Reported by: BOB AARON, LESLIE RUBIN

The West Virginia Senate Finance Committee questioned Gov. Jim Justice’s chief counsel Friday about how $10 million in COVID-19 relief money ended up going toward construction of Marshall University’s new baseball stadium.

State Auditor J.B. McCuskey, whose office raised questions via email regarding the transfer, also testified that the request from the governor’s office to make the transfer was unusual. 

“I was unfamiliar with the fund, prior to that request and pretty obviously the name of it, I mean, it pops out pretty quickly,” McCuskey said. “We sort of see our role in this entire process as ensuring that all of these things are done legally and properly, but I think, more importantly, ensuring there is a record of what happened so that people in rooms like this know what happened later.” 

McCuskey said the office asked for a legal and accounting opinion.

The state auditor said he couldn’t have known what the money was going to be spent on when the governor’s office asked for the transfer. 

“Our opinion on the legality of said transfer was based on, going forward, the money being spent would be spent in a way that was in compliance with the statute as CARES Act was written,” McCuskey said. “We would have had to have been mind readers in order to figure out what was going to happen with the money later.”

McCuskey said a simpler way to handle the transfer would have been to put the money into a Corrections fund. 

“I’m trying to get a logical explanation how a baseball field would fall under COVID funds?” Sen. Randy Smith, R-Tucker, asked. 

McCuskey said his office was probably asked 1,000 questions on how local governments could use their COVID money. 

“I wasn’t asked if anyone could build a baseball stadium,” McCuskey said.

Read full report: https://wchstv.com/amp/news/local/senate-finance-committee-meeting