but I had to let it out of the bag last night, whenever in the Judiciary Committee we had a very difficult or complicated issue, especially rules issues involving the environment and other things, Roger always was assigned those presentations and the defense of those issues on the floor. He never wilted, he always handled the pressure beautifully. And, in this environment where we have to make numerous decisions that, that are sometimes painful, certainly often complicated, the ability to withstand that pressure is extremely important. One other thing I think is, is obvious for those of you who have dealt with Roger, is the high integrity that he demonstrates whenever he deals with you. As I indicated, he’s always direct. No games playing with him. You’ll know where you stand with, with Roger, and you’ll know, you’ll know quickly. I’m going to give you one recent example, very recent example. I could give you numerous examples of his character and integrity but last night, we were engaged in a very hotly contested race for the Speaker position from our caucus. It was very close. On the last ballot I happened to look to my left to see what Roger was doing with his ballot, and he voted for his opponent. This was a very close race. I asked Roger after the election was over, “Why?”, because I was a little bit puzzled. Because it was a close race, and he just simply said, “It was the right thing to do.” It was the right thing to do. And that speaks volumes about the person I think is the right person to lead our caucus. As I said, there’s not going be any games played. This is going be all about opportunity. Opportunity for you, opportunity for your children, opportunity for your grandchildren, to find those opportunities they need to be able to stay in this beautiful state, to continue being part of your family, my family, that’s what it’s all about. And, that’s the direction, that’s the goal, that’s the vision that Roger will bring as Speaker. So, without any type of reservation at all, I heartily endorse Roger as, and nominate him as our next Speaker, and urge you to vote with me. Thank you. * * * * * * The nomination of Delegate Hanshaw was seconded by the Honorable Amy Summers of the 49th Delegate District, with the following remarks: DELEGATE SUMMERS. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, thank you, Chairman Shott. Please excuse me for some of the redundancy from my speech last night, but we got done late. You know the feeling you get when you meet somebody and you think they have it all? This is the feeling I get when I met 1984 JOURNAL OF THE [AUGUST 29 Roger Hanshaw. He’s smart. He’s matter-of-fact. He’s not easily flustered or riled up. He’s calm, cool and collected and he’s not a game player. And most importantly, he’s one of the most humble people that I have met. In the Legislature, we develop relationships with people through our committee process and all through … also through where we sit, and spend many, many hours together. I had the pleasure of serving with Delegate Hanshaw on the House Judiciary Committee, Political Subdivisions, and Agriculture and Natural Resources. He was always the go-to person for me and for many committee members.