Ethics bill squeaks through; final fate in doubt

RICHMOND

A key vote Friday kept new ethics rules alive for the moment in the General Assembly, but supporters still face hurdles in their bid to make them law.

There's been a push to tighten ethics rules for state legislators after The Virginian-Pilot reported last year that Del. Phil Hamilton, a Newport News Republican, had lobbied for a job at an Old Dominion University teaching center while simultaneously seeking state funding for the center. An ethics investigation of Hamilton ended when he resigned his seat after losing a re-election bid in November.

Bills appeared to be moving through the legislature with broad support until Thursday, when the House of Delegates sidelined the Senate version of the main ethics proposal, even though it was nearly identical to the House version members had passed earlier. Now, if change is to happen this year, the House version, HB655, must be approved by the Senate.

Under that bill, sponsored by House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, hearings on any formal ethics inquiry into the conduct of lawmakers would be made public. Under current law, those proceedings are confidential. His bill also would allow active ethics investigations to proceed even if the legislator who is the subject of an inquiry leaves office.

Armstrong's legislation advanced out of the Senate Rules Committee on a 10-6 vote Friday.

Three Democrats - Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw of Fairfax County, Louise Lucas of Portsmouth and Yvonne Miller of Norfolk - were among the six lawmakers who voted against the bill in committee Friday. The others were Fred Quayle of Suffolk, Steve Newman of Lynchburg and William Wampler of Bristol.

If the three Democrats vote against the bill again next week, the bill will have to muster some Republican support to pass.

Saslaw said he "suspects" he will oppose it because he believes the current law works, adding that in his 34 years in the legislature he recalls only three serious ethics investigations.

Lucas and Miller said they will reconsider the bill when it reaches the floor, probably next week.

The patron of the Senate ethics bill spiked by the House, Sen. Ralph Northam, a Norfolk Democrat, said he'll urge colleagues to support Armstrong's version in the coming days.

But the initial hurdle was getting it out of committee unscathed - even the slightest tweak to the bill would have jeopardized it by sending it back to an apparently unreceptive House.

So Armstrong, a Henry County Democrat, said he asked Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, Senate Rules chairwoman, to avoid making even "one comma change" to the bill. Whipple, an Arlington County Democrat, obliged.

The chairwoman's committee rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Stephen Newman, R-Lynchburg, that would have required citizens to get a legislator to submit complaints on their behalf. The panel also declined to act on a subcommittee suggestion to incorporate another ethics-related House bill into Armstrong's.

Whipple said her goal was to "maximize" the chances of the bill's passage.

Separately, the committee supported HB933, which would amend ethics laws to specify that investigations that determine a willful violation of the law occurred shall be referred to the state attorney general.

Pilot writer Bill Sizemore contributed to this report.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com