Embezzlement Charges Prompt Bill from Marshall

RICHMOND - Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, submitted 11 new bills to this year’s General Assembly, including one that slightly revises the process in which a constitutional office - such as an elected city treasurer - can be abolished.

House Bill 1536 calls for streamlining the process for abolishing constitutional officers. Marshall said there are some changes he plans to make to the bill, as written, to streamline the process even further.

He confirmed that this bill was submitted at the request of Danville City Manager Jerry Gwaltney in response to the situation the city faced when it’s elected treasurer and deputy treasurer were both arrested on multiple embezzlement and fraud charges in October.

The Virginia Employment Commission is also on Marshall’s agenda.

House Bill 24 says that in the event that the Virginia Employment Commission has to close unemployment offices because of reductions in the amount of Federal Unemployment Tax Act revenue given to the state, the order in which those offices are closed, or have their staffs reduced, is based on the unemployment rate in the area where the offices are located.

Marshall said he heard cuts were planned, and called the director of the Employment Commission to find out how those cuts would be handled. This bill is in response to the fact that an across-the-board cut was planned, which didn’t take into account that some areas have higher unemployment rates than other.

“That hurts areas like us,” Marshall said. “Why would you not put more resources in an area where you have more demand than in an area where you don’t?”

Marshall has also submitted House Bill 25, which would increase the number of safe driving points from five to 10; one a year for 10 years. The bill also allows drivers to get five “good” points for “satisfactory completion of a safe driving class up to twice in 10 years.”

House Bill 376 requires that all driver license examination must be conducted in English, and that the use of interpreters is forbidden.

Marshall said he learned that anyone who spoke any language could take an interpreter along when they took their written test, and that the pass rate for people with interpreters was much higher than for those without one - but that still wouldn’t make that driver able to read the road signs when driving.

“It didn’t make sense,” Marshall said, to give anyone a license who could not read enough English to pass the driving test.

Other bills include:

• House Bill 377 offers an alternative to the civil remedial fees imposed on certain drivers (those considered abusive drivers). The bill allows a court to order community service if the person charged is unable to pay the fee or if payment will present a substantial hardship.
• House Bill 378 provides for the Department of Conservation and Recreation to establish a Virginia Golden Age Card for Virginia citizens age 60 or older. The card would give them a 50 percent discount at the camping facilities in Virginia’s state parks for a maximum of 14 days in a calendar year.
• House Bill 379 will allow local school boards to without a student’s report card or diploma if they owe the school for lost or damaged textbooks.  “Danville City School System asked me to put the bill in,” Marshall said. “Some students don’t value the schoolbooks, and it’s costing the school system in Danville a ton of money,”  With this bill, the school could hold up paperwork until the books were returned in good order or until they were paid for.
• House Bill 380 allows for impoundment or immobilization of a motor vehicle if the driver is arrested or issued a ticket for driving without a license, unless the driver releases control of the vehicle at the scene and gives permission to drive the vehicle to a person with a valid driver license.
• House Bill 595 prohibits use of state funds to pay for personal cell phone, pagers or cable television services unless those services are used in performance of an official or contractual obligation or task.
• House Bill 1037 addresses the sale or conversion of nonprofit hospitals. It requires a public hearing six month in advance of any sale or conversion. The public hearing must let the residents in the locality know of any changes to be made in staffing and how the sale or conversion will affect the community. The bill “specifies that no member of the nonprofit hospital’s board of directors may serve on a newly established private foundation’s board of directors.”  “The citizens of the area need to know this,” Marshall said, referencing the sale of Danville’s hospital with no citizen input about what would happen to the funds from the sale of that publicly-held facility.
• House Bill 1497 would require the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to have a Small Business Health Insurance Advisor to help small businesses form health insurance pools that would enable them to provide health insurance for their employees.

Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.