To the Editor:
Mayor Silberberg and City Council may be commended for starting an effort to write the city’s elected officials an ethics pledge and code to present in about nine weeks. I regret council did not follow her proposal to its full — and logical — extent. An action last Thursday in the House of Delegates illustrates the reason Alexandria should not await whatever our state legislature may do.
HB 6 to bar candidates from putting campaign funds to personal use was carried over to the General Assembly’s 2017 session. The reason given is to allow more study.
This proposal was among the Governor’s recommendations this year, cited in his State of the Commonwealth address in January. His own study began in early 2014. This is not a complex change. Basically, it codifies common sense: candidates should not use campaign funds to buy golf clubs or tuxedos.
This is a good example of what makes reform more difficult than it should be and has an added advantage of not pointing at anyone in Alexandria. The mayor is clear her proposals are not a rebuke. They aim to improve an environment that already fosters good behavior.
It is evident from this example the General Assembly may get an incomplete on ethics for 2016. So it will help for the ad hoc committee to take up other proposals, some of which may become part of the 2017 legislative agenda Alexandria offers. At a minimum, it will reinforce the Governor's continuing efforts.
Our city is not the only locality seeking to improve ethics. It can add its voice to others around Virginia to insist the General Assembly be prompt, as well as studious, in deliberating on changes to improve transparency. Otherwise, the slow-walking of good ideas toward the next cutoff date will go on.
Michael Campilongo
Alexandria