ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 3, 1997 TAG: 9704030036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer has asked the governor for an executive order closing the loophole that let it happen.
The Department of Environmental Quality official who resigned after his inflammatory memo embarrassed the Allen administration has a new job helping settle a polluter's lawsuit with the department.
Wednesday, Gov. George Allen responded to that news with his own memo, forbidding DEQ staff any communication with ex-employee Michael McKenna, who "potentially could be acting in a position adverse to his former employer - the taxpayers of Virginia."
Allen ordered DEQ head Tom Hopkins to refer to the attorney general all communication regarding the defendant company or the law firm that hired McKenna to the attorney general. "Any direct communication would be professionally irresponsible," the governor wrote.
McKenna, the DEQ's former policy director and spokesman, has joined a law firm that represents the former operator of the Avtex Fibers plant in Front Royal, which dumped PCBs into the Shenandoah River. The Washington, D.C.-based firm, Baise & Miller, said it hired McKenna to determine facts to help resolve the case.
The state filed a $1.5 million lawsuit in March against the federal government and FMC Corp., a former Avtex owner, over cleanup costs at the textile plant. The DEQ says it has documents showing that federal agencies knew environmental laws were being violated at Avtex, so they want the federal government to pay the full cost of the cleanup.
``This isn't rocket science,'' said FMC Vice President Robert Fields. ``We needed some background information on what's going on, and I'm sure you people in Richmond understand what's going on better than we do in Philadelphia.''
McKenna's hiring does not violate the letter of Virginia law, which prohibits top state officials from representing clients before their former agencies for one year after they leave. The law applies only to attempts to influence legislation or gubernatorial orders, not contacts on litigation.
But critics say the hiring does violate the spirit of the law.
``He has been hired because of his particular knowledge and expertise at the DEQ, and he is now using it for his personal gain,'' said Deanna Sampson, executive director of the Virginia Conservation Network, a coalition of environmental groups. ``It may be legal, but it doesn't seem right.''
A spokesman at the law firm said McKenna had no comment.
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, who is running for governor, asked Allen to issue an executive order closing this loophole in Virginia's "revolving door" law.
"How could this kind of cozy arrangement possibly benefit the people of Virginia?" Beyer asked.
Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County, a vocal critic of the Republican administration, said McKenna's actions ``are virtually identical'' to those barred by state law in other circumstances.
McKenna was hired by Baise & Miller shortly after he left the DEQ in January. As a DEQ official, he outlined in a memo - slipped beneath the doors of some lawmakers - a strategy to discredit a report critical of the agency. He quit his job after the governor, lieutenant governor, state senators and members of the House of Delegates denounced his tactics and called for his resignation.
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