The abrupt cancellation of a state investigation into Del. Phil Hamilton's job at Old Dominion University raises anew questions of whether Virginia ethics laws should be revamped.
Hamilton had been the focus of an inquiry about his negotiation of a $40,000-a-year job for himself at an ODU teacher training center while he secured state seed money for the facility in 2007. His resignation Sunday after 21 years in the House of Delegates short-circuited the investigation because the ethics panel has jurisdiction only over current legislators, according to several state officials.
In a statement, Hamilton said family considerations influenced his decision.
Frustrated by the halt to the inquiry, House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County, said Tuesday that his caucus plans to push a package of ethics reform bills during the upcoming legislative session.
While some of the specific ideas are still being discussed, Armstrong said, one proposal will call for meetings of the ethics panel that are now held in private to be made public.
Absent other changes, Armstrong said, he at least wants to clarify the law so "that the resignation of a member does not terminate an investigation."
Securing sufficient support for those revisions in the Republican-controlled House could be hard to come by, however.
Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford County, said he believes the current laws work and don't need to be updated because the ethics panel isn't the only body with investigative power.
"If criminal activities need to be looked into, they can be by the appropriate federal or local authorities," he said.
Hamilton, a Newport News Republican, remains the subject of a federal grand jury investigation.
Last month, the clerk for the House of Delegates turned over documents related to Hamilton in response to a federal subpoena.
Although officials said state law is clear about the extent of the ethics panel's authority, Virginia code stops short of stating that ongoing investigations end when their subject leaves office.
"It leaves you in a kind of never-never land.... This is something the General Assembly didn't contemplate or didn't provide for," University of Richmond law Professor Carl Tobias said.
Peggy Kerns, director of the Center for Ethics in Government at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said the question of the ethics panel's jurisdiction might hinge on whether it has found any evidence of criminal activity by Hamilton.
"If it's a procedural matter within the legislature, then if the legislator is no longer there, there would be a question whether the committee would still have standing to pursue anything," Kerns said.
"But if it rises to the level of a possible criminal violation, then I would think they would have the authority to pursue it even though he's no longer in office."
Knowing violation of the state conflict-of-interests law is a misdemeanor. If an ethics inquiry turns up evidence of a knowing violation, the panel is empowered to report its findings to the state attorney general for possible prosecution.
The attorney general's office declined to comment on the Hamilton inquiry.
According to a recent 50-state survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures, 40 states have external ethics commissions that operate independently of their state legislatures. Virginia is one of the 10 that do not - its ethics panel is appointed by legislators.
Armstrong is convinced Virginia needs to do a better job on ethics reform and said incoming Del. Robin Abbott will carry some of the legislation aimed at fixing the system.
Abbott, a Democrat, defeated Hamilton in the Nov. 3 election and will represent the 93rd District, which covers portions of Newport News and James City County.
Even though the examination of Hamilton's actions ended before the ethics panel could issue a report of its findings, there remains at least one way the public can learn about what was discovered.
A report of the panel's work is provided to the person who requested the investigation - in this case, Howell. He said he doesn't plan to make it public.
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276,bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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Integrity is Lost in Ameica
Do we need a package of ethics laws/rules for our elected officials and will they be worth the paper they are written on? It's ashame that the people we are placing in the highest positions of our country have no integrity and they are there for their own personal gain. Everyday we read about a person working for city utilities, city, state, and/or federal government accepting bribes and kick backs, committing adultry, and passing laws to benefit their own friends and family. The only real law/rule that we should place on the books is that once they are caught for their devious actions they should be immediately expelled from office. But again, Richmond and Washington would become ghost towns.
I applaud any tightening of ethics rules
I applaud any tightening of ethics rules. New Rules must include full disclosure laws. There are too many loopholes that allow elected and appointed officials to only report lump sum amounts, not a actual transactions.
In a gross figure, a plethora of wrongdoing can be hidden, so long as the net effect is does not effect the bottom line figure by that much, there are no calls for investigation. For instance, and official declared $500 in real estate holdings. During the year, however, he flipped 100 pieces of property, transferring the proceeds to various trusts of family and friends. On official reports, he only has $499 at the end of the reporting period, but there is no indication of all those transactions.
Where there are court ordered sales of real property, money can change hands without a record of it in any official reports, thereby absolving a corrupt court official from RICO charges. He has complied with the law and reporting procedures.
Legislators have protected themselves for to long. It is time they answer to the voters, not their buddies.