by James C. Sherlock

Scandals can have real victims. This one certainly does. The victims are poor people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, people who citizens think and hope are cared for by our Medicaid dollars under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A politically powerful member of the Virginia Senate has failed them in her private business.  Medicaid has paid her company to keep them well and safe, and to help them integrate as far as possible into society.  Instead, the business has a long history of repeatedly violating Virginia laws and allowing serious injuries to the people in its care.

The same senator has for years sat in a position of direct authority over:

• the laws under which her business operates,
• her business’s regulator, and
• the funding with which her business gets paid.

The situation presents a moral and political dilemma for the Senate of Virginia and, indeed, for all of us. It also presents a legal problem for Virginia, as the Commonwealth is already under a federal injunction for failing to properly serve this very population.

Here is the story. The Senator is poised to make it worse.

The House and Senate of the Virginia General Assembly, both controlled by Democrats, could not agree on a budget this year. So they are scheduled to return to a special budget session on April 23.

As Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, will be front and center in the upcoming session. Senate negotiators, tasked with resolving differences with the House in the biennial budget bill, are to be led by her.

But  Lucas presents the Senate with an issue. The close alignment of her private business and her public obligations and authorities raises issues of public perception and Senate integrity.

For 28 years, she has operated a business, Lucas Lodge LLC, that provides Medicaid-funded services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

She serves and has served for years on two committees that are completely intertwined with her business:

1. The Senate Committee on Education and Healthcare (since 1994)
   • oversees the regulator of her business, the Department of Behavioral Health and Disability Services (DBHDS), and the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), also known as Virginia Medicaid, and
   • writes the laws with which Lucas Lodge must comply.
2. The Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations (since 2008), of which she is now chair, funds the operations of both agencies and Virginia Medicaid, which, as indicated earlier, pays Lucas Lodge for services.

The situation remains, at best, awkward for the Senate. It just got worse.

This year, Sen. Lucas is the patron of the Senate Budget Bill (SB-30), which amended the baseline budget submitted by Gov. Youngkin. Item 291 #4s in that bill, Developmental Disability Waiver Rates for Selected Services, will specifically increase Lucas Lodge’s Medicaid payments above the baseline. Sen. Lucas’s budget bill passed her committee and the Senate floor.

SB 30 will be the starting point for the Senate in the upcoming Special Session negotiations that she will lead.

We’ll see what happens.

Right, wrong, and the law

A chronology of Lucas’s career, aligned with the history of Lucas Lodge and multi-domain events, shows long-time issues. It will seem clear to the average citizen that Lucas should have avoided membership on those two committees after starting her business.

But her activities raise questions under the Code of Virginia, Chapter 13, General Assembly Conflicts of Interests Act.  The general policy is clear.  

§ 30-100.  Declaration of legislative policy

The General Assembly, recognizing that our system of representative government is dependent in part upon (i) citizen legislative members representing fully the public in the legislative process and (ii) its citizens maintaining the highest trust in their public officers, finds and declares that the citizens are entitled to be assured that the judgment of the members of the General Assembly will not be compromised or affected by inappropriate conflicts…

This chapter shall apply to the members of the General Assembly.
This chapter shall be liberally construed to accomplish its purpose.

The specific provisions of that law are murkier. They contain both basic provisions and escape clauses:

• Article 2. Generally Prohibited and Unlawful Conduct
• Article 3. Prohibited Conduct Relating to Contracts. Lucas Lodge operates under contracts with Medicaid and the Portsmouth Community Services Board, which operates as a city department.
• Article 4. Conduct Regarding Transactions
• Article 5. Disclosure Statements Required to Be Filed
• Article 6. Ethics Orientation Sessions

The Virginia Senate has Rule 18(h), under which the Committee on Privileges and Elections may consider such matters. But there appears to be no opportunity before the budget session, and the process can be lengthy.

Bottom line

Lucas owns Lucas Lodge and, as CEO, is personally responsible for its repeated violations of Virginia law and for unsafe conditions, as documented in public records and detailed at length here.

The Senate Committee on Education and Health, on which she serves and has chaired, oversees the Lucas Lodge regulator DBHDS and its funding source, Virginia Medicaid (DMAS). As Chairman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, she allocates funds to both agencies and to Medicaid.

There are several potential points of view and actions available:

1. Most citizens will find that Lucas’s service on those two committees has been objectively wrong since Lucas Lodge’s founding in 2005. But there is often a difference between what is right and what is legal, and that may be true in this case.
2. The Senate itself, under Rule 18(h), can investigate with a wide range of options.
3. Law enforcement, including the Attorney General, is ultimately responsible for determining whether the facts violate any Virginia law. General Jones can be asked to provide a finding on that issue to the General Assembly.

Lucas, without admitting guilt, may wish to recuse herself from the budget negotiations to save the General Assembly significant embarrassment.

The upcoming budget session offers her an opportunity to act now to prevent it from becoming a sideshow to this scandal.

Update March 25, 11:30 am: This article has been updated to reflect that “Lucas Lodge LLC has been providing Medicaid Waiver Services for adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities since 1998.”  That is eight years longer than previously reflected in this article and in the current NPI registration.  Sen Lucas has been on the Senate Committee on Education and Health since 1994, so the scandal remains as originally reported.  A single correction reflecting the year of Lucas Lodge’s founding is made here in bold and in the timeline attachment.