Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 16, 1992 TAG: 9203160102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEAN McNAIR ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
She usually loses.
But Fox, president of the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, made some gains in battles with the well-financed lobbyists in the recent General Assembly session.
Moreover, she won a major court victory last month when the state Supreme Court said Virginia Power owed customers up to $114 million in refunds from a rate increase.
She called the ruling "one of the most important victories we've had" since the council was started in 1966 by Northern Virginia homemakers upset about high meat prices.
Unlike the influential lobbies at the Capitol, the Arlington-based consumer group is small - about 250 dues-paying members - and relies on volunteers.
"We're making progress but it is still very difficult to win victories for consumers when there is a very strong lobby or interest group on the other side," Fox said.
"We don't entertain. We don't make campaign contributions. We don't endorse candidates," she said. "We really have to depend on the arguments we make."
When Fox starting lobbying for the group about six years ago, legislators would read newspapers, walk around and talk to each other while she spoke at public hearings.
This year, when she argued against a bill that would deregulate credit cards, every committee member was attentive.
"At least they listen now," she said. "We get more respect but it's still an uphill struggle."
Betty Blakemore, director of the state Division of Consumer Affairs, credited Fox with bringing attention to consumer issues involving utilities, insurance companies and banks.
"She has gone where angels fear to tread," Blakemore said.
But Del. Frank Hargrove, D-Hanover, said the council tries to force too many restrictions on businesses.
"The consumer advocates such as Jean Ann and her counterparts assume that most people are pretty stupid; they can't make any decision unless they've got an advocacy group," said Hargrove, an insurance company owner.
The consumer council waged its most prominent fight this session against the credit card bill, which still easily passed with the backing of bankers, merchants, senior lawmakers and Lt. Gov. Donald Beyer.
The bill would allow banks and stores to lift the mandatory 25-day grace period before interest is charged on credit card bills and charge higher fees for late payments.
Fox said there would be no need for the bill unless banks plan to do away with the grace periods eventually. "This one isn't over and we will urge the governor to veto the bill," she said.
The consumer council supported compromises on bills that clamp down on credit insurance abuses, deceptive comparison price advertising and stores' selling of information about their customers.
But all the legislation was overshadowed by the Supreme Court ruling won Feb. 28 by Fox, the state attorney general's office and a coalition of industrial utility customers.
They had challenged an expedited $79.7 million rate increase that the State Corporation Commission gave Virginia Power last year. The court agreed that the SCC should not have handled the case on an expedited basis, which allowed the rate increase to go into effect in a month instead of 150 days.
"For a housewife in Yorktown with no resources to have sought this process and then succeed, it's pretty overwhelming," said Edward Flippen, a Richmond lawyer.
Fox, 48, portrays herself as a homemaker who fits in lobbying between making meals and caring for her two sons, but she has had a long career in consumer activism.
She holds two master's degrees and was a local and state consumer official in western Pennsylvania before moving to York County in 1984.
by CNB