A Democratic lawmaker sponsoring a major electricity rate bill backed by Dominion Energy is the director of operations for a small charity that received five- and six-figure donations from company CEO Tom Farrell and the company’s foundation. The legislator and executive said this week that the matters are unrelated.
Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, is in his third General Assembly session and had not previously patroned or co-patroned any bills related to energy. This year, he agreed to be chief co-patron of a bill from Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, that was written with help from Dominion.
Bagby said he wasn’t aware — but that he should have been — of a $100,000 donation from Farrell in 2016 and a second donation to his charity from the Dominion Foundation. A spokesman for Farrell said the CEO was not aware Bagby worked for the Peter Paul Development Center when he made the donation, which other representatives of the charity requested during a capital campaign.
