Sorry to be out of contact, folks, but I’m chilling at the beach in North Carolina. After two other vacations were aborted, this is the first vacation the Bacon family has had in more than a year! (Curse you, COVID-19!) I’m sure the rest of the Bacon’s Rebellion crew will keep you entertained in my absence. And in case they don’t, I’ll be checking in periodically.
— JAB
by James C. Sherlock
Updated August 30, 3:30 pm
I wrote yesterday about a House of Delegates bill that ultimately was passed by the House Committee for Courts of Justice as House Bill No. 5074 Amendment In the Nature of A Substitute (the bill).
I wrote of its effects on public officials and owners and managers of private companies for violations of COVID-19 regulations. The bill makes them not just accountable to state and federal regulators, but also personally civilly liable for the slightest violation of any part of the virtually unclimbable wall of applicable regulations. And Virginia has the strictest COVID-19 occupational safety regulations in the nation.
This essay will discuss the ethics of two different original bills and reveal the secretive process by which the final substitute was developed in committee. It will ask the General Assembly to clean up a scandal of its own making.
Some may say this “goes on all the time.” It may, but that does not mean it should.
by James A. Bacon
Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Collette McEachin said Friday she will not investigate Mayor Levar Stoney’s awarding of a $1.8 million contract to businessman Devon Henry, a Stoney campaign contributor, on the grounds that Henry also donated money in 2011 to her husband’s 2011 state Senate campaign.
“Although the amount of money donated over nine years ago may not be significant and my husband is no longer in that elective position, it is incumbent upon me to maintain the public trust in this office and to avoid even the appearance of impropriety because of any actions taken by my office,” McEachin wrote to Councilwoman Kim Gray. An opponent of Stoney in the mayor’s race, Gray had called for an investigation into the circumstances of the contract award.
Collette McEachin, who is married to U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, also said that the state code allows only the governor, attorney general or a grand jury to order a criminal investigation of a local elected official, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Gray said she will continue speaking out. “I think that the people have a right to have full understanding of how this contract went out,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything this egregious.” (more…)
by Carol J. Bova
The University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute’s COVID-19 Model Weekly Update for August 28 shows the R-naught reproduction rate was below 1.0 as of August 15 in every health region but the Northern one, and that number was barely over 1 at 1.018. A rate below 1.0 suggests that the viral spread is slowing.
UVA is predicting a 10-20% increase in transmission beginning September 8th based on schools reopening and the Labor Day holiday. Seasonal weather may play a role, but no one knows for sure what that might be, according to the report.
The number of COVID-19 cases the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reports isn’t a reliable indicator of what’s happening with the pandemic in Virginia. The statistics are influenced by many factors, such as where the tests are being done, who is going for testing, and how many tests are done. Hospitalizations are a better reflection of the virus’ spread. (more…)
By Steve Haner
As yet another bitter conflict over a police officer’s use of deadly force divides America, this time a case in Wisconsin, Virginia’s General Assembly forges ahead with opening up the state to the police unions that usually rush to protect their members from discipline or dismissal.
The Kenosha Professional Police Association was quick with its call for everybody to step back and let that investigation proceed. That is a fairly balanced statement, but then it put out a statement defending the officers’ behavior that ended with an entire clip emptied into somebody’s back. Unions advocate for their members.
Among all the bills introduced in the General Assembly’s special session response to these cases are a handful seeking to prevent some of the worst problems seen when unions stand up for bad cops. One is already defeated, but two are languishing in a House committee, where they may or may not be heard. All three have Republican sponsors.
A poll conducted for the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy two weeks ago indicates they would have public and bipartisan support. The poll over-sampled Black Virginians, to be sure enough were called to give credence to that cross tabulation. Their support was in line with all Virginians.
To be specific:
by James C. Sherlock
Remember the educational cartoon video “I’m Just a Bill”? Well this is different. This is the Virginia General Assembly in emergency session 2020.
I offer here an example captured in the brief history of a single bill in the House of Delegates that is very illustrative of the vast differences between the attitudes of the two parties.
Let’s see what happened to a bill to provide immunity from civil claims related to the transmission of or exposure to the COVID-19 virus when it got into the House Committee for Courts of Justice.
We will first examine House Bill 5037 offered by Republican Jason Miyares. It was designed to grant immunity, except in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct, to public officials and businesses who followed the rules.
by Chris Braunlich
As a local School Board member many years ago, I learned the truism, “Never stand between a Mama Bear and her cub.”
Education systems across the country are now learning it in real time.
With most Virginia schools shut down for in-school learning, parents are trying desperately to find resources to supplement less-than-optimal school programming. One of the most frequently used innovations is “learning pods” in which a group of local children learn together. Some parents take turns offering instruction, other pods hire tutors, regular classroom teachers, books and more.
The idea has taken off. Scores of “Pandemic Pods” Facebook groups have formed in a desperate attempt to give their children an education and exchange ideas.
They have no choice. Whether the cause is teachers unions, parents reluctant to put their kids back in a large classroom and crowded hallways, the nature of a pandemic, or administrators recognizing the limitations of physical space, schools are mostly closed to in-classroom instruction. (more…)
by James A. Bacon
Pierce Homer knows a thing or two about construction contracting and government procurement. He is transportation director for a private engineering firm. Previously, he served as Secretary of Transportation under Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. And before that, he worked for local governments in Prince William County and Galveston, Tex. In sum, Homer has more than 30 years of experience procuring and building infrastructure in Virginia, both as a state and county official and as an employee of a private engineering firm.
