ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9702030018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: C. RICHARD CRANWELL
YOUR JAN. 5 news article, ``Money and politics,'' causes me to hearken back to the lyrics of the country and western hit, ``A Little Good News'' by Anne Murray:
Just once how I would like to see the headlines say,
Not much to print today,
Can't find nothing better to say,
Because,
Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town.
Nobody O.D.'d, nobody burned a single building down.
Nobody fired a shot in anger.
Nobody had to die in vain.
We sure could use a little good news today.
Well, here is the good news: In spite of the impression one might get from reading your article, Virginia's legislature has been free from scandal, bribes, influence peddling, corruption and fraud for this entire century. In fact, this legislature is respected nationally for its integrity. Some other Southern states, including some sister states, aren't so fortunate.
The assertion in your article that Virginia's disclosure laws are among the weakest in the nation defies the facts. I know of no national study or national measure that supports such an assertion. Every member of the Virginia legislature is required to file annually a conflict-of-interest statement, consisting of 20-plus pages, disclosing assets, liabilities and income. Experience in Virginia would suggest that our ethics laws are working well. Yet your article creates the impression that the opposite is true.
For example, you spoke critically of the legal work I have done for Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield. A little history on my firm's representing the Blues is important, and has been consistently omitted from every article you have published on the subject. In the early 1980s, I was approached by the Virginia Association of Life Underwriters and asked to file suit against Blue Cross Blue Shield to stop it from improperly selling life insurance. I filed that suit before the State Corporation Commission. It was a hard-fought case, but we won. The SCC ruled that Blue Cross Blue Shield could not continue selling life insurance.
It wasn't long after that success that Blue Cross Blue Shield asked my firm to handle its litigation in Southwest Virginia, preferring to have my firm's legal abilities working for it than against it. We agreed, and have been doing its legal work in our region since that time. My firm wasn't surprised and, in fact, it seemed quite logical that it would ask our assistance in litigation before the SCC to convert from a mutual insurance company to a stock insurance company. And, until then, no one in the media had ever questioned my firm representing Blue Cross Blue Shield on any matter.
Most importantly, you failed to report that there have never been any secrets about attorney's fees paid by Blue Cross Blue Shield. Section 38.2-1300 of the Code of Virginia requires that such legal fees be made a matter of public record annually at the SCC. Fee information is readily available to any member of the public and can be obtained by a simple request to the SCC.
In fact, anyone who had checked would have learned that three law firms were paid for Blue Cross Blue Shield's demutualization suit before the SCC and other legal work in 1995. Mays and Valentine of Richmond was paid $496,017; McGuire, Woods, Battle and Boothe of Richmond was paid $4,239,647; and my firm was paid $385,560. The demutualization of Blue Cross Blue Shield is a billion-dollar litigation. Naturally, legal fees are significant.
That litigation is also significant for Virginia and its residents. Because of bank-industry consolidation, most of our country's major banks now are headquartered in North Carolina and New York - none in Virginia. Consolidation is now occurring in the health-care insurance field. It is hoped, with demutualization, that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia will be one of the survivors of consolidation, and that we will have the headquarters of one of the largest health insurers in America right here in Virginia. Our citizens with health-insurance problems will be able to call Virginia's commissioner of insurance about a Virginia corporation.
Your article points out that I violated no law and did nothing wrong, but suggests that the public disclosures were inadequate. However, you offer no explanation for this. Perhaps it's simply that you want legal-fee information disclosed twice for the convenience of your reporters. When citizens or businesses have to file duplicate information with government agencies, we call it bureaucratic red tape. The same isn't true for legislators?
But my main concern is that you leave the impression with Virginians that such legal-fee information isn't available to the public. That simply is not true.
In Virginia, we have a citizen legislature that has served us well. However, I would be less than candid if I did not point out that in the 26 years that I have been in the legislature, I have seen a steady erosion of the willingness of capable people to offer themselves as candidates for election. We must protect the tradition of a citizen legislature, and we must encourage our brightest citizens to serve. We do not want to discourage them with needless dual filings or overburdensome reporting just for the sake of reporting.
The integrity of the Virginia legislature is second to none in the nation. I suggest that is ``a little good news'' that should be weighed against your article.
C. Richard Cranwell of Vinton is the Democratic majority leader in Virginia's House of Delegates.
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