Va. House candidate seeks state ethics reform

Del. Phillip Hamilton's re-election opponent unveiled an ethics reform initiative Thursday that she said would bring more accountability and transparency to Virginia's lawmaking process.

The proposal from Robin Abbott, a Newport News attorney, comes two weeks after The Virginian-Pilot reported that Hamilton was put on the payroll of a new teacher training center at Old Dominion University shortly after he sponsored the center's start up funding.

Hamilton, a Newport News Republican, is a semiretired educator and a senior member of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.

Abbott, a Democrat, said her ethics proposal is not directed at any lawmaker in particular. But the plan seems tailored to address situations such as Hamilton's relationship with ODU.

"Too many elected officials in Richmond use their positions of power in inappropriate and sometimes unethical ways," Abbott said in a telephone news conference. "And though it may not be against the law, the close relationship between some of our legislators and those with a vested interest in state business is certainly suspect."

The state House and Senate now police themselves on ethical matters with five-member ethics advisory panels appointed by each body. When a complaint is made, the proceedings of those panels are made public only at the request of the lawmaker who is the subject of the complaint. If a violation is found, the panel produces a public report.

Abbott proposes combining the two panels into a single panel with an additional member appointed by the governor. She also proposes making all of its proceedings public.

Each year, the panel would review all lawmakers' budget requests and personal financial disclosure forms and alert members to possible conflicts of interests. The panel's findings would be published on the General Assembly Web site.

A budget request from Hamilton in 2007 provided the start up funding for ODU's Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership. Since then, the center has received $500,000 a year in state money.

A few months after his budget request was adopted, Hamilton was hired by the center as an independent contractor at $40,000 a year.

Hamilton said there was no conflict of interest because he was not yet on the ODU payroll when he introduced the budget request and has done nothing to advance the center's continued funding since he was hired.

Abbott denounced the arrangement as an "obvious conflict of interests."

Abbott also proposed prohibiting lawmakers from accepting travel, gifts or dinners paid for by lobbyists and any gifts valued more than $100 from anyone other than a family member.

In addition, she said Virginia should adopt a two-year "cooling-off period" for retiring lawmakers before they can become lobbyists.

Hamilton dismissed Abbott's proposals as "yet another attempt to attack my integrity while disregarding the facts." He noted that he has supported a two-year cooling-off period and tougher restrictions on gifts to lawmakers.

In a related development, Hamilton replied this week to the Virginia Democratic Party's request under the state Freedom of Information Act for any correspondence between him and ODU related to the new center and his hiring.

He said he has searched his records and found no such correspondence.

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com