Julian Walker
The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
A scheduled vote on a comprehensive overhaul of the General Assembly's ethics rules was delayed Tuesday in the state Senate.
The delay was requested by Sen. Tommy Norment, R-James City County, who said later he was acting on behalf of Senate colleagues who might seek to amend the legislation.
House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong's bill, HB655, is the only comprehensive ethics bill still alive after a companion measure was unexpectedly derailed in a House committee last week.
Armstrong, a Henry County Democrat, is hoping to avoid any amendments to the bill, so it can go straight to the desk of Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has said he will sign it.
The measure would revise the Assembly's self-policing procedures so that an ethics investigation could not be halted by a lawmaker's resignation from office. It also would open the now-secret process to the public once a preliminary inquiry establishes that there is a sound basis for allegations of misconduct.
The push to overhaul the legislature's ethics rules was prompted by the case of former Del. Phil Hamilton, a Newport News Republican who faced conflict-of-interest allegations last year. Hamilton lost his re-election bid and resigned, short-circuiting a House investigation of his conduct.
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Ethics needs overhaul Case in point
"Official" files are altered all the time to cover up. It has happened in my case in Williamsburg/James City County. Try getting the FBI or DOJ to investigate. We pay for them, and they ignore us.
I am in need of court watchers for March 18 at 9 am in the Circuit Court of Willimasburg Virginia. Wiilimasburg/James City County Circuit Court on Monticello Avenue
I have not received the motions to be herd and when I asked the court for them they said they did not know what Judge Powell was going to hear and neither did the judges office. I got the run around. I was told by 2 lawyers that the final decree was handed down last year without my knowledge and that this is just a ploy to take all my assets and to toss me in jail. Again, I have proof these court records were altered. I have been denied a lawyer and have been denied indigent status to get one. I make 9000 per year, well under the level. He got one with an income of $36,000 and $300,000 in the bank. I would like to know what is in account #1600-022-04238 which is linked to a disconnected phone on the Island of Dominica, but can not get anyone to look at this account. Who holds it and what payments go into it?