Dave Knight, VCDL EM, issued a complain that prompted the Virginia
Employment Commission to take down some illegal signs banning "weapons."
Dave Knight emailed me this:
In mid-January, VCDL member Chris Sturgill asked about the legality of
a "No Weapons Allowed" sign posted at the entrance of the Galax VEC
Workforce office. He sent me a photo of the sign, and a visit to my
nearby Radford Workforce office revealed a more detailed, and more
threatening sign:
"Possession of Weapons Prohibited Here
"Virginia Employment Commission policy prohibits weapons on its
premises. Anyone observed with or believed to have a weapon may be
refused services and asked to leave the premises. Any incident
involving the possession of a weapon on VEC property may be reported
to local law enforcement.authorities.
"Thank you for your cooperation.
VEC
Virginia Employment Commission"
An email to the manager of the Radford Workforce office requesting a
citation of the statutory authority for such a policy quickly
percolated up to the VEC in Richmond, resulting in several phone calls
from Sam Lupica, COO of the VEC, in which he confirmed the language
above was, indeed, the "official VEC policy".
I made several requests for a citation of statutory authority, but
they went unanswered amid a flurry of assertions that the VEC
"possessed certain [unspecified] police powers", and that the VEC's
"counsel in the Atty General's office" had OK'd the policy. I said
that I remained unconvinced of its legality, and was "considering
further action."
The next day, January 28th, I received another call from COO Lupica
stating that the Atty General's office had just informed him that
VEC's "no weapons policy" was legally "untenable", and he assured me
that all the signs would be removed.
On Monday February 1st, Chris Sturgill reported the illegal sign in
the Galax VEC office had been taken down. A subsequent check of the
Radford Workforce office confirmed the sign there had also been removed.
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