Williams: After controversy, Hamilton should resign from legislature

It's clear that Del. Phil Hamilton badly wanted a job at Old Dominion University. Less clear is whether he actually performed it.

The Newport News Republican sent or replied to 11 e-mails discussing possible employment at the then-proposed Center for Teaching Quality and Educational Leadership. Problem is, Hamilton sent these e-mails before, during and after a 2007 General Assembly session in which he secured $500,000 in startup funding for the center.

This unseemly juxtaposition of events has him under investigation by a House of Delegates ethics panel and a federal grand jury. It also has Democrats and Republicans calling for him to resign.

In August, Hamilton left his job at the teacher-training center but has refused to leave the legislature.

This week, ODU released its audit on an affair that does not reflect kindly on its institutional controls. The findings suggest that Hamilton wasn't nearly as energetic about performing his $40,000-a-year job as he had been about obtaining it.

"We noted very little documentation that served to verify services provided by Delegate Hamilton as part of his position," the audit states.

His office was apparently only lightly used at first, "and then later not at all."

"Overall," the audit notes, "there is little available documentation to reconstruct his activities over the last two years."

It's nice work if you can get it, and Hamilton apparently made the most -- or least -- of it.

In a statement yesterday, Hamilton said he has documentation to prove "I performed every task requested of me" but that he wasn't given the opportunity to provide that proof to auditors. He also did not release the documentation.

This situation wasn't the epitome of upright before the audit's release, and now it looks even more sordid. In boxing parlance, it's hard to figure out what's keeping Hamilton upright.

State law on this issue seems clear:

No legislator may "solicit or accept money or other thing of value for services performed within the scope of his official duties, except the compensation, expenses or other remuneration paid to him by the General Assembly."

In fairness, it must be noted that according to the audit, "Delegate Hamilton never states in any e-mail that his support in the General Assembly for funding of CTQEL was contingent on his receipt of a position."

ODU also notes that Hamilton, more than a month after the 2007 legislative session ended, was still asking about the job.

His persistence paid off. But once he came on board the teacher training center, "his work was neither well-documented nor supervised."

The audit concludes, "The handling of Delegate Hamilton's position after his hire was not ideal."

You think?

This episode taints ODU and the legislature and sends a creepy message about how business gets done.

It's bad enough that a lawmaker may have skirted the law in hitting'em up while hooking'em up. But Hamilton compounded the affront by giving taxpayers little discernable return on his dubious gain.

Hamilton needs to handle this, for the sake of his constituents and the commonwealth. He needs to go.

Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .