Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406190046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Critics say Allen's wholesale dumping of agency directors and department heads is politically motivated and has cost Virginia many of its most able and experienced public servants.
Allen aides and others counter that the Republican's victory after 12 years of Democratic rule was a mandate for change, and that means new leadership reflecting his philosophy and priorities for Virginia.
Both sides agree that Allen's actions have been well within his authority. However, rarely has a governor wielded the ax so freely. About 50 top-level employees have received pink slips.
"In my career, I've never seen it done quite this extensively, and I remember back to when Governor Linwood Holton took office" in 1970, said Joan Dent, executive director of the Virginia Governmental Employees Association.
"The concern we have is for good government and not politicizing the process," she said.
Gail Nardi, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said a number of employees fired by Allen were professionals whose jobs traditionally have been somewhat insulated from politics.
"It is distressing if, for purely political reasons, there is some kind of a purge of very skilled, talented and successful leaders whom Virginia has worked very hard to attract," she said.
Jack Dotson, a spokesman for the Virginia Alliance of State Employees, said agency directors and department heads should be replaced only if they are not doing their jobs. "The governor just has no regard whatsoever for that standard of workplace justice," he said.
But Robert Holsworth, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said Allen pledged during his campaign to shake up state government, so people should not be surprised.
"They want people who will be loyal to the Allen administration rather than to the culture and norms of the existing bureaucracy," he said. "It's clearly defensible."
Holsworth said the mass firings, including the dismissal of 14 employees on June 3, are unusual, "but we're in an unusual time" because of the GOP's return to power.
Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe said last November's election results amounted to a rejection of what Democrats had done over the past 12 years, and agency heads knew change was coming.
One of the victims of the June 3 purge was Kenneth W. Thorson, director of the state lottery since it began in 1988.
"I understood that was the nature of the job when I took it," Thorson said, adding that the governor's right to choose agency heads is "unassailable."
"However, I'm also a firm believer the best interests of the commonwealth are served by developing a professional bureaucracy. And that extends all the way to the level of agency head," Thorson said.
Thorson, a former deputy in the attorney general's office with a total of 18 years of state service, was well regarded in state government and is among those frequently mentioned by critics of Allen's actions.
"There cannot be anything but political reasons for removing Ken Thorson," Nardi said. "He is synonymous with the Virginia Lottery."
Other well-known directors who have been dismissed include Richard N. Burton of the Department of Environmental Quality, Neal J. Barber of the Department of Housing and Community Development and Dr. Robert B. Stroube of the Health Department.
Thorson had sought reappointment. He said many agency heads seeking to keep their jobs were interviewed by the administration and then told of their fate two or three days later. His firing came in a late-afternoon phone call; no interview, no warning, no real explanation.
"I was told that they recognized my long years of service and recognized I'd done a tremendous job with the lottery, and this decision had nothing to do with me," Thorson said.
He and Nardi said Allen's actions could have a chilling effect on the state's ability to attract good personnel.
"We won't be able to attract skilled, talented leadership if we get a reputation as a state where heads roll for no reason," Nardi said.
However, others said it is too early to tell what the long-range effects will be.
"The time to measure this is in a couple of years," Holsworth said.
And even Dent, who was concerned about the sheer number of changes, said "there have been some positive changes. He's made some good appointments."
by CNB