{"id":4141,"date":"2019-07-25T08:14:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T12:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=4141"},"modified":"2019-07-25T08:14:14","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T12:14:14","slug":"rockwool-hires-west-virginia-house-majority-whip-paul-espinosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=4141","title":{"rendered":"Rockwool Hires West Virginia House Majority Whip Paul Espinosa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danish multinational Rockwool, which is building a heavy industrial facility in a growing bedroom community in Jefferson County, West Virginia across from an elementary school, has hired West Virginia House Majority Whip Paul Espinosa (R-Jefferson County) as a community affairs manager.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Paul Espinosa<\/p><\/div>\n

Espinosa would not disclose his Rockwool salary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can say it\u2019s a fair and competitive salary commensurate with my more than 30 years of management and leadership experience,\u201d Espinosa told Morgan County USA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rockwool would not disclose Espinosa\u2019s salary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPaul will be compensated as any other Rockwool employee,\u201d Rockwool\u2019s Michael Zarin said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Espinosa said he has had many contacts with Rockwool since the company announced plans last year to build the facility. That announcement triggered an uproar of public opposition which has steadily grown over the last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sammi Brown<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cOf course, as a policymaker, I attended the public forum they had,\u201d Espinosa said. \u201cOn a number of occasions, I have reached out to their public affairs manager. I believed it was very important to do my due diligence. I reached out to Rockwool directly to get responses to questions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t learn until early last month that they were in search of a community affairs manager, someone to serve as a community liaison. I did conclude that I might be able to play a productive role in helping Rockwool deliver to the community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Espinosa said that he will abide by the West Virginia Ethics Act and that he checked in with an Ethics Commission attorney to make sure there was no problem in him taking the position.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Ethics Commission might not have a problem with Espionsa\u2019s decision, some of his constituents back home in Jefferson County clearly do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jefferson County Vision, a group of citizens opposed to the Rockwool facility, put out a statement saying that the group was \u201csickened by Rockwool\u2019s continuing campaign to buy influence in our county where the vast majority of citizens have opposed the siting of their proposed toxic heavy industry operation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Aaron Hackett<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cRockwool\u2019s announcement of their intent to employ Delegate Paul Espinosa as a public relations manager is another example of their disregard for the will of the people, and their willingness to buy influence wherever possible. We call on all voters to remember this appointment when they go to the polls, and we look forward to supporting the candidacy of Mr. Espinosa\u2019s political opponent.\u00a0 The conflicts of interest posed by this appointment alone should be enough to disqualify Mr. Espinosa for office. Whatever influence Rockwool may hope to buy here, we remind them that the citizens of Jefferson County are not for sale.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Epsinosa said that he will run for re-election in 2020 for his House of Delegates seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPaul Espinosa is a self serving, career politician,\u201d said Democrat Aaron Hackett, Espinosa\u2019s likely opponent in 2020. \u201cIt turns out, he only wanted to create a job for himself.\u00a0 He\u2019ll need that Rockwool job, because we\u2019re gonna beat him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Delegate Sammi Brown (D-Jefferson) told WDVM that \u201cwithout mincing words — a corporation bought a legislator.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We asked Espinosa if he would have accepted a salaried position from a tobacco company.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t do hypotheticals,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

From an opioid company?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, I don\u2019t do hypotheticals,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you make an ethical judgment on whether or not to take money from a company like Rockwool?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI did check with the Ethics Commission,\u201d Espinosa said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently as a citizen legislator, you can work for a tobacco company or an opioid company or a polluting company.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But shouldn\u2019t you ask yourself — should I work for a company that threatens the community?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s undisputed that Rockwool has complied with all local state and federal laws,\u201d Espinosa said. \u201cI would never be associated with a company that I didn\u2019t feel was a good corporate citizen. In the case of Rockwool, if I thought for a moment that they were not safe for the community or that they were not going to abide by the commitment they made to the community, I wouldn\u2019t work for them. I am not sure why anyone would.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Danish multinational Rockwool, which is building a heavy industrial facility in a growing bedroom community in Jefferson County, West Virginia across from an elementary school, has hired West Virginia House Majority Whip Paul Espinosa (R-Jefferson County) as a community affairs … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4142,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions\/4142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}