ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701270050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: LAURA LaFAY STAFF WRITER
THE ALLEN ADMINISTRATION conceded Friday that a Cabinet secretary and high-level staff at the Department of Environmental Quality saw and discussed a memo on how to discredit the state's watchdog agency.
Early this month, when someone at the Department of Environmental Quality leaked a memo outlining a plan to discredit a state report critical of the agency, DEQ managers hastened to distance themselves from the offending document.
DEQ Deputy Director March Bell, one of three people to whom the Dec. 20 memo was addressed, said he never saw the thing until reporters brought it to his attention Jan. 9. It was a "rogue memo," Bell said, written by a low-level employee. It was never taken seriously.
Another addressee, gubernatorial spokeswoman Julie Overy, said the memo didn't reach her until after Christmas. Gov. George Allen, Overy said, never laid eyes on it.
But according to a letter sent Friday from DEQ Director-designate Thomas Hopkins to Del. Kenneth Plum, D-Fairfax County, the memo was distributed and discussed in a high-level meeting that included Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop; her deputy, Brian Mannix; Hopkins; a senior DEQ policy adviser; and DEQ's director of enforcement.
The author of the memo, then-DEQ spokesman Michael McKenna, "made his suggestions which were briefly discussed," Hopkins wrote. "The meeting then returned to the original agenda.''
In the memo, McKenna proposed using press leaks and public statements to discredit the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. JLARC, the legislature's independent investigative agency, had issued a report last year sharply critical of DEQ practices.
The letter contradicts testimony Hopkins and his aides gave Tuesday before a House subcommittee on natural resources, of which Plum is chairman.
At that meeting, Hopkins at first said he saw the memo "sometime during the holidays," but later said he saw it "after the holidays." He made no mention of discussing it in a meeting with Dunlop.
Hopkins also told the lawmakers he had no idea who had made handwritten editing suggestions on a letter attached to the memo. But minutes later, his aide, DEQ Enforcement Director Harry Kelso, admitted to making them.
Tuesday's statements by Hopkins and his aides left subcommittee members openly wondering about his competence and speculating about whether his appointment would be confirmed at a hearing to be called next week.
Hopkins' letter Friday left them steamed.
"That memo talked about misrepresenting facts and distorting the truth to discredit an investigative agency, and yet there's no mention here that Ms. Dunlop or anyone else at the described meeting had a problem with that," said Del. William Robinson, D-Norfolk.
"We should feel obligated to pursue this matter. We have an agency that is not doing its job, and this appears to be part and parcel of that problem."
Plum called on Allen to confront Dunlop about the issue and to decide "which heads should roll."
"This is the governor's problem, and it's a significant one," Plum said. "There was a limited amount of credibility between this administration and the legislature on the issue of the environment, and now I would say there is no credibility. I'm certain that the governor, with his new-found interest in environmental issues, will want to get to the bottom of this."
But Allen's press secretary, Ken Stroupe, characterized such sentiments as Democratic bluster, calculated to distract from "the real issues."
"I know this is great fun for the Democrats," Stroupe said. "But regardless of when anyone first read a memo, regardless of who saw it or when they saw it, these managers made the decision not to move forward with any of the memo's recommendations. So case closed."
Dunlop was also dismissive.
McKenna resigned after his memo was made public, she noted in an interview with The Associated Press, and no further personnel action is necessary.
"We all read [the memo]," she said of the meeting described by Hopkins. "We listened politely, then we set it aside and went back to our task of trying to be positive."
The memo caused a political uproar when it was leaked to the General Assembly Jan.9. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers took to the floors of their respective houses to denounce its prescribed strategy of press leaks, distortions and threats to counteract JLARC's criticism.
That report, issued in December, alleged lax state enforcement of environmental laws and scant prosecution of polluters. It was based on two years of studying DEQ's performance.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB