Self-licking ice cream cones. It’s a term used when an agency, department, or government function exists solely to exist — bankrolling its own existence in a Mobuis Strip that never resolves out of sheer design.
Virginia’s House of Delegates might have a similar conundrum on its hands with one of the progressive “freshmen 15” when it comes to setting their own budget as a state employee.
Delegate Dawn Adams is catching significant flak for staying on with her cushy job as a Virginia state employee — despite holding a clear conflict of interest by being a member of the House of Delegates.
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Adams is on unpaid leave from her job as director of the Office of Integrated Health in the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, but she said in an interview Monday that she will return to the job after the 60-day legislative session. An out-of-office reply set up at her government email address indicated she will be back to work on March 19, about a week after the legislature’s March 10 adjournment date.
In an interview, Adams said that when she began her winning campaign against former Del. Manoli Loupassi, a Richmond Republican, she initially believed she would have to give up her state job if she won. After narrowly defeating Loupassi last year, Adams said she and her department investigated the legal technicalities and determined she could stay. After seeking guidance from state human resources officials and the Attorney General’s Office, Adams said, a determination was made that “there’s precedent for a state employee being in the legislature.”
…that precedent? Teachers, for instance, are allowed to remain in the General Assembly specifically because there is an intervening and independent board layered between the teacher and the General Assembly — namely, a locally elected school board.
The same hold true for those in public education who are elected to city councils and boards of supervisors in Virginia. Same holds true for college professors.
The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services budget? $92 million dollars.
Delegate Adams is now in a tight spot, as precedent dictates that once a public employee takes an elected position, without an interposing (and independent) board available to the elected official, one must resign — not merely take an absence of leave. In fact, the very fact that Adams is taking an absence of leave suggests that in her core, she knows the conflict of interest is perhaps irreconcilable.
Yet Adams’ conundrum brings up a larger question, that being whether the government can or ought to have representatives on its own behalf.
Out of pure ethical considerations, the answer ought to be a firm and solid no.
Even if Adams manages to keep professional considerations distinct from her political duties, the precedent alone opens a can of worms that will no longer create the Jeffersonian “citizen legislature” that we prefer to think we have in Virginia, but rather a government-run legislature where members of the General Assembly find themselves with plum government positions who are only more than happy to grant leave to employees, if for no other reason than their interests — and not the citizens or taxpayers — are protected.
It would be very easy (and indeed, tempting) to make this a partisan issue. In fact, the nature and gravity of the considerations here make this anything but a partisan issue — but most certainly an ethical one.
Adams has two options, both of which involve a resignation of some sort.
Either resign her duties with VDBHDS, or resign her seat in the House of Delegates and trigger a special election. Not a comfortable choice, to be sure, but upon reflection, the right choice to struggle with in the call for ethical and open government responsive to the people of Virginia — not to government agencies.
