THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610210037
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 164 lines
As vice chairman of the State Council of Higher Education, Norfolk lawyer John D. Padgett has heard all the criticisms of the new appointed leadership of the state agency.
It's just a front for Gov. George F. Allen to force out the council's longtime independent-minded director, Gordon K. Davies, and seize control of Virginia's colleges.
It's a bunch of novices who don't know much about universities trying to micromanage those who do, by haranguing the agency's staff with nitpicky questions and demanding reams of documents during eight-hour meetings.
It's a gang of young lawyers who've lost sight of the larger issues of higher education and are mired in minutiae, like the accuracy of enrollment projections.
Wrong on all counts, says Padgett.
The way he sees it, he and his colleagues are just trying to get a better handle on a system with nearly 