Fairfax County Board Chair to Participate in Governor's Integrity Commission

Fairfax County Board Chair Sharon Bulova will participate in the first meeting Monday of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s Commission to Ensure Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government. Others from Northern Virginia on the commission are former Delegate Joe T. May of Leesburg and Susan A. Magill, Vice President for Advancement at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

The group’s first meeting is at 9:30 a.m. on Monday in at the state Capitol in Richmond.

Former U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher and former Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, co-chairmen of the commission, also announced that the panel will host a forum to receive public comments next month. The event will be held from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville. The forum will take place in Caplin Auditorium, located in Withers-Brown Hall. The event is cosponsored by the University of Virginia Law School and the Center for Politics.

The commission was established Sept. 25 by Executive Order 28, which asked the 10 members to provide interim recommendations to the Governor by Dec. 1, 2014, with the goal of pursuing legislation during the 2015 Virginia General Assembly session.

The commission is tasked with recommending good government reforms, including meaningful rules for the ethical conduct of state officials, procedures for ensuring accountability to the electorate, and policies guiding the selection and service of high quality public servants.

“I look forward to the commission’s recommendations, and I am confident that the efforts of these 10 men and women will help to generate bipartisan support for broad-based reforms to Virginia’s ethics laws and other policies promoting high-quality governance in the commonwealth,” said McAuliffe.

The other members of the commission are:

• former Delegate Viola Baskerville
• former President of the University of Virginia John T. Casteen III
• President of Hampden-Sydney College Christopher Howard
• Vice President for Advancement at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Susan A. Magill
• attorney and former Assistant Attorney General Courtney M. Malveaux
• former Delegate Joe T. May of Leesburg
• former President and CEO of BB&T Scott & Stringfellow, Inc. John Sherman, Jr.

In their first meeting, commission members will review current ethics laws and policies and discuss recommendations for strengthening those rules.

The commission also will discuss Virginia’s redistricting procedures at its October meeting. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia earlier this month declared Virginia’s congressional districts unconstitutional. That ruling has given fresh immediacy to the issue, and commission members will respond by discussing the benefits of nonpartisan redistricting at their first meeting.

Members of the public also are invited to provide comments and read more about the commission’s work on its website, https://governor.virginia.gov/integrity-commission/