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Planning A Comeback For The Quarantine Pay Bill

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Del. Elizabeth Guzman hasn’t been able to get her bill mandating paid sick days for Virginia’s workers through the General Assembly. But she’s not going to stop trying.

Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman said she is no stranger to the struggles of low-paying jobs. She immigrated to the United States as a single mother and worked multiple minimum wage jobs just to be able to pay rent and care for her daughter.

Now, as the elected delegate for Virginia’s 31st District, she has a mission to secure better financial benefits for minimum wage workers. But it’s not going as planned.

Guzman plans to introduce a new bill to require Virginia businesses to offer paid sick days to employees during the next legislative session in January 2021. The most recent version of her bill, HB 5116, was just killed in a Senate committee after being passed by the House.

Guzman said she’s frustrated but she’s willing to keep trying.

“Most of the arguments that I heard was because businesses are hurting and it was not the right time,” Guzman said. “We hear a lot about businesses that we don’t hear about the working class, and who’s going to be fighting for them.”

Kim Bobo, the executive director for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP), said she is in favor of Guzman’s bill. Bobo said paid sick days, like getting paid a minimum wage, are basic standards employers should be able to provide for their employees without government assistance.

“We really don’t believe that public funds should be used to subsidize employers providing such a basic core standard as paid sick days,” Bobo said. “We will not include anything like that in a bill going forward.”

Being able to take paid time off can have a larger impact on the community because workers don’t have to choose between their families’ well-being and a paycheck, according to Bobo.

“They will stay home when their children are sick and they won’t send their kids to school sick, which is what happens right now,” Bobo said.

Over half of supporters of all major political parties in Virginia “strongly” or “somewhat” support mandated paid sick days. (YouGov)

Bobo isn’t the only supporter of Guzman’s bill. Eighty-three percent of Virginians support paid time off mandates, according to a September YouGov poll commissioned in part by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. In the Democrat-majority Virginia Congress however, one of the few things the delegates and senators can agree on is that businesses are hurting.

Del. Chris Head, who represents Virginia’s 17th District, voiced his concerns during the legislative special session requested by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

“This bill is going to cause businesses who might hire people to think twice about it,” Head said. “It’s going to raise their expenses for hiring people and it’s going to end up hurting many of the very people that you’re trying to help with this legislation.”

Guzman said she isn’t deterred. After Gov. Northam and First Lady Pamela Northam announced they tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 25, Guzman said she needed to quarantine; Guzman had visited a school with the First Lady just a few days prior. The quarantine is just a reminder of what Guzman is fighting for.

“Listen, there are 1.2 million Virginians out there that, if they were in the same situation that we are today, they would continue to go to work, because they don’t have a dime,” Guzman said firmly. “Please pass the message to the Governor and the First Lady.”

The next regular session of the Virginia General Assembly is scheduled to start on Jan. 13, 2021.

Top Photo: Employees at the Kung Fu Tea on West Grace Street prepare drinks while wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic. (Zachary Klosko/VCU)

Virginians Debate Whether COVID-19 Vaccine Should Be Mandatory

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At such a time that a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, should Virginians be required to get it? The state’s health commissioner thinks so; some General Assembly members disagree.

Though the federal government is asking states to prepare for the possibility of a COVID-19 vaccine within months, some Virginians differ on whether the vaccine should be mandatory when it becomes available.

Virginia Freedom Keepers, a nonprofit that advocates for medical freedom, gathered in Richmond earlier this month for a “March Against Mandates,” in protest of the statewide mask mandate, as well as a potential vaccine mandate, in response to COVID-19. The Virginia General Assembly is currently holding a special session to discuss the budget, along with COVID-19 and criminal justice reform measures.

Virginia Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver said in a recent interview with ABC-8 (WRIC-TV) that if he is still Virginia’s acting Health Commissioner when a COVID-19 vaccine is made available, he will make immunization mandatory.

“It is killing people now, we don’t have a treatment for it and if we develop a vaccine that can prevent it from spreading in the community we will save hundreds and hundreds of lives,” Oliver said.

Gov. Ralph Northam’s office did not back up the health commissioner’s statement. Northam’s administration told WRIC it had “taken no official policy position on whether or not a COVID-19 vaccine for adults should be mandatory.” Northam’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Capital News Service. According to the Virginia Department of Health press office, when Dr. Oliver spoke in support of a mandate for a future COVID-19 vaccine, he was “sharing his personal opinion as a physician.”

Virginia law currently gives the health commissioner the authority to issue a mandate for a vaccine in the case of an epidemic. The law allows doctors to exempt people from vaccination if their health would be negatively affected. A. E. Dick Howard, a professor of international law at the University of Virginia, says this statute must be read in light of the state constitution, which states the commonwealth’s executive power is vested in the governor, meaning it’s unlikely that Oliver would have the final word.

“This provision is meant to focus both authority and responsibility of the governor. It therefore argues against the splintering of authority in the executive branch,” Howard said in an email.

Gov. Ralph Northam speaks at a press conference about COVID-19. (Photo courtesy of Gov. Northam/Twitter)

The current language exempts those with a note written by a doctor, but two Virginia delegates wanted to exempt people who object to vaccination on religious grounds.

HB 5070, introduced by Del. Dave LaRock, R-Loudoun, and HB 5016, introduced by Del. Mark Cole, R-Fredericksburg, have similar wording. The two bills, which were tabled during the special session, would have eliminated the health commissioner’s authority to enforce a vaccination mandate for people who object due to religious beliefs. 

“I am concerned that there is such a rush to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, that normal safety and effectiveness testing may be bypassed, leading to the distribution of a vaccine that has not been fully tested,” Cole said in an email. “Who knows what the health consequences of short-circuiting the process may be?”

LaRock did not respond to a request for comment about his bill. Cole said constituents concerned about a mandatory vaccine asked him to introduce HB 5016, and that “religious beliefs” in the bill incorporates any belief system, including secularism. 

“I am old enough to remember the Swine Flu scare more than 40 years ago. President Ford started a program of public vaccinations to protect people from it,” Cole said. “I received the vaccine when I was in college.” 

In 1976, a swine flu outbreak in New Jersey led President Gerald Ford to issue a nationwide immunization program, according to the Los Angeles Times. Of the 40 million Americans who received the vaccine, around 500 are suspected to have contracted Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder that damages nerve cells and causes paralysis in some cases.

“No one should be forced to take a vaccine. Every vaccine has some health risks associated with it; they may be relatively minor, but they are there,” Cole said. “Vaccines that have been tested and found to be effective and safe should be offered to the public, and I am confident that most people will take advantage of it, including myself.” 

In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states have the authority to regulate for the protection of the public and a community has the right to protect itself against an “epidemic of disease,” regardless of one’s political or religious objections, according to the National Constitution Center. The ruling allowed the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts to fine residents who refused to receive smallpox injections. According to Howard, in the case of a mandatory vaccine, the court ruled that states may create an exemption based on religion but are not obliged to do so.

“Thus, the question of what qualifies as a religious exemption depends on how a statute is drafted and interpreted,” Howard said.

Written by Will Gonzalez, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Art Writ.

House, Senate Committees Advance Bills For Expungement of Criminal Records

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Bills sponsored by state Senator Creigh Deeds and Delegate Charniele Herring hope to make expungements of criminal records easier to attain for those who have been convicted of crimes in the past, not just those who are acquitted.

Virginia House and Senate committees have advanced legislation that would remove certain criminal records in a criminal justice reform effort that allows people to petition for expungement of convictions, not just charges. 

Senate Bill 5043, sponsored by Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, and House Bill 5146, sponsored by Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, would expand the current expungement process. Police and court records are currently only expunged if an individual is acquitted, a case is dismissed or abandoned. 

Deeds said the bill expands the cases available for expungement and will create an easier process for individuals seeking expungement. 

Deeds’ bill heads to the Senate floor after moving through two Senate committees. The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee gave the bill the green light Thursday with a 16-0 vote. Herring’s bill was approved by the House Appropriations Committee with a 13-9 vote.

State Senator Creigh Deeds. Photo by Joshua H. Karp.

Deeds’ bill would allow expungement of records for cases such as misdemeanor marijuana possession, underage alcohol or tobacco possession, and using a fake ID to buy alcohol. The bill allows expungement five years past conviction and once court fines have been paid. The bill excludes violent felonies and drug-related offenses such as marijuana possession over an ounce, distribution of drugs to a person under 18, and the manufacturing, possession, or distribution of controlled substances like heroin and methamphetamine.

“Simple marijuana possession is no longer a crime in Virginia, so you ought to be able to expunge those convictions,” Deeds said.

Herring’s bill creates an automatic system that after eight years expunges certain charges that have been abandoned or dismissed, as well as certain convictions, including some felonies if there are no subsequent convictions.

The current process includes filing a petition, being fingerprinted, paying a filing fee, and possibly attending a court hearing, according to Colin Drabert, deputy director of the Virginia State Crime Commission, who spoke during a commission hearing Monday. Virginia is one of nine states that do not allow the expungement of a misdemeanor and one of 14 states that do not allow the expungement of a felony, he said. 

Virginia State Police have received approximately 4,000 expungement orders for non-convictions per year for the past three years, Drabert said. If Herring’s bill passes, cases that are acquitted, dismissed, or a nolle prosequi entered, will be automatically expunged by the court handling the case — excluding traffic violations. For convictions, Herring’s bill outlines a new, at least monthly process that has state police provide to the courts an electronic list of qualifying offenses that meet automatic expungement. Once a judge approves the names and offenses, the records are expunged.

“There is a stigma attached when someone has a mark on their record from difficulty in finding employment,” Herring said during a House Courts of Justice hearing. Criminal records also can impact an individual’s ability to attend college, receive financial aid or find housing, she said. 

Andy Elders, policy director at Justice Forward Virginia and chief public defender for Fairfax County, said expungement helps people re-establish themselves in society. 

“Many people who have criminal convictions on their records have them as a result of over-policing of communities of color,” Elders said. 

Dana G. Schrad, executive director of Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, said the proposed changes won’t allow certain employers to access expungement records, including police chiefs who conduct thorough background checks before hiring individuals.

“If these expungement proposals are enacted into law, law enforcement hiring processes will be further compromised,” Schrad said.

Delegate Charniele Herring. Photo by Susan Shibut.

Deeds’ bill would not require disclosure of expungement. Herring’s bill will prohibit automatically expunged records from being seen unless applying for law enforcement and certain federal and state positions.

Schrad also said the law change could impact background checks for teachers, child care providers, mental health and social workers.

Though the governor promised sweeping criminal justice reform in January, the newly-elected Democratic majority failed during the regular session to pass bills such as reinstating parole and expungement of records. Deeds’ bill, if passed, would take effect January 2022. Herring’s bill would be phased in and require multiple agencies to sign off on the implementations.

Written by Joseph Whitney Smith, Capital News Service. Top Photo via VCU-CNS

Activists Say Bill Ending Police Stops For Marijuana Odor Is ‘Small Step’ For Marginalized Communities

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In the wake of the General Assembly’s decriminalization of marijuana, which took effect July 1, this law would, according to activists, help decrease the over-policing of Black and brown Virginians.

The state Senate approved a bill Friday that would prohibit search and seizures based solely on the odor of marijuana. Activists say this is a small step toward ending adverse enforcement against marginalized communities.

Senate Bill 5029, introduced by Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, passed with a 21-15 vote. 

Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, a nonprofit pushing for the statewide legalization of marijuana, said her group is excited to see the bill move forward.

“This is a small but important step to decriminalizing Black and brown bodies of being targeted by this longtime policing tool, which was really created by politicizing the war on drugs,” Higgs Wise said.

Members of the group Marijuana Justice at a press conference in January to support the legalization of marijuana in the commonwealth. Photo by Emma Gauthier/CNS.

Black people are more than three times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession in Virginia compared to white people, according to 2018 data from the ACLU. Even after marijuana was decriminalized in July, Higgs Wise said police stops initiated on the smell of marijuana continue to adversely affect minority groups.

“The odor of marijuana is something that our undocumented community is anxious about, because it’s life or death and separation from their families,” Higgs Wise said.

Higgs Wise said there is still “a long way to go” before demands for full marijuana legalization are met, but right now she wants legislators to focus on ending the enforcement of remaining marijuana-related penalties.

Marijuana decriminalization legislation approved by the General Assembly earlier this year went into effect in July. Possession of up to an ounce of marijuana results in a $25 civil penalty, reduced from a $500 criminal fine and 30 days in jail for having up to half an ounce.

Higgs Wise said true reform goes further; clearing records, releasing people jailed for marijuana offenses, and eliminating the $25 fine. 

“All of that has to stop to meet the full demand of legalization and fully, truly decriminalizing marijuana and Black and brown bodies in the eyes of the police,” Higgs Wise said.

Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police Executive Director Dana Schrad said the organization opposes the bill. 

“Enacting this type of legislation allows and promotes smoking of marijuana while operating a motor vehicle, which is a fundamental disregard for maintaining a safe driving environment for motorists,” Schrad said in an email.

Other amendments in the bill reduce certain traffic violations from primary to secondary offenses, which Schrad said could make it difficult for officers to issue citations on the road and creates risks for other drivers.

The bill, and another in the House, reduce other traffic penalties from primary to secondary offenses, such as driving with tinted windows or without a light illuminating the vehicle’s license plate.

Claire Gastañaga, Executive Director of the ACLU of Virginia. Photo via Capital News Service

Claire Gastañaga, executive director of ACLU Virginia, said police have “gotten comfortable” with using the smell of marijuana as a pretext to stop and frisk.

“Occasionally, they’ll find evidence doing that of some other criminal activity, but many times they don’t,” Gastañaga said. “As a consequence, it provides an excuse for essentially over-policing people who have done nothing wrong.”

Gastañaga said the end of the overcriminalization of Black and brown people will come after legislators legalize marijuana and commit to reinvesting equitably in those communities. A resolution approved by the General Assembly earlier in the year directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study and make recommendations for how the commonwealth should legalize marijuana by 2022.

Gastañaga said SB 5029 sends a strong message to the police and the public.

“This would take [away] that pretextual tool for police stopping people on the street, or for demanding to search a vehicle,” Gastañaga said.

The bill needs approval from the House of Delegates and a signature from Gov. Ralph Northam before it can become law, which would take effect four months after the special session adjourns. 

House Bill 5058 similarly aims to end police searches based on the odor of marijuana. The bill, introduced by Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, reported Wednesday from the House Courts of Justice committee by a vote of 13-7.

“A disproportionate number of people pulled over for minor traffic offenses tend to be people of color,” Hope said during the committee meeting on Wednesday. “This is a contributor to the higher incarceration rate among minorities.”

Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said during Wednesday’s meeting that when people feel they are being targeted by the police, they’re less likely to report crimes or act as witnesses in prosecutions. He said ending such traffic stops is necessary to reform the criminal justice system and make communities safer. 

“Reforming our criminal justice system means bringing back legitimacy to it,” Descano said.

Written by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service.

Northam Ceremonially Signs the Virginia Values Act

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Joined by LGBTQ rights advocates from around Virginia, Governor Northam held a ceremonial signing of the Virginia Values Act last Thursday at Diversity Richmond.

Last Thursday, Governor Ralph Northam got together with LGBTQ advocates from all over Virginia to host a ceremonial signing of the Virginia Values Act. The event, which was streamed on Equality Virginia’s Facebook page but not open to the public, was an opportunity to commemorate the significant expansion of LGBTQ rights in Virginia in a proper socially-distanced fashion, and everyone involved was glad to take it.

The Virginia Values Act was passed by both houses of the General Assembly earlier this year, signed into law in April by Governor Northam, and went into effect at the beginning of July. The act forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in a number of areas, including employment, housing, and public accomodations. For the first time, LGBTQ Virginians can live free of worry that they will be evicted, fired, or refused service in stores and restaurants.

In light of such a groundbreaking expansion of LGBTQ rights within the state, LGBTQ advocates wanted to commemorate the Virginia Values Act’s passage in a more formal setting that hadn’t been possible in April, at the height of the pandemic. The gathering last Thursday at Diversity Richmond provided the perfect opportunity. Virginia Values Coalition director James Parrish, Equality Virginia executive director Vee Lamneck, local advocates Zakia McKensey and Aurora Higgs, and other LGBTQ Virginians were joined at the event by public officials including Governor Northam, Virginia First Lady Pam Northam, Attorney General Mark Herring, and Virginia state Senator Adam Ebbin.

Governor Northam called the ceremonial signing “an exciting day for Virginia.” Referencing the years of effort that went into crafting and passing the Virginia Values Act, he said, “It has been a team effort and together, together we have all come a long way.”

Watch the full signing ceremony, as streamed on Facebook Live, below.

Photo via Governor Northam’s office

Legislature Delays Minimum Wage Increase Amid Budget Concerns

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The delay will push the first statewide minimum wage increase back by four months, to May 2021; some lawmakers view this delay as the lesser of two evils.

Labor advocates and Virginia legislators worried the recently passed bill to increase minimum wage might die during the reconvened General Assembly session Wednesday.

Gov. Ralph Northam’s amendment deferred the start date of the original bill by four months in response to the economic blow dealt to the state from the coronavirus pandemic. The recommendation was one of many made to trim the $135 billion, two-year budget passed in the spring. Republican lawmakers wanted to reject the amendment in order to stall the passage of the bill and have the governor amend it further.

During the relocated Senate floor session held at the Science Museum of Virginia, Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham, argued that now is a risky time to consider raising the minimum wage given the COVID-19 crisis. He said the legislature should reject the governor’s recommendation and send the bill back for reconsideration.

“Voting ‘no’ on this amendment keeps this issue alive,” Obenshain said. “It sends it back to the governor, and the governor has one more chance to do what’s right, not just for businesses, but for workers.”

Lawmakers who oppose minimum wage increases argued that those working minimum wage jobs in Virginia are young people entering the workforce, not people trying to support families. Other legislators pointed to the essential workers now serving the public from the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak, many of whom make minimum wage. 

“Quite frankly I find it hard to believe we’ve got people in here who don’t think somebody working full time in any job should earn at least $19,600 a year,” said Senate majority leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax. “There’s no one in here … that would work for that kind of wage. No one.”

There were impassioned pleas from several House members to accept the recommendation instead of risking the bill being vetoed, though one delegate voiced resentment at having to make the choice. Del. Lee Carter, D-Manassas, said the COVID-19 crisis has spotlit “one of the most glaring contradictions in our economy” — that workers paid the least are often deemed most essential to society.

“We are saying to these people ‘you are not worth a pay raise come January,’” Carter said. “I’m not gonna fault anyone that votes ‘yes’ on this, for taking the sure thing four months later rather than taking the chance, but if that’s what we’re gonna do … I can’t be any part of it.” Carter did not cast a vote on the amendment.

Del. Elizabeth Guzman. Photo via Facebook

Del. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Prince William, said that some legislators’ notion that families don’t depend on minimum wage is a myth.

“I’m glad they acknowledge that there are people in Virginia who cannot live off minimum wage,” Guzman said. “Actually, what they do is they get a second job, or a third job in order to make ends meet.” Guzman immigrated to the U.S. from Peru at the age of 18 and worked three jobs to afford a one bedroom apartment.

The House of Delegates voted 49-45 to accept Northam’s amendment to their bill. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax made the tie-breaking Senate vote when its version ended in a 20-20 tie.

The identical bills, introduced by Sen. Saslaw and Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, originally would have raised the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2021. The governor’s amendment pushes the start to May 1, 2021.

The wage will then increase to $11 in 2022, $12 in 2023 and by another $1.50 in 2025 and 2026. Every subsequent year the bill is to be re-amended to adjust the minimum wage to reflect the consumer price index.

Virginia’s cost of living index is very close to the national average, but it ranks in the top four among states where the minimum wage equals the federal rate of $7.25, according to an analysis of data from the Missouri Economic Research and Development Center.

Anna Scholl, executive director of Progress Virginia, said now is not the time for Virginia to turn its back on low wage workers.

“We have been fighting for a decade to push for people who are working hard to make ends meet, to support their families and to be able to do so with dignity,” Scholl said. “That’s what raising the minimum wage is about.”

Written by Will Gonzalez, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash