The city of Richmond won’t ask the next General Assembly to fix some of the issues in the city charter that were at the root of clashes between then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder and City Council. Despite nearly a year’s work by a review commission, council members agreed last night to hold off seeking state approval of potentially controversial changes relating to who has the authority to appoint the city attorney, the city auditor and the city assessor, and how the appointment of the chief administrative officer is handled.

The Virginia Board of Education wants the state to set staffing levels for full-time teachers of special, gifted, and career and technical education. Each school division would be required to hire at least 58 licensed, full-time-equivalent instructors per 1,000 students, under proposed changes to Virginia’s Standards of Quality, state-mandated goals for public schools.

Lawmakers are warning the state’s computer chief and Northrop Grumman against ramming through potentially pricey changes in a disputed contract ahead of a looming shakeup in Virginia’s information-technology bureaucracy. Though by law it falls to Chief Information Officer George F. Coulter to accept or reject revisions, he and Northrop Grumman’s Virginia project boss, Samuel Abbate, were told modifications should be vetted by the next governor and General Assembly.

Fifteen Richmond-area candidates for the House of Delegates will take part in a two-hour forum tomorrow night airing on WCVE (88.9 FM) public radio. The candidates will respond to questions submitted by participating organizations during the forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Leadership Metro Richmond, the Partnership for Housing Affordability and the Richmond First Club.

Lobbyists and executives for Northrop Grumman are quietly pressing General Assembly investigators to soften a report that was sharply critical of the company for failing to deliver computer services to the state on time. Northrop Grumman representatives met privately yesterday for more than two hours with staff members of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to discuss possible revisions in JLARC’s findings.

In polite tones, Del. John M. O’Bannon III, R-Henrico, and his Democratic opponent, Tom Shields, disagreed on unemployment insurance and funding of the Qimonda semiconductor-chip plant in a joint appearance before a Henrico County business group yesterday. O’Bannon defended the House of Delegates rejection this year of $125 million in unemployment-insurance money coming from President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

The state is giving tax delayers and tax avoiders a chance to pay up without penalty. The state is even putting a smiley face—literally—on a tax amnesty program that it hopes will add $41 million to its cash-strapped coffers. Previous amnesty programs in 1991 and 2003 were threatening, state Tax Commissioner Janie E. Bowen told members of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday.

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.

Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News, yesterday disputed an internal audit at Old Dominion University showing that he may not have earned the $40,000 a year that the school paid him for a job he helped create. The embattled Hamilton said in a news release that he has the documentation to prove “I performed every task requested of me, providing substantive and substantial value for my compensation.“

The Republican incumbent in a hotly contested House of Delegates race in Henrico County is rejecting charges by his challenger that he opposes emergency contraceptives for rape victims. “That my opponent continues to make false claims about my record is disappointing,“ said Del. John M. O’Bannon III, R-Henrico. He is seeking a sixth term in the 73rd District, which includes portions of Henrico and Richmond.

A General Assembly budget-writing committee, taking its first public look at Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposed budget reductions, found little to dislike yesterday. But state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, whose district includes Brunswick County, objected strenuously to a proposal to shut down the Brunswick Correctional Center. She even extracted a promise from the state’s secretary of finance to attend a town-hall meeting in Lawrenceville to explain why the state targeted the prison. The prison employs 300 people, half of whom would be laid off.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposal to defer a quarterly payment into the pension plan for state workers next spring may be just the first step toward a shift that could require workers to contribute a portion of their paychecks toward their retirement. “He is going to look hard at state employees making a contribution to the system,“ Secretary of Finance Richard D. Brown said. “At the end of the day, it may well be that state employees will be making a contribution.“

State legislatures around the country are becoming older and more diverse, a recent study by the National Conference of State Legislatures has found. The average age of a state lawmaker is 56, and nearly half of those serving in state legislatures are between 50 and 64, according to the study, which charted the age, gender, ethnicity and occupation of the 7,382 men and women who serve in all 50 states.

“Layoffs are not particularly good ways to reduce expenses, as the cost to let the employee go (severance etc.) and the potential cost of rehiring and retraining a new person when the crunch eases is high. The resulting lack of morale in the remaining employees also hurts operations. A hiring freeze and attrition will yield more dollar savings.“

A defiant Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News, says he has no intention of resigning, as five statewide office-seekers have urged. “Their collective opinions have not lessened my resolve to continue serving the people of the 93rd District,“ he said in a statement. Hamilton is under fire for pursuing a job at a new teaching center at Old Dominion University before he put in a $500,000 budget amendment for the center’s creation. E-mails also show Hamilton suggested his salary ($40,000) for the part-time job at ODU.