Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993                   TAG: 9304260346
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SALEM MAYOR

In 1987, a company partly owned by the mayor sold heating units to the contractor who installed a new heating system at the Salem Civic Center. In 1991, the mayor voted, along with all other Salem Council members, to approve a land swap between the city and a Taliaferro business partner who later hired Taliaferro's company to construct a building on the new site.

Lynchburg Commonwealth's Attorney William Petty, brought into the case after Salem prosecutor Fred King disqualifed himself, concluded that both actions would have violated state conflict-of-interest law - if Taliaferro had known he was violating it. But of such knowledge, reported Petty, there is no evidence.

In a way, the unique "intent" provision of the conflict-of-interest statute is understandable: The concept of conflict of interest, while clear enough in the abstract, can be fuzzy in the application.

But the provision also creates an incentive for public officials to know and understand as little as possible about the conflict-of-interest law and its applications. That's perverse. Ignorance ought to be evidence of the political equivalent of malpractice, not insurance against the political equivalent of malpractice suits.