MADISON, W.Va. -- Boone County commissioners have taken the first step in removing two members of the county's ambulance authority board.
Commissioners voted Tuesday to file a petition to have President Harold Green and Vice President Joseph Gollie removed from the authority's board of directors, county attorney Keith Randolph said.
Randy Lengyel, director of the authority, is under investigation for accepting an illegal $103,000 loan from the board. Last month, Randolph directed Lengyel to pay back the loan by Sept. 30 or face possible ethics charges. Lengyel used the zero-interest personal loan to enhance his retirement benefits.
Randolph said the process for removing the board members is not unlike that of removing elected officials.
Randolph's office will file the petition on behalf of the county commission. The petition will then be sent to circuit court, where the chief judge will forward it on to the state Supreme Court requesting a three-judge panel to decide whether or not to remove the board members, Randolph said.
Randolph wasn't sure how long the process could take.
Lengyel has denied any wrongdoing. In an interview last month, he told the Gazette-Mail he would pay back the loan.
"I'm paying it back now - in full," Lengyel said. "Everything's going to be taken care of. It will all be paid back, and there won't be an issue."
The state Legislature's Commission on Special Investigations started investigating Lengyel in May, directing the Boone Ambulance Authority to turn over bank statements, meeting minutes and loan documents, according to a letter obtained by the Gazette-Mail.
In September 2013, Lengyel persuaded ambulance authority board members to loan him $103,000 so he could switch from the West Virginia state employees retirement plan to more lucrative plan set up for emergency medical service workers. Under the loan's terms - which the board never voted on - Lengyel agreed to pay off the no-interest loan in monthly installments of $350 after he retired. Under state law, the ambulance board had no legal authority to make a personal loan - "let alone a personal loan to an employee," according to a letter sent by the Boone Prosecuting Attorneys Office to Lengyel on July 31.
Randolph said he anticipates filing the petition after the next county commission meeting, slated for Sept. 15.
Green and Gollie could not be reached for comment.