FARMVILLE – The Commonwealth Regional Council's Chairman provided an update earlier this month on the decision the regional planning organization's members made in February related to requesting an official opinion from the Virginia Attorney General as to whether non-localities/non-governmental entities can become charter members of the planning district commission.

According to Chairman William “Buckie” Fore Jr., representative from Prince Edward County, the process is moving forward and he's discussed the request with Prince Edward's County Administrator, Wade Bartlett.

“Mr. Bartlett has gone to Mr. Ennis (James Ennis, County Ttorney for Prince Edward County) for me and Mr. Ennis is going to be our county official to request the information from the Attorney General,” he noted to the Council. “We are starting with a letter to Mr. Ennis and along with that letter as an attachment will be the history behind the request for this decision and we'll pass it off to Jim who will attach his letter to it and send it to the AG and we'll see where it goes from there.”

According to Fore, the process will “take a couple months more” before the CRC is rendered a decision.

“The wheel is turning,” he assured the members at the table.

Official Request Decision

The member representatives appointed from participating localities to the Commonwealth Regional Council decided in February to request an official opinion of the Virginia Attorney General as to whether non-localities/ non-governmental entities can become a charter member of a planning district commission. The inquiry is based on the proposed Council's Charter Amendment.

The Council's members first requested an unofficial response from Joshua Lief, assistant attorney general and section chief in the Office of Attorney General, at the end of last year relating to the inquiry and that opinion was just recently received by the CRC's staff, according to Acting CEO and President Mary Hickman during February's monthly meeting.

Lief's informal opinion is that a non-governmental entity may not be a party to the charter agreement under the plain terms of the Code, she said.

According to Hickman, he did state that it does not appear that it prohibits a non-government entity from being included in meetings and being a part of committees and planning groups.

After considering the informal opinion and information presented by Ms. Hickman during last month's meeting, Chairman Fore, asked if the Council would like to move forward with an official opinion from the Attorney General.

According to the Code of Virginia, “The Attorney General shall give his advice and render official advisory opinions in writing only when requested in writing to do so by one of the following: the Governor; a member of the General Assembly; a judge of a court of record or a judge of a court not of record; the State Corporation Commission; an attorney for the Commonwealth; a county, city, or town attorney in those localities in which such office has been created; a clerk of a court of record; a city or county sheriff; a city or county treasurer or similar officer; a commissioner of the revenue or similar officer; a chairman or secretary of an electoral board; or the heat of a state department, division, bureau, institution or board. (B)

Except in cases where an opinion is requested by the Governor or a member of the General Assembly, the Attorney General shall have no authority to render an official opinion unless the question dealt with is directly related to the discharge of duties of the official requesting the opinion. Any opinion request to the Attorney General by an attorney for the Commonwealth or county, city, or town attorney shall be in the form of an opinion embodying a precise statement of all facts together such attorney's legal conclusions.”

According to the information opinion received by the CRC, if the Council desires to change the Code of Virginia, “a good start would be to talk to a member of the General Assembly from our area. As you may recall, several members were instrumental in getting a Patron to sponsor the legislation to allow higher educational institutions to be members of Planning District 4 and 14 in 2005,” stated Ms. Hickman.