Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501160018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Allen has revised a year-old executive order that lays out strict rules for public employees who lobby lawmakers and their aides.
``We delineated it in greater specificity,'' Allen said Monday.
The new edict affirms many of the old guidelines, such as clearing legislative testimony and proposals with superiors, but concedes the General Assembly has a legal right to information.
``Legislators are entitled to access agency information by statute,'' gubernatorial counsel Frank B. Atkinson wrote in a memorandum accompanying the Jan. 3 order.
``The notification requirement must not be used by agency personnel as an excuse for failing to comply with any proper legislative request for information,'' the memo says.
Said Allen: ``We want to make it very clear that legislators - citizens - always have the right to contact folks for facts and figures.''
The memo, however, adds that there are limits to what General Assembly members can request.
``While legislators have a statutory right to access agency information, legislators do not have any similar right to demand that an executive branch employee express his or her personal opinions distinct from the administration position that the employee is representing.''
Some Democrats were not impressed by the move.
``Saying that something isn't a gag order doesn't keep it from being one,'' said Del. Jay DeBoer, D-Petersburg.
Allen's 1994 order, signed shortly after he took office, contributed to tensions between the executive and legislative branches.
``Not only is the effect chilling,'' said DeBoer. ``It's like chilling molasses. It stops the process.''
Democratic strategist G.C. Morse, a former gubernatorial speechwriter, said the guidelines, while apparently intended to ensure the administration speaks with one voice, have intimidated employees into silence.
``People in state government are frightened because never has state government been so politicized, as it is today,'' he said.
Morse also said the restrictions are contradictory to Allen's philosophy of government.
``George likes to preach this empowerment stuff,'' he said. ``But the key to empowerment is to give people the power to do the job, and then you hold them accountable for the results. You don't meddle or micromanage.''
The Atkinson memo suggests that state employees, hundreds of whom could lose their jobs under the Allen budget, should now feel free to grouse to legislators about job conditions.
It says that an employee's superiors don't have to be notified ``where the testimony or contact relates to working conditions rather than substantive policy.''
The governor said last week that public employees ``obviously have their First Amendment rights.''
by CNB