Continued - BARBARA'S LEGISLATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Responding to a local issue in which an employer had a hidden camera in a locker room, Barbara Evans Fleischauer sponsored a bill that bans electronic surveillance of employees in locker and lunch rooms. Following the beatings and murder of late night convenience store employees, Mrs. Fleischauer co-sponsored and helped pass a bill that mandates safety precautions for such employees.
Protecting the public's right to know about public expenditures is an issue about which Barbara Evans Fleischauer has long been concerned. For several years, she sponsored a bill to overturn the exemption of state economic development projects from the Freedom of Information Act. She also attempted to require public hearings when universities transfer funding, equipment and public land to private corporations. Barbara Fleischauer introduced legislation to increase accountability for corporations which receive economic development funding; concepts derived from her bill were included in the 2002 Economic Development statute.
Helping small businesses in the state of West Virginia has also been an issue to which Barbara Evans Fleischauer has devoted a great deal of attention. For several years, she introduced legislation modeled on federal Small Business Administration guidelines, that would set a goal for state purchasing from resident small businesses. This legislation was prompted by complaints of local computer entrepreneurs who successfully competed for federal contracts but were stymied from obtaining state contracts because of antiquated regulations. Her efforts resulted in a change in state regulation that allow small computer companies to team together to compete for large state contracts.