THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508020499
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Taxpayers will pick up legal fees for Norfolk State University officials named in a lawsuit over $17,168 in disputed lobbying fees.
Gov. George F. Allen recently appointed two Richmond law firms to represent the four NSU officials at the rate of $115 per hour.
The Allen administration determined that the NSU officials were entitled to state-financed legal representation under state risk management guidelines, even though one key player was not officially affiliated with the university at the time when the alleged lobbying contract went into effect.
Alphonso L. Grant, a Lynchburg businessman, joined the NSU board of visitors on Feb. 1, a few days after he allegedly entered into an oral contract with a Richmond lobbying firm on behalf of the university.
The relationship between NSU and the lobbying firm, David L. Bailey Associates, provided a curious sideshow to the General Assembly session earlier this year.
Democrats howled in protest when William Kincaid, a Bailey Associates employee, registered to lobby for the restoration of funds that Allen recommended cutting from NSU. Democrats were incensed because Kincaid's wife is a high-placed Allen aide.
Kincaid quickly amended his lobbying form to indicate he would lobby to move a state minority business agency from Richmond to the NSU business school. But NSU officials publicly disavowed themselves from Kincaid and Bailey Associates.
Bailey Associates has filed a breach of contract suit in Richmond Circuit Court seeking unpaid fees and $30,000 in punitive damages. The suit names Grant, NSU President Harrison B. Wilson, business school Dean Joseph R. Boyd, Rector L.D. Britt and NSU foundation director Robert Poole.
Attorney General James S. Gilmore III removed his office from the case because of possible conflict in representing multiple clients. Allen appointed the firm of LeClair Ryan to represent Wilson, Boyd and Britt and the firm of Sands Anderson Marks & Miller to represent Grant. Poole has retained his own counsel. by CNB