Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Members of the governor's ``blue ribbon strike force'' agreed Thursday to release to the public 466 recommendations they think will improve state government and save money.
There's the simple: Sell the state-owned yacht.
There's the complicated: Phase out the state's air toxins program.
And there's the controversial: Enact private-property rights legislation.
``Don't worry about it being dull public hearings,'' said Otis Brown, chairman of the Commission on Government Reform, told his colleagues.
But critics, particularly environmentalists, have accused the strike force of shutting out the public, and said citizens won't have enough time to respond to the recommendations before next week's public hearings.
The first one is scheduled for Tuesday in Roanoke, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Virginia Western Community College.
Strike force spokesman Bruce Meadows said the recommendations and background information should be online via the Internet today. Also, hard copies will be available for $13.
But critics said that sending the information over computers and charging for hard copies still shuts out most citizens.
``The process has been troubling,'' said Patti Jackson, spokeswoman for the Lower James River Association. Her group received inadequate notice of meetings, she said, and had to piece information together like a puzzle because commission members would only refer to recommendations by numbers in their discussions.
Jackson said that by now, members probably have a sense of ownership of their recommendations. ``I think it's going to be difficult to get them to change much,'' she said.
That's a bad omen for Martinsville, whose citizens have rallied to keep $2million in yearly state funding for the Museum of Natural History in their city. The strike force is recommending pulling state support, which surely would sink the museum, Martinsville residents say.
A note in child's writing tacked to the wall in the Richmond staff office of the strike force seemed to sum up the city's feeling, ``Please don't cut our museum funds,'' signed by fifth-graders from Albert Harris elementary school in Martinsville.
The strike force also kept a recommendation to privatize some services at state-run mental hospitals. But no mention was made of turning Catawba State Hospital into a prison, as had been rumored last month.
But there are several recommendations to sell state lands that are deemed unused and unusable, the proceeds of which could be used to help finance Gov. George Allen's parole reform program.
Robert T. Lee, chairman of the natural resources subcommittee, added 27 new recommendations that caught environmentalists somewhat off-guard. Some take aim at Department of Environmental Quality programs, and seek to get rid of regulations that go beyond federal mandates.
Others recommend using ``sound science,'' risk management and cost/benefit analysis in developing regulations - buzzwords for gutting natural resource protection, according to enviromentalists.
``The underlying theme of this obviously is to cut down on enviromental regulations,'' Jackson said. ``The concern is that you throw the baby out with the bath water.''
Allen's first act as governor was to create the strike force to find ways to make state government more efficient, more user-friendly and less costly.
On Thursday, commission chairman Brown recommended consolidating the bureaucracy that results in no more than six levels of management, no more than six agencies per cabinet secretary, and doubling the employee-supervisor ration to 8 to 1.
The commission, with only half of the 60 members present, heard recommendations from 10 subcommittees and agreed to almost all, except a few.
They tussled for several minutes over whether to move the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology from one department to another, and whether to eliminate it altogether.
Commissioner Connie Bedell said the return on the state's annual $10 million investment in the CIT has been minimal, and pushed for a recommendation to abolish the center. The commission finally decided to ask the public whether to move the CIT, or study it for elimination.
The commission also debated whether to drop two recommendations from the natural resources subcommittee - enact private-property legislation and eliminate public comment on intended regulations, before they're formally proposed.
``The funny thing about this one is whether we want the public to comment on whether the public should comment,'' commented commissioner Paul Benenati.
Both remained on the commission's list.
Other reforms recommended by the natural resources committee include:
Taking inventory of undeveloped land owned by natural resources agencies and Department of Forestry to determine which lack recreational opportunities and which are excess.
Combining under the Department of Conservation and Recreation all programs dealing with threatened and endangered species.
Strictly applying strong private property rights language of the Virginia and U.S. constitutions to the species protection law.
Eliminating all reference to endangered species in the state's water pollution discharge permit process.
Switching to the federal Environmental Protection Agency Region IV in Atlanta, because of similarities with Southern states.
Privatizing the underground storage tank program and some state fisheries.
Considering the establishment of a Risk Management Advisory Council.
Moving the Department of Environmental Quality from a "command and control" to an "empowerment" approach to be more flexible in solving environmental problems.
Creating new incentives for revitalizing industrial sites.
by CNB