Ethics reform

Vetoes, the Ethics Bill, and a Three-Day Session

April 21, 2015 by David Toscano

The House and Senate returned to Richmond on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, for our annual “Reconvene Session” or “Veto Session.” This is typically a day-long event, as the General Assembly considers the Governor’s vetoes and any amendments he might want to make to various bills passed during the regular session. (Unlike Washington, D.C., the executive in Virginia has the ability to make changes in portions of specific legislation without vetoing an entire bill.)

The Governor proposed 17 vetoes on a wide variety of measures, and all of them were sustained by one or both chambers. To sustain a governor’s veto requires only that 33 percent of those voting to agree with the governor. If so, the veto stands and the bill does not become law. Among the vetoes that were sustained were several bills that would have made modification in legislative district lines, a bill that would infringe on the Board of Education’s authority to adopt curricula for public schools, a bill that would have prevented local governments from contracting with private business to require higher wages and benefits as a condition of doing business with that locality, several gun expansion bills, the so-called “Tebow bill” (providing special privileges for home schooled children to access public school sports and extracurricular activities), and a bill that would have required people who seek absentee ballots to provide photo identification in order to receive them. I voted to sustain every one of the Governor’s vetoes.

The Governor also proposed a number of line amendments to bills that were passed this past winter. Most of those changes were technical and drew no controversy. Several, however, were more substantive. Most notable of them involved the bill that would have prevented the use of certain surveillance equipment by law enforcement. This sparked a lively debate on the House floor and produced some strange bedfellows. The ACLU and the Tea Party argued that law enforcement should be able to use surveillance equipment only upon obtaining a warrant. Many of us were concerned, however, that such a position might make it more difficult for police to conduct investigations, or for dashboard cameras and body cameras to be used to protect citizens against overzealous police enforcement efforts. The bill began as an effort to prevent law enforcement agencies from keeping the data received from reading license plates for an indefinite period of time. It was transformed into a full-blown prohibition against the use of certain kinds of surveillance video. If you look at incidents like the Boston Marathon bombing, the recent South Carolina police shooting of an African-American male, and even the Hannah Graham case, you can see how important surveillance video and dashboard cameras can be in determining what happened in a specific incident. Fortunately, our arguments prevailed and the Governor’s amendments that permit continued use of these video surveillance techniques were passed; the bill now only applied to license plate readers. At the same time, the ability of law enforcement to keep data generated from license plate readers was limited to seven days, a time period which I believe is too short, but is certainly better than the indefinite period of time that they had been able to keep the data at present.

We had also thought that we would vote on a series of amendments to the ethics package that has been passed in the winter. At the last minute, however, concern developed that the bill’s provisions requiring a $100 gift ban were not written tightly enough. You may recall that the Governor issued an Executive Order when he came into office preventing the administration from accepting gifts in excess of $100 per year from lobbyists or anyone who did business with state government. The legislature did not accept this approach last year, but the Governor kept pushing, and we now have passed such a ban. This will still allow legislators to be taken to inexpensive lunches and receive gifts such coffee cups or an inexpensive bottle of wine as a token, but would prevent the kind of excesses and inappropriate gifts that we saw in the McDonnell case. It will also allow gifts to be received from friends. The gift ban almost fell apart at the last minute, as some suggested that the language was not tight enough. Given the desire to fix the bill, we had to use some procedural maneuvering that had not been used in over 20 years and required us to return to Richmond on Friday, April 17. We got what we wanted, that is, the $100 gift ban. Many of us hope and believe that this action will allow some restoration of the public trust that had been lost in the aftermath of the McDonnell trial.

With the legislative session now over, we return to our districts, constituent service and to our day jobs. It is an election year and many of us are readying ourselves for fall campaigns. I will announce my intentions soon.

If you want to hear more about the General Assembly session, or have issues you wish to discuss, Senator Deeds and I are holding two town hall meetings, one on this Tuesday, April 21, at 5:30 p.m. at PVCC, and the other on Tuesday, May 5, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Northside Library. You can sign up to participate on Facebook or call our offices, 434-220-1660 or 434-296-5491.

Sincerely,

David Toscano

Adjournment — in a Blaze of Ethics Glory

March 4, 2015 by David Toscano

The Virginia General Assembly adjourned on Friday, February 27, 2015, at approximately 9:00 p.m. In most sessions, the last minute negotiations surround the budget. This year, it involved ethics reform. As you may have noticed from numerous news reports, Senate Republicans threatened to block any ethics bill from being passed. At the last moment, however, they relented, and we were able to pass modest ethics reform that improves the law somewhat on what had previously been in place. While this law goes farther than previous efforts, it does not tackle the critical issues related to campaign finance reform, including the role of major contributions in election campaigns. That being said, the bill lowers from $250 to $100 the value of gifts, meals, and travel that an elected official can receive from a lobbyist or a person seeking a contract with the state. It also includes any dependents living in the official’s home, such as a spouse, child, or other relative. The bill clearly could have gone farther; the Ethics Advisory Council does not have much enforcement power and there are certain exemptions to the gift ban for legislators’ travel to “widely attended” events such as conferences. I voted for the bill because it is better than our laws were two years ago, but I believe there is still much to be done.

