Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill for the first time, he announced Tuesday. Delegate Patrick Hope’s (D-Arlington) HB 670 would have authorized counties operating under a county manager plan to hire an independent policing auditor to oversee its civilian review board; the bill passed out of the Senate along party lines and out of the House of Delegates with some bipartisan support. Arlington County is the only Virginia county operating under the county manager plan.
“The best way to ensure that any bad actors within law enforcement are held accountable is to stand up for law enforcement, not tear them down or subject them to politically-motivated inquiries,” Youngkin said in the press release.
Youngkin’s veto statement said, “This legislation enables law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies under the County Manager form of government to delegate all the powers entrusted to them, investing unilateral and expansive authority, to a single individual appointed directly by the governing body. Additionally, this legislation does not delineate the qualifications of the politically-appointed independent policing auditor. Furthermore, the prohibition against any person currently employed as a law-enforcement officer from service on a law-enforcement civilian oversight body conduces the appointment of an independent policing auditor without any formal input from a law enforcement officer.”
In 2021, the county adopted a civilian review board ordinance that limits the civilian review board to only make recommendations on disciplinary action.
In January, Hope told a House Counties, Cities, and Towns subcommittee that the bill was necessary because of Arlington County’s unique form of government that requires the county to get permission from the General Assembly any time the board wants to hire anyone. The bill wouldn’t have applied to any other counties, and supporters said it would help the civilian review board to be more independent, since the auditor would report to the elected board members instead of the county manager, who also oversees law enforcement.
“I fully welcome the opportunity to have this particular individual report to the county board. It will remove any appearance of conflict,” County Manager Mark Schwartz told the subcommittee.
The governor’s press release explained, “The politically appointed auditor could be given the full powers of Arlington’s law enforcement civilian oversight body to make binding disciplinary determinations, including termination and involuntary restitution. Under the current law, a policing auditor would be hired by and report to Arlington’s County Manager.”
On Tuesday, Hope told The Virginia Star that since the bill has been vetoed, the county manager, who is appointed by the board, will hire the policing auditor instead.
“What I didn’t quite think he [Youngkin] understood was about the disciplinary authority of the locality over the hiring and firing of law enforcement. That has nothing to do with this position. That authority rests in the ordinance and the ordinance itself prohibits the civilian review board from having that power,” Hope said. “So, his veto did not have anything to do with that. So, I’m not exactly sure if the governor fully understands the bill.”
Normally bills addressing locality charters, like HB 670, receive support from other legislators, Hope said.
“I’ve been here for 13 years. I’ve never known a governor to veto a charter bill. We routinely in here are supporting each other’s charter bills for various reasons,” Hope said.
“For the governor to choose my bill to use his veto pen on is very surprising to me, and to, I think, a lot of people,” he said.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Glenn Youngkin” by Glenn Youngkin.