He is also forthright about supporting Kim Gray, who is one of six candidates running against incumbent Levar Stoney for mayor of Richmond.
Homer has been asking some of the same questions as Bacon’s Rebellion. How is it possible that it cost the City of Richmond $1.8 million to remove four Civil War statues? That’s how much Stoney paid NAH LLC in a no-bid deal with a campaign contributor to hire an out-of-state firm, Smedley Crane & Rigging, a welder, and a consultant to remove and transport the statues of Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, Mathew Fontaine Maury and Jefferson Davis.
His inquiries suggest that it could have cost no more than $200,000 to $300,000 to remove the statues. What, he asks, could have justified charging the city $1.8 million? (more…)
This graphic from the Virginia Public Access Project shows the corporations and organizations that have reported the biggest expenditures on lobbyist compensation. No surprises here — every one of these groups has a major presence in the General Assembly. However, VPAP cautions, don’t read too much into these numbers. These seeming big spenders simply may be using a broader definition of “lobbying” than others.
As VPAP explains: (more…)
by James C. Sherlock
Incredible and statistically unlikely as it sounds, the Commonwealth of Virginia has not a single member on either of the Congressional House or Senate Committees that decide what infrastructure projects are authorized, or on either Appropriations Committee that decides what is spent on such projects and on everything else.
Those projects include the water resources projects such as hurricane and flood mitigation that we have been discussing this week.
The Committees in question are:
That is a total of 120 House members and 52 senators. And we got swept. Virginia may be unique among the states with zero representation on any of those committees. (more…)
by James C. Sherlock
There were lots of comments in my last post about government programs to mitigate flooding damage in flood plains, specifically about buying and tearing down houses that repeatedly flood.
One of the carrots to do so is Community Rating System (CRS) discounts to flood insurance in communities that take an active role in flood plain risk mitigation.
CRS is a part of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). It is an incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum program requirements.
When that happens, not only is the risk of flooding diminished, but flood insurance premium rates for all citizens of a community that accomplishes the goals are appropriately discounted to reflect the reduced flood risk.
To quote the program web page,
“For National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System participating communities, flood insurance premium rates are discounted in increments of 5 percent.
By Dick Hall-Sizemore
Increasing earned sentence credits for offenders in state prisons seems to have a good chance of passing in the General Assembly session. SB 5034 (Boysko, Fairfax) has been reported by the Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services and re-referred to the Finance Committee. The House Democratic Caucus’s agenda for the special session includes this issue.
So far, the discussions surrounding this issue have missed the fact that this bill, along with the reinstatement of parole that will come up in the 2021 regular session, will seriously undermine two major elements of the Commonwealth’s criminal justice system. (more…)
by James C. Sherlock
In response to my suggestion to use the Corps of Engineers to assess Virginia’s needs for hurricane and flood control, libertarian commenters on this blog used the argument that only oceanfront landowners will benefit.
That shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the process works. I ran into that same level of ignorance in the General Assembly.
No plan can defend everything everywhere, but a proper plan will do a cost-benefit analysis, and the USACE by law does that in every plan. Corps plans will protect what that its cost-benefit analysis indicates can be protected with a significant return on investment. The value of people, disadvantaged communities, historically minority communities and areas of historical and ecological significance are counted in that assessment, not just property.
The Corps is a designated federal enforcer of environmental laws with regards to water and water related projects. They first will do everything they can with natural solutions before shifting to such construction projects as levies, pumps, seawalls, flood gates and berms.
The Corps uses a Regional Economic System (RECONS) model, which is a program used to assess the regional, state, and national impacts of projects. It is constantly assessed and updated. (more…)
by James A. Bacon
Three years ago, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an article headlined thusly: “Baltimore paid less than $20,000 to remove four Confederate monuments last month. So what does that mean for Richmond?”
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe had estimated that it would cost more than $5 million to remove five Confederate statues from Richmond’s Monument Avenue. They argued that such a large sum would be more productively spent on city schools.
After conducting a Freedom of Information Act request, the RTD discovered that the City of Baltimore had paid a contractor $19,364 for “monument removal and storage” of four Confederate statues. The contractor put the statues in a city storage lot and covered them with tarps. To address security concerns, the city had the statues removed overnight with no advance notice.
The RTD article seems especially relevant today as Stoney, running for re-election, defends his decision to pay a campaign contributor $1.8 million to remove four statues: of Jefferson Davis, J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and Mathew Fontaine Maury. The circumstances in Baltimore and Richmond were not identical. The Richmond statues were larger than the Baltimore statues. Stoney was acting during a public emergency punctuated by violent protests. No Richmond contractor was willing to undertake the job, and the mayor had to look out-of-state for someone to do the work.
But when the cost differs by a factor of almost 100, Stoney has some explaining to do. Especially when he ignored Richmond and state procurement policies to award the contract to a dummy corporation set up by Devon Henry, a campaign contributor. (more…)
by Kerry Dougherty
Twenty eight days.
That’s how long cities in Tidewater were able to enjoy the freedoms granted to us by our munificent governor when he graciously allowed us to move from COVID Phase 2 to Phase 3 on July 1.
By July 28th Gov. Ralph Northam yanked some – but not all – of those privileges away from those of us living in Southeastern Virginia.
We’d been naughty.
COVID-19 cases were up, as were our positivity percentages. So we were punished. No liquor could be served — or consumed — after 10 p.m. in restaurants, and eating establishments had to close at midnight.
Because everyone knows that a margarita at 10:15 makes you vulnerable to COVID-19.
While the rest of the commonwealth could gather in groups of 250, we were limited to 50. (more…)
The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….
This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.
Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.
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