photo by: Joselyn King

West Virginia Sen. Laura Wakim-Chapman, left, and Delegate Bill Flanigan, both R-Ohio, and Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, provide perspectives about the recent legislative session to members of the Rotary Club of Wheeling on Tuesday.

WHEELING — Three state lawmakers from Ohio County each provided a different perspective to Wheeling Rotarians on the recent session of the West Virginia Legislature.

Sen. Laura Wakim- Chapman and Delegate Bill Flanigan, both Republicans, and Delegate Shawn Fluharty, a Democrat, gave their thoughts as they addressed Rotary Club of Wheeling members on Tuesday.

Fluharty termed it “a disaster.” Flanigan said it was slow and “frustrating,” while Wakim-Chapman defended the actions of the Republican supermajority.

“I think it was a very successful session,” she said.

She noted lawmakers addressed priorities set forth by Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey, which mostly focussed on creating an economic “backyard brawl” competition between West Virginia and neighboring states to land more businesses and new jobs.

Among these bills were those permitting professional licensing reciprocity between states. This means those holding professional licensing — such as lawyers, doctors, nurses and teachers — may come to West Virginia if they hold a valid license in a neighboring state.

Wakim-Chapman added that the Legislature passed bills intended to help educators. One would allow the hiring of retired law enforcement and safety officials to provide security services in public schools, while another measure approved would require schools to provide mapping data of their buildings to first responders in the event they need to respond quickly.

Another bill that was passed would allow retired teachers to return to the classroom in areas where there are teacher shortages, she said.

Flanigan, a fellow Republican, offered a more subdued view of the completed session. He previously represented part of Monongalia County in the House in 2016, and he acknowledged this time it was a tougher time.

Bills were spending much longer time in committee after being introduced, and that made for very slow progress and “eight or nine minute” floor sessions each day, he explained.

“I just found I spent the first month of session answering business leaders who wondered what the heck we were doing,” Flanigan said.

“We often spent more time introducing people in the gallery than we did getting work done, and that’s difficult. We are spending time away from our families and away from our businesses. This is a citizen legislature. So there was a lot of frustration involved with what we were doing.”

Flanigan noted that he felt he and the Democrat Fluharty “did an excellent job” on the House Judiciary Committee to make sure legislation presented came out as better bills that were constitutionally valid, but the process was slow.

He would have liked to have discussed more bills that pertain to drug addiction, mental health and treatment.

“I hate to say this as a joke, but it seemed like if (a bill) didn’t deal with someone’s genitalia, we didn’t talk about it for at least a month,” Flanigan said.

Fluharty termed Flanigan “a great friend” with whom he had a great working relationship.

“I’m a Democrat, he is a Republican, but I think we see the world very similarly and that is very healthy,” Fluharty said. “We focus on common sense, and not the stuff that divides us. I disagree with Senator Chapman. I believe that by every objective measure this session was a disaster.”

Fluharty noted the governor also was likely dissatisfied by the session, as he has announced plans to call lawmakers back for a special session to address funding of the Public Employee Insurance Agency.

“We were just there for 60 days. Why didn’t we just fix it then?” Fluharty asked. “I’ve been there (at the Legislature) for 10 years, and I’ve never been this frustrated leaving Charleston.”

The lawmakers also took questions from Rotary members.

Wheeling attorney C.J. Kaiser pushed them — especially Wakim-Chapman — on why the Legislature found it necessary to take up the issue of eliminating mandates for childhood immunizations. He cited data indicating the state has had zero cases of measles in recent decades, an accomplishment he attributed to required immunizations.

“Nobody wants these diseases to come back at all,” Wakim-Chapman explained. “But 45 other states have looked at this issue and found it is safe and effective to allow for at least a religious exemption.

“As a constitutional lawyer, I do believe in the First Amendment. And the federal court in Bridgeport, West Virginia has found that our law is in violation of the First Amendment. From that perspective, we are denying a child an education unfairly that 45 other states will give a child based on religious exemption.”

Flanigan explained why he differs with the Republican majority and supports the immunization mandates.

“I am a four-time cancer survivor,” he said. “I agree about what a person’s religious rights should be, but it doesn’t give somebody the right to infect society.”

Other countries would love to have the vaccines we don’t use, he continued.

“Somehow, we find ways to fight against things that are in our best interest,” Flanigan added.

Fluharty contends it is the role and duty of the Legislature to protect the health and welfare of their constituents. He doesn’t understand why, in a state where many of the residents are immunocompromised, lawmakers would not want to mandate immunizations.

“For us to go down this dark path — I don’t know why it’s a necessity now. I don’t understand why it is being pushed,” he said. “The majority of people I talked to wondered why we were even addressing it.”