ABINGDON, Va. – Even in a town as small as Abingdon, there is wide variation in the importance with which public disclosure forms are viewed by elected officials.
Town Councilman Jason Berry, the member elected most recently, said Virginia’s economic interest disclosure forms are important to help towns avoid corruption, while French Moore, who has held his council seat for 42 years, calls them a waste of time.
“I took it serious; it’s part of the job,” said Berry, the only member of the Town Council who filled out his form completely. “I think you should take it serious because the public needs to understand where their public officials stand.”
Town Councilwoman Cathy Lowe also filled out her form with attention to detail, even getting a financial adviser to provide investment information – though she missed one prominent box – regarding the names of family members – located near the top of the form.
“I do think they’re difficult,” Lowe said of the forms. “It’s confusing whether or not you have to fill it out because each page says ‘if this’ and ‘if that’ so it is kind of confusing, but I always try to go better safe than sorry. … I’m glad to know I followed the rules 99.9 percent.”
The remaining council members left one or more of the form’s yes or no boxes unchecked; Moore left half of his empty.
“I filled out what I thought I needed to fill out,” Moore said. “It’s a waste of time as far as I’m concerned.”
Moore said he wishes he didn’t have to fill out a form every year, but it’s required by the state.
“I did what I thought was necessary, and if I left something out I’ll be glad to fill it in for you if that will make you happy,” Moore said. “In all these years, I’ve never heard anybody say a word about the form. You’ve got to be the first person who’s ever looked at it. It’s not funny; it’s the truth. I don’t know of anyone that’s ever looked at it before.”
Town Attorney Deborah Icenhour said the town clerk gets several forms from Richmond each year and gives council members one of each, because some members serve the town in more than one capacity.
She said the clerk is picky about forms being filled out right – but less so when a form duplicates information she already has on file.
“It might be looked at as immaterial or not pertinent to them,” Icenhour said when asked why most of the forms are missing information. But, she said, “I do think this is fairly important if you get them and they’re not completed.”
A couple of weeks after he was first interviewed about the forms, Moore filed a corrected version that lists more than half a million dollars worth of stocks and bonds that were not on the original form.
While he said his opinion of the form hasn’t changed, he noted that he consulted a financial adviser, the town manager and town attorney for help to fill it out correctly. He said the first time around he was preparing for his annual three-month ski trip and asked town staff to fill out the form for him, which they did.
“I just signed my name and told them to take last year’s information and just copy it, and that’s what they did, but they just missed a couple pages,” he said. “I hope that you’ll look at it and see that I tried to get it right this time.”
The corrected statement, however, was provided on an outdated form.
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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