The last days of the session saw a number of measures passed that I had proposed and strongly supported. Included in these were the expansion of the DNA database, a campus sexual assault reporting bill that protects survivors while providing increased encouragement to them to report perpetrators of these crimes, and a bill that requires notations be placed on college transcripts when students are discharged for violations of the codes of conduct. These measures were proposed as a result of The Rolling Stone article on UVa and the Hannah Graham case, and I believe that they will bring a higher level of protection for our citizens while encouraging more reporting of sexual assault on campuses.

During the final days, we also passed:

A bill to increase safety of daycare facilities (HB1570). Homes serving five or more children will require licensing. There will be national fingerprint background checks for employees, and a requirement that unlicensed providers tell parents in writing that they are not licensed or regulated by the state. This will undoubtedly increase safety in our daycare facilities.
A bill that will further professionalize the Virginia ABC operation (HB1776). ABC will now be an authority that is run more like a business and less responsive to political appointees.
A bill that extends health insurance coverage for autism treatment to about 5,000 more children (HB1940).

This session brought changes to extend mental health benefits to about 22,000 low-income Virginians, increased funding for free clinics, legislation to de-criminalize the use of oils derived from marijuana to treat severe epilepsy, and the defeat of a measure that would have shrouded Virginia’s lethal injection process in secrecy by preventing public disclosure of the drugs used in execution.

Little progress was made on common sense gun legislation; the House rejected my bill that would have allowed private gun sellers to voluntarily ask state police to conduct a background check of anyone who sought to buy firearms from them at a gun show (HB2370). Universal background checks and the return of one-gun-per-month were also defeated. At least we were able to defeat a bill that had been offered by some Republicans to put guns in schools and airports.

2015 House of Delegates Democratic Caucus — 2015 Virginia House of Delegates House Democratic Caucus – Back Row (left to right): Vivian Watts, Mark Sickles, Mark Keam, Daun Hester, Lionell Spruill, Luke Torian, Kaye Kory, Scott Surovell; Middle Row: Monty Mason, David Bulova, Eileen Filler-Corn, Alfonso Lopez, Joe Preston, Patrick Hope, Joseph Lindsey, Ken Plum, Rip Sullivan, Matthew James, Marcus Simon; Sam Rasoul, Mike Futrell; Front Row: Jeion Ward, Delores McQuinn, Betsy Carr, Roz Tyler, Jennifer McClellan, Toscano, Mamye Bacote, Kathleen Murphy, Charniele Herring, Johnny Joannou, Rob Krupicka.

We passed a bill that will allow home-schooled children to participate in public school athletics, and a bill that will allow Uber and other transportation ride-sharing services to operate in Virginia. We passed bills that will establish two new veteran care centers in the Commonwealth and to allow veterans to receive certain academic credits at community colleges for training and educational programs they completed during their military service.

For those interested in music, we passed legislation that would designate not one, but two state songs. “Our Great Virginia” will be considered the traditional state song and “Sweet Virginia Breeze” will be considered the popular state song.

The big disappointment continues to be our failure to pass Medicaid expansion.

The Governor has until March 30 to sign, veto or send amendments to legislation, including the budget. We return to Richmond for the one-day Reconvene Session on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, to address his vetoes and amendments.

Several of my floor speeches from this year’s Session can be viewed here via YouTube:

I have now returned to my law practice, but remain willing to assist you with any issue involving the Commonwealth. Please feel free to call my office at (434) 220-1660, or email me at david@davidtoscano.com with questions or concerns. It is a pleasure serving you in the General Assembly.

Sincerely,

David Toscano

Statement by Delegate David J. Toscano on the McDonnell Verdicts

September 4, 2014 by David Toscano

Whatever one thinks about the actions of the former Governor and First Lady, you cannot help but be saddened by what has happened to them and to our Commonwealth. The decision today closes a depressing chapter in Virginia history. The jury carefully considered the evidence and has now spoken. With its verdict, it sends a clear message that public officials are not above the law and that those of us who have the honor to serve have a special responsibility to keep the public trust.

I hope this verdict will improve the prospects of enacting further ethics and campaign finance reform in the Commonwealth.

The Veto Budget Session

June 27, 2014 by David Toscano

We met again on Monday, June 23, 2014, to consider the Governor’s eight vetoes to the signed 2014-15 budget. There was no discussion about a government “shutdown,” because the budget is signed and takes effect on July 1. The only issues remaining had to do with whether the eight vetoes would be sustained.

As usual, hot-button issues were vetoes that the Governor made involving Medicaid. In procedural moves that are not unlike what happens in Washington, DC, the House Republicans made it impossible to have votes on several of the Governor’s vetoes, including one which involved Medicaid expansion.

