In August 2022, Rick West got an email from his stepbrother asking for a favor. He wondered if West could have Chesapeake’s city attorneys look into a legal issue he ran into while building on a property in Georgia.
“I have wasted a pile of money already … and do not want to waste another ($3,000 to $10,000) dollars to find out there is nothing we can do legally,” Jonathan West wrote.
Rick West, who had been the mayor of Chesapeake for nearly 5 years at that point, took his stepbrother’s request to then-City Attorney Jay Stroman.
A few days later — after calls from Chesapeake city attorneys to Georgia officials — Jonathan West wrote an appreciative note to Stroman saying his dispute had been resolved.
The incident is laid out in memos, emails and text messages obtained by WHRO News via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Ethics experts say what West did likely wasn't illegal under Virginia's lax ethics laws for public officials, but it does raise ethical red flags.
West, now running for a second full term as mayor, told WHRO he “probably should not have done that.”
But he maintains that asking for the attorney’s opinion for his stepbrother’s personal legal issue wasn’t inappropriate. In fact, West blames Stroman for doing the work and not telling West if he was overstepping.
Documents show request, work performed
Jonathan West’s issue started when he was trying to build on a property he purchased in Nahunta, Georgia.
There was a moratorium on new connections to Nahunta’s sewer system. Jonathan West wrote in his initial email he didn’t know that before he started building and the city had denied his requests to install a septic system.
Jonathan West said Georgia lawyers wanted at least $3,000 to take a look at his case, and emailed stepbrother Rick West at his official Chesapeake city email address for help.
“I was going to see if maybe you could have one of your lawyers for the city take a look at it and see if this is something worth fighting for or if we are in a losing battle,” Jonathan West wrote on Aug. 9, 2022.
He said he didn’t want to possibly spend as much as $10,000 more on the project if he was going to hit a legal dead-end.
Rick West, who became a City Council member in 2008 and has been Chesapeake’s mayor since 2017, responded quickly that he “should be able to meet with our city attorney and get back with (sic) tonight or tomorrow.”
The mayor showed up to the office of then-City Attorney Stroman that afternoon. Stroman wasn’t in, so West laid out the issue for the office administrator, who typed it up and sent it to the attorney.
“Mayor West would like to know if someone has the ability to take a quick look into this issue,” the memo says.
Stroman texted West that afternoon to assure him he’d look at it, and then again late the next day, saying he “did more research on the Nahunta moratorium. The issue is getting pretty interesting. I will send you something tomorrow morning if that’s ok.”
West then forwarded Stroman an email from his stepbrother with additional information on the Georgia property laws.
On Aug. 11, Stroman sent that email to one of his deputies, Ellen Bergren, saying “Please take a look and let me know what you think in light of our discussion yesterday.”
Bergren responded shortly after, saying she’s “writing up a summary today,” and commenting on the ordinances the mayor forwarded and their relevance to the property issue.
The following morning, Jonathan West sent an appreciative email to Stroman directly.
“I want to personally thank you for taking the time to look at the issues I was having with the City of Nahunata. I am not sure of what or how you got it approves (sic), but the Ga Dept of Health called me yesterday to let me know that my septic tank permit was approved,” he wrote.
“I cannot thank you or Ricky enough for this. Please let me know what I owe you for your time. If you ever find yourself in Southeast Ga I owe you a cold beer or two at least.”
Stroman responded, saying, “we were happy to help.”
He went on to explain that his office reached out directly to city officials in Georgia and filed their own Freedom of Information Act requests for local ordinances.
“In addition, we had a conversation with an official in the Georgia Department of Health. We shared with him our experience that in Virginia a local ordinance imposing a moratorium on new septic or alternative onsite systems when sewer was not available would be preempted (overruled) by state law. I suspect that is what did the trick,” Stroman wrote.
He continued “You don’t owe us a dime; we were happy to help. My colleague Ellen Bergren is an expert on utilities law. Her assistance was invaluable.”
Stroman concluded by saying he doesn’t “get to South Georgia very often these days, but when I do, I’ll take you up on that beer!”
Stroman, who no longer works for the city of Chesapeake, declined to comment to WHRO when reached by phone.
Stroman resigned from the city attorney position less than six months after working on the mayor’s stepbrother’s request. He became the city attorney in Charlottesville in June 2023 but was placed on administrative leave for undisclosed personnel reasons earlier this year.
Bergren, who still works in the Chesapeake City Attorney’s office, could not be reached directly for comment.
