January 2015 Newsletter

General Assembly 2015: Bill On Magistrate System Changes Pulled

The patron of a controversial bill to remove OES’s managerial responsibility for the magistrate system withdrew the legislative proposal during a meeting of the Virginia Senate’s Courts of Justice Committee.  SB 680, which was sponsored by Senator Bill Carrico, would have transferred managerial control of the magistrate system from the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia back to the Chief Circuit Court judges of the state’s individual judicial districts. 

According to the Virginia General Assembly’s legislative information system, Senator Carrico requested that the bill be stricken from the record during a meeting of the Senate’s Courts of Justice committee on January 19^th.

Citizen Warrant Bill Amended:  The Senate Courts of Justice Committee also discussed a bill that would have required an attorney for the commonwealth or a law enforcement agency to authorize a citizen to obtain a misdemeanor warrant from a magistrate.  However these provisions of Senate Bill 794, which was also sponsored by Bill Carrico, were ultimately removed before the bill passed committee.  The final version of the bill reworded the existing policy provisions of sections 19.2-72 and 19.2-271 of the code of Virginia without making any notable substantive changes to existing policy on citizen warrants.

VMA Weighs In With Policy Research Report: This year, the VMA’s legislative committee published its first annual policy research guide, which was subsequently mailed to the members of the Senate’s Courts of Justice Committee before the January 19^th hearing.  The report contained a summary of the Association’s polling data and Executive Board discussion of SB 680.  It also mentioned that the Association did not have sufficient time to study the issues presented in SB 794. 

Election 2015: Association To Elect New President, Other Officers

At the January 19^th meeting of the Executive Board of the Virginia Magistrates Association, the Board started planning for a new election of Association Officers.  The election will be held in September for the offices of President, Vice President, 2^nd Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.  Only dues paying members will be eligible to vote in the election, which will be conducted electronically. 

To run for office prospective candidates must first enroll as members of the Association. [Please contact secretary Kevin Lacey for enrollment information]  Next, the candidates must fill out nomination information and submit it to the election chair Ray Stanfield.  This nominations form will be distributed by Ray Stanfield between March and April of the current year.   

Lack Of Incumbents Creates Opportunity For Candidates:  President Wilson Talavera will conclude his second consecutive two year term as President of the Virginia Magistrates Association at the end of the present calendar year.  However, Wilson will not be able to run for a third term because he is prohibited from doing so under the Association’s by laws.  Wilson isn’t the only incumbent who will not be seeking office again.  Treasurer Phil Goodwin announced at the January meeting that he would not seek another term as Treasurer. 

This year’s election also offers an opportunity for magistrate’s to acquire valuable management and leadership experience by serving as officers in the Virginia Magistrates Association. Officers of the association are responsible for administering the association’s budget, coordinating volunteer activities with the membership, and assisting in the administration of the Association. 

Board Reassigns Web Site Responsibilities

At its January meeting, the VMA Executive Board passed a motion to transfer editorial responsibility for the Association’s web site from President Wilson Talavera to Region 6 Representative Paula Marquis and Region 8 Representative Kara Akins.  The VMA’s website can be viewed at http://vmaja.org/index.html.

New Scholarship Contemplated:  The Executive Board also considered a proposal from Regional Representative Tamyra Whitehead to create a new scholarship that would go to directly assisting members with continuing education.  Currently, the VMA offers college scholarships for the children of magistrate’s, but does not have a scholarship that gores directly to VMA members.  The board referred the matter to the scholarship committee chaired by Iris Tucker for further review.

Volunteers Needed For Policy Research Project

In light of the policy issues raised by the introduction of SB 794, the VMA legislative committee is looking for volunteers to conduct quantitative and qualitative research on the effectiveness of citizen initiated criminal cases in Virginia.  Any interested volunteers should contact secretary Kevin Lacey at va.mag.assoc@gmail.com.