John Rocovich, the former rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors, and MAGA Congressman Ben Cline’s father-in-law, has filed a lawsuit challenging his removal, asserting that Gov. Abigail Spanberger lacked grounds to get rid of him.
This one won’t take long.
Because state law is pretty clear on this point.
The relevant code section is 23.1-1300, which is titled: Members of governing boards; removal; terms; nonvoting, advisory representatives; residency.
Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection E or any other provision of law, the Governor may remove from office for malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence, or gross neglect of duty any member of the board of any public institution of higher education and fill the vacancy resulting from the removal.
The Governor shall set forth in a written public statement his reasons for removing any member pursuant to subsection C at the time the removal occurs. The Governor is the sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal as set forth in subsection C.
Note the last sentence in the second paragraph:
The Governor is the sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal as set forth in subsection C.
You don’t have to like the process, but this is the process.
And in fact, if I’m in the Democratic Party leadership in the General Assembly, I’d be interested in fixing this loophole so that a future Republican governor can’t use it to get rid of Democratic BOV appointees.
In the here and now, though, sorry, Ben Cline’s FIL, but the existence of a loophole isn’t the grounds for a lawsuit.
In the suit, Rocovich complains that Spanberger didn’t give reasons for her finding that he had “violated the Code of Conduct for Commonwealth Appointees to Boards, Authorities, & Commissions, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors’ Code of Ethics, and the governing statutes requiring members to act in accordance with the best interests of Virginia Tech.”
The suit describes Spanberger’s May 27 dismissal letter as “conclusory, vague and lacking in any specific detail.”
Here’s the problem: state law doesn’t require “specific detail.”
Hate to be repetitive, but here is the relevant section of state code again:
The Governor shall set forth in a written public statement his reasons for removing any member pursuant to subsection C at the time the removal occurs.
Spanberger did that, by noting that she had found him in violation of various codes and governing statutes.
The Governor is the sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal as set forth in subsection C.
Do you see anything in there allowing for judicial review?
I sure don’t.
“Sole judge” is rather clear.
“The lack of a hearing empowered Governor Spanberger to act based on politics and naked assertions rather than the evidence of Rocovich’s sterling reputation and long history of dutiful performance in office,” the lawsuit reads.
Of course this is “politics and naked assertions.”
Rocovich is now the former BOV rector because of the same.
Rocovich and the MAGA majority on the BOV pushed Tim Sands to agree to step down from his post as president of Virginia Tech earlier this year to get ahead of Spanberger appointees taking over the board majority next summer so that the MAGAs could work to appoint one of their own as his successor.
ICYMI
- Why Tim Sands is stepping down at Virginia Tech
- Virginia Tech: Quickie presidential search under way
That was an attempt on their part to mirror what went down at the University of Virginia, where a MAGA majority on the UVA Board of Visitors got help from the Trump regime to force Jim Ryan to step down as president so that they could appoint a MAGA successor, Scott Beardsley, as his successor, ahead of Spanberger engineering a political takeover of that BOV.
ICYMI
- Spanberger tells UVA Board of Visitors to hit pause on presidential search
- Jim Ryan tells all: ‘What did the Governor know, when did he know it?’
- UVA Board of Visitors elects new leaders: Cleaning house from the MAGA era
It’s not hard to see why Spanberger wants Rocovich out, and I’ll add here – she might as well do what she did at UVA, and proceed with the removals of other political obstacles on the Virginia Tech BOV, to head them off at the pass, before the Tech Board is able to do what the MAGAs did at UVA.
Maybe that’s already in the works, with Rocovich as the first pelt.
It is worth noting here that Spanberger was able to “persuade” several of the MAGAs on the UVA BOV to resign ahead of having to go through the public process of getting a public letter basing their removal on unspecified misconduct.
ICYMI
Rocovich decided to play hardball.
He’s going to lose, and spend good money in the process.
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Chris Graham