It was my view that we should vote on each one of the vetoes. The body could either vote to overrule (a 2/3 vote) or vote to sustain (a 1/3 vote), but I believe that the Governor has a right to veto and constituents have a right to know where their legislators stand on those vetoes. In taking their actions, the House Republicans denied constituents the ability to assess our votes on Medicaid expansion and hold us accountable for them. This is happening with increasing frequency in Virginia, and it is yet another example of how Washington politics is spreading across the Potomac.

By day’s end the House had overruled one of the Governor’s vetoes, which dealt with funding the Ethics Reform Commission and did not contest five other vetoes, which were relatively uncontroversial.

By the time the vetoes arrived at the Senate, there was only one to consider, the Ethics Advisory Council funding. The Senate sustained that veto, meaning that there is no funding for the Council in the coming year. The Governor has indicated that he will propose a stronger ethics bill and will support funding for the Council in January when we reconvene in regular session.

Technically, we remain in “Special Session” and will hopefully reconvene in Richmond soon to discuss the one remaining issue that we have, the filling of vacant judgeships, including one in our area. I have received many questions about this vacancy, and have told constituents that it would be filled after the budget has been finalized. Well, the budget has now been finalized and it is time for us to fill the vacancy. It will be up to the Republican House to determine when we are called back to discuss judges. Hopefully, it will be soon because the citizens in our region deserve to have a full-time permanent judge sitting in the Charlottesville Circuit Court.

As always, it is a pleasure representing you in the General Assembly and I hope that you will contact me with your views and comments about issues affecting the region and the Commonwealth either at my legislative office, 434.220.1660, or at my law office at Buck, Toscano and Tereskerz, 434.977.7977.

Sincerely,
David Toscano

Adjournment Without A Budget

March 14, 2014 by David Toscano

The General Assembly adjourned on March 8, 2014 without a budget. This is the third time that this has occurred in the nine years that I have been serving you in Richmond. We have until the end of June to have a budget in place, but most of us want this to occur as soon as possible because our localities need to have firm figures from Richmond as to monies that are coming to them so they can prepare their budgets. The budget impasse is tied up in the Medicaid debate. It is my view that you cannot separate Medicaid from the budget. If we can access more federal dollars as part of Medicaid expansion, we would not have to appropriate monies in ways set forth in the House budget. We could replace millions of dollars in state dollars proposed for indigent care and for hospitals with federal dollars, freeing up state dollars to be spent on education and public safety. This debate will continue to occur when we reconvene in a special session beginning March 24th.

While most press coverage focused on the Medicaid issues, there were several significant actions taken by the General Assembly this session. They include the following:

Mental Health Reform

I served on the Mental Health subcommittee in the House that was able to advance a number of reforms, including the extension of emergency custody orders for citizens in crisis from six to twelve hours, requiring the state hospitals to provide a bed in the event that no other beds are available, and the implementation of a psychiatric bed registry to more quickly find beds for people in need.

Ethics Reform

I was the chief co-patron on a bipartisan bill that enacts a $250.00 cap on tangible gifts, requires that gifts to family members be reported, and ensures that the gift disclosures be made online so that citizens can easily see them. There is still much to be done in this area, but this is the first overhaul of this statute in many years, and represents a good effort to restore some faith in our ethics laws in the aftermath of the McDonnell scandal.

Standards of Learning Reform

We have reduced the number of SOL “high-stakes” tests in Grades 3 to 8, and have created a new committee that will recommend additional reforms.

Transportation Reform

The hybrid vehicle tax that was part of the 2013 transportation reform measure that many of us opposed was repealed.

Utility Service

We passed a bill that will make the undergrounding of utilities easier to accomplish by spreading the costs across the ratepayers. This is a very important measure for older communities like Charlottesville where above ground power lines often fail when major tree limbs fall during storms.

School Reform

We delayed by two years the issuance of the “A-F” letter grades for schools.

Bicycle Safety

We provided some additional protections for bicyclists by enacting a 3-5 foot passing distance around bicycles.

A number of measures were either tabled or defeated that might have some interest. The Virginia Dream Act, which would allow in-state college tuition for children of Virginia immigrants, was defeated, as was an effort to increase the minimum wage. Efforts by conservatives to push a new constitutional convention were passed by the House, but defeated in the Senate.

There were no new attacks on women’s reproductive health passed by the General Assembly, but our efforts to rollback the forced ultrasound requirement were defeated. The proposal to transfer $3 million from the City schools to the County schools was defeated in the House Appropriations Committee.

We have not yet designated a new judge for the 16th Judicial Circuit, which has been pushed back to sometime in April.

We return to Richmond on March 24th to work on Medicaid and the budget. Debates on this issue will likely continue throughout the spring.

As always, it is a pleasure representing you in the General Assembly and I hope that you will contact me with your views on various issues in the weeks leading up to our next session on March 24th.

David Toscano

Mental Health Reform

Ethics Reform

Standards of Learning Reform

Transportation Reform

Utility Service

School Reform

Bicycle Safety

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