Hamilton responds to ODU internal audit

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - For the first time Delegate Phil Hamilton (R) Newport News is responding to a scathing internal audit report on a teaching center he directed for ODU, and he's talking only to WAVY.com.

Hamilton is at the center of the controversial Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership. Emails show he was trying to get a job with the center before he went to the General Assembly to fight for the funding. When it came to light he was working with the center the University ended the relationship.

ODU's internal audit shows mistakes were made with Hamilton. The audit report shows the center had no oversight, lacked internal controls, and Del. Phil Hamilton's work was neither well documented nor supervised.
Hamilton told us, "I did everything my supervisor at ODU told me to do, and quite frankly I can document the work that I did."

Hamilton's supervisor is at the center of the ODU investigation. The ODU Supervisor David Blackburn emailed Hamilton on July 3, 2007, "Phil, as a sub-contractor, we must pay you through our accounting office." However, the audit shows ODU was wrong Hamilton was not a subcontractor. He was actually more of a permanent worker and his position should have been advertised before he got it. "I didn't know how I was going to be paid. I have no idea what my status was, but I considered myself a subcontractor under contract with ODU. If that was not what ODU should have done, I wouldn't have any knowledge about that," Hamilton said.

Following that email Hamilton emails Blackburn back, "I was under the impression...that everything would be run through NNPS Pay Roll." That email has raised red flags that Hamilton may have been trying to secretly disguise who was actually paying him, but Hamilton says that's not true. "Whether I had to be paid by ODU or Newport News I didn't care. I only cared about who was suppose to pay my taxes. Do they pay them, or do I?" In fact that email went on to state to Blackburn, "If that is not the case (that Newport News does not pay Hamilton) do they (ODU) take out federal and state taxes?"

Hamilton also pleased the report found eventhough there may be an appearance of conflict of interest, Hamilton was never guaranteed a job when he fought for the state funding for the Teaching Center.
"I think this report shows I was never promised anything when I got that funding. I was never promised employment with ODU until after the funding was secured," Hamilton says.

How that is interpreted in Richmond could be a different story. There is an ethics investigation, a federal investigation, and Hamilton is in the political race of his life this fall. Governor Tim Kaine says, "This was wrong...clearly... the legislature I think wisely has begun a study of what happened with respect to Delegate Hamilton, and they also need to look at a little bit with respect to ODU."

Hamilton insists he will fight on and maintains he wasn't trying to hide anything, and his financial papers on file in the General Assembly clearly show he was receiving a salary from ODU.