Rocovich sues Spanberger, seeks reinstatement on Virginia Tech board

A dispute over Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s recent removal of former Virginia Tech Rector John Rocovich is headed to court.

Less than two weeks <a href=”https://virginiabusiness.com/spanberger-removes-virginia-techs-rector-from-board/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>after being removed</a> from the university’s Board of Visitors, the Roanoke County attorney has sued the governor and Virginia Tech, arguing the action was unlawful and seeking reinstatement.

In the complaint, filed Tuesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Rocovich argues that Spanberger violated state code by removing him without identifying conduct that would justify his ouster and without providing him an opportunity to respond to the allegations against him.

The lawsuit alleges that, before his removal, Spanberger’s staff called Rocovich and asked him to resign. The complaint states that he “was startled to receive a hostile phone call from Governor Spanberger’s office.”

“This call was deeply offensive,” the complaint said. “The suggestion that Rocovich should surrender his lawfully held position was an affront not only to him personally, but to every person who has ever served Virginia Tech in a fiduciary capacity.”

Spanberger wrote in a May 27 letter to Rocovich, a Roanoke attorney, that his conduct “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 board members to act in accordance with the best interests of Virginia Tech.”

However, her letter to Rocovich did not specify how he allegedly violated the codes and statues listed. Rocovich had been appointed by Republican former Gov. Glenn Youngkin to serve a four-year term from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2027.

Rocovich is the first person Spanberger has removed from a university board since taking office, although she asked five University of Virginia board members to resign just before her inauguration in January.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine <a href=”https://virginiabusiness.com/kaine-questions-virginia-tech-president-exit-board-changes/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>raised concerns in April</a> that Virginia Tech President Tim Sands may have been forced to step down so that a new president could be selected before Spanberger was due to fill four seats on the university’s board July 1.

Rocovich responded to Spanberger in a four-page letter first reported by Cardinal News, in which he refused to resign.

“I was appointed to serve a term, I have served that term faithfully, and I intend to fulfill my obligations to the students, faculty and people of Virginia,” Rocovich wrote in his May 28 letter addressed to state Secretary of the Commonwealth Candi Mundon King.

Spanberger appointed Dominion Energy Virginia President Ed Baine, whose Board of Visitors term was set to expire June 30, to serve out the remainder of Rocovich’s term on the board of visitors, although it is the board’s duty to elect a rector from among its members. Sharon Brickhouse Martin, vice president of health services integration for VHC Health, was tapped to fill Baine’s open seat through the end of June before starting her own full term July 1.

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors met June 2 without Rocovich in attendance and <a href=”https://virginiabusiness.com/virginia-tech-board-new-rector-presidential-search/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>unanimously elected Jim Miller</a> as rector, starting July 1, the start of the board’s new term. The board currently does not have a rector, the university confirmed.

Rocovich’s complaint, filed by Radford attorney James C. Turk Jr., maintains that the former rector did nothing that warranted his removal, that he faithfully performed the duties of a board member, and that Spanberger had “no basis” to ask for his resignation.

The lawsuit added that subsequent actions by other defendants recognizing his removal were also unlawful. Virginia Tech, its board and members Martin and Baine are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The complaint argues that, under Virginia law, members of public university governing boards serve four-year terms and may be removed only for “malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence, or gross neglect of duty” as detailed in a “written public statement” of “reasons.”

“Governor Spanberger provided no such reasons,” the lawsuit states. “ That is because none exist. She identified no instance of Rocovich’s alleged misconduct because there is none. Governor Spanberger lacked cause to remove Rocovich, so her purported removal violated the commonwealth’s code and constitution. This court should right her wrong and order Rocovich’s reinstatement.”

He added that Spanberger’s letter did not count as a “statement of reasons” because it was “conclusory, vague and lacking in any specific details.”

State law says the governor is “the sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal.” But Rocovich argued in the lawsuit “that even if the governor gets some limited deference to determine whether the board member’s conduct rose to the level of a removable offense, a court of law must ultimately determine whether there was cause for removal.”

In addition to being reinstated, the lawsuit asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment that Spanberger violated Rocovich’s due process rights under the state constitution “when she purported to remove him from office without an opportunity to be heard.”

Virginia Tech declined to comment on the lawsuit. The governor’s office declined to elaborate on the reason for Rocovich’s removal, but provided a statement.

“Under Virginia law, the Governor is ‘the sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal’ of a member of a university board of visitors,” the governor’s office said. “Former Rector Rocovich was lawfully removed from the board.”