Through the current City Attorney, Bergren wrote in an email that she was directed to “look into the matter” by Stroman and she “performed the task he directed me to handle.”
Bergren said she never had direct contact with Jonathan West or the mayor regarding the issue.
“A red flag”
Under Virginia’s limited laws on behavior of elected officials, West’s conduct does not appear to be illegal.
State law largely concerns itself with conflicts of interest and elected officials reporting gifts, receiving bribes and trading on privileged information. State code doesn’t explicitly include any provision outlawing personal use of government resources for an elected official or their family members.
Government ethics experts say rules are an inconsistent patchwork in Virginia. Some cities and counties have their own regulations and even commissions to enforce ethics codes.
The Chesapeake City Council doesn’t have a code of conduct or ethics for council members, according to City Clerk Sandra Madison.
While there’s no written guideline for elected officials, there is a code of ethics for employees of the city, uploaded to the city’s website. Under a heading labeled “Integrity,” the code says employees should “seek no favor or personal gain” and should “avoid improper influence.”
Ethics experts told WHRO West’s personal request of a public employee would, at the least, engender problematic perceptions, even if the act itself doesn’t violate written rules.
“I would see it as a red flag,” said Jim Borroughs, a public administration ethics professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
“There is a blurry line when you’re a senior government official working with elected officials. There’s not always a clear bright line, but that, I would red flag that.”
In an interview with WHRO, Rick West defended his actions.
“The only thing I did was ask my attorney ‘What can he do?’ assuming he would tell me and I could call Jonathan and say ‘Look, have your attorneys do this this and this,’” West said.
He likened it to the way a neighbor may poke his head over Stroman’s fence to ask his opinion.
“If we have someone who has expertise that works with the city and I have a personal issue, I think it’s okay, like any other citizen, to ask for an answer or advice or input,” West said.
Chesapeake’s current City Attorney, Catherine Lindley, wrote in an email that her office “cannot provide private legal advice” for citizens.
And experts say there are different dynamics at play. West isn’t just any citizen — he is the head of the elected body that hires, assesses and potentially fires the city attorney.
“It is a power dynamic because an elected official is the boss, the supervisor of the appointed official,” said Eric Campbell, a former city manager who now lectures on government management at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School.
“In any work relationship, your supervisor has a power dynamic, because they're going to do your annual evaluation, they're going to get feedback on your performance at some point.”
Beyond the inherent dynamic of the relationship, Stroman’s position as the city's attorney was already publicly in question by West.
Chesapeake's City Council had a closed-session discussion on renewing Stroman’s appointment at a meeting on June 14,2022 — less than two months before West went to the attorney with his stepbrother’s request. West was the lone vote against the renewal when the council emerged from closed session, while two other members abstained.
Stroman would ultimately resign as City Attorney the following January. The Virginian-Pilot reported in February 2023 that Stroman was under pressure from West and others on council after he gave legal opinions they didn’t like on a couple of high-profile incidents in 2022 and Stroman quit rather than be fired.
In an interview, West went on to blame Stroman for working on his stepbrother’s request beyond giving a quick opinion on how he should proceed.
“For me, asking his opinion about something is not inappropriate. However, as it turns out, what he did in response to that, makes it inappropriate,” West said. “Because he went above and beyond and it looks like I asked him to do more than what I asked him to do.”
West said Stroman had a penchant for going the extra mile.
“He did things to ingratiate himself with all of us,” West said.
The mayor also blamed Stroman for not raising ethical concerns if he had them.
“It is his responsibility to tell me ‘I’m sorry, I think that’s beyond my responsibility.’ And I’m sure other council members have done the same thing, and it's their duty to tell us if we’re overstepping our request,” West said.
Reached by phone, Stroman declined to comment.
Ethics experts say these cases do tread into gray areas where both parties bear some responsibility for keeping things above board.
“Rarely are ethics issues all one person,” said Burroughs, the George Mason professor.
He said an attorney should step back and ask themselves if the request conflicts with their duties as a legal representative for the city.
“But likewise, the mayor has to be aware that you should be careful about what you ask from employees in terms of personal favors versus work-related, city-related matters.”
Campbell, the VCU professor, said ethics are ultimately meant to preserve public trust.
“Whether it was something that is okay ethically by the standards or not okay, if there is a perception that something is unethical or shouldn't have been done, then that creates a problem in itself,” Campbell said.
