DRUG COURT FACES THREAT

Competing Budgets Offer No Funding

RICHMOND -- After getting rid of Judge Verbena Askew, the General Assembly
has now placed in jeopardy the future of the special drug court that she
helped establish in Newport News.

The competing budget plans approved by Senate and House of Delegates
committees Sunday failed to provide any money for operating drug courts in
Newport News and elsewhere in Virginia.

At a time when all areas of state government are facing budget cuts,
lawmakers say protecting core state services are more important than
special programs.

"Drug courts have proven to be effective," said Del. Phillip A. Hamilton,
the only Newport News delegate on the House Appropriations Committee. "But
in the budget crisis we're facing, on my list of priorities it would be
below education, public safety, health care and transportation."

Established five years ago, the Newport News Drug Court was designed to
treat and rehabilitate nonviolent addicts rather than imprisoning them.

In the workings of the state budget-writing process, the 13 drug court
programs throughout Virginia, which cost about $2 million a year to
operate, compete for money with other public safety initiatives like
prisons and state police.

In the House budget proposal, the priority among criminal justice programs
is a proposal aimed at keeping sexual predators locked up after they
complete their prison sentences. More than $1 million would be spent to
keep a handful of child molesters and rapists in a special facility, said
Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who sponsored the "civil
commitment" proposal.

In the Senate, public safety spending focuses on hiring prison guards and
psychologists at a price tag of more than $5 million.

"We have to take care of our core services before we fund our drug courts,"
said Sen. Kenneth Stolle, the Virginia Beach Republican who helped craft
the public safety portion of the Senate budget proposal.

And both Houses propose spending about $100,000 on a pilot program for
evaluating judges - an initiative that gained support after Republican
leaders drew criticism for denying Askew, a Newport News Circuit Court
judge, another eight-year term.

Askew's ouster and the drug court funding are separate issues, lawmakers
said. And they noted that they're not alone in neglecting drug courts.

Gov. Mark R. Warner never formally put money in next year's budget for drug
courts. However, last month, he announced a more than $7 million settlement
with Wall Street brokerage firms. Of that amount, he recommended spending
about $500,000 on drug courts.

House budget writers redirected that settlement money to a program that
would help localities borrow money to build schools.

"Quite frankly, that's a higher priority," Hamilton said.

Even if the governor and General Assembly leave drug courts out of the
budget next year, Stolle noted that the programs like the one in Newport
News remain eligible for federal spending.

In other business, the House of Delegates gave preliminary approval to
three bills with local connections. All three passed on voice vote. The
House must approve the bills one more time to send them to the Senate:

Vandalizing signs: Someone who causes a fatal accident by maliciously
damaging a road sign could be slapped with a misdemeanor under legislation
sponsored by Del. William K. Barlow, D-Isle of Wight.

Barlow authored the bill after a 2001 accident in James City County where
three people died. The accident happened after someone cut the wires to
flashing highway signs that warned of new traffic patterns.

Dissolving the Yorktown Trustees: The trustees are a five-member un-elected
board created more than three centuries ago to sell 50 acres of land and
oversee the waterfront. They have little authority or responsibility.

The measure, sponsored by Del. Melanie Rapp, R-York, would transfer to the
York County supervisors any duties the trustees still have.

Inspecting property: Another Rapp bill deals with local government's
ability to inspect rental properties. Rapp said her bill gives "specific
authority" to localities to fight slumlords while not overburdening
landlords whose buildings comply with the code.

City officials in Williamsburg, where 56 percent of housing units are
rentals, have said they fear the legislation could take away power from
localities that want to clean up problem properties.

Speaking on the House floor, Rapp said her bill "strikes a balance between
the rights of property owners and the need of local government to protect
public health and welfare."

Among its provisions, the bill would prevent localities from requiring
inspections more than once every five years unless the city received complaints.