Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994                   TAG: 9401250166
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN'S CABINET APPROVED

Del. Kenneth Plum, D-Reston, chairman of the Nominations and Confirmations Committee, abstained from voting on two nominees. He questioned whether Mike Thomas, the secretary of administration-designate, and Jerry Kilgore, Allen's choice for public safety secretary, have enough experience.

The other six nominees were unanimously approved, though Plum and Del. Glenn Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, worried over what Croshaw called the "jobs over environment" philosophy of Becky Norton Dunlop, the secretary-designate of natural resources.

Dunlop, who worked in the U.S. Interior Department during the Reagan and Bush administrations, said she shares Allen's view that "we need to have a growing economy in order to have an improving environment."

Croshaw suggested the economy should be the concern of the secretary of commerce and trade, and the secretary of natural resources should be an advocate for the environment.

Thomas, 32, who was Allen's campaign manager and transition director, was grilled about last month's letter in which Allen asked 450 state employees to resign. They were invited to reapply for their jobs. Many of the letters went to employees in jobs that traditionally have been shielded from politics.

"If changes were going to take place, we felt it best to give them quite a bit of notice," Thomas said of the pre-Christmas letter. "Most of those positions won't change. Anyone serving in those positions and doing a good job would have no reason to feel threatened."

But it was a perceived lack of administrative experience that prompted Plum to abstain from voting on Thomas' appointment. "It's up to the governor to make these appointments, but when I look at what you're about to undertake, I have some questions," he said.

Kilgore endured less intense questioning than Dunlop and Thomas. He said his major goal will be furthering Allen's agenda of reducing violent crime, abolishing parole, establishing alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders and reducing the per-inmate cost of running the prison system.

The Senate has approved the nominations, which could be voted on in the House as early as today.

Keywords:
G.A. 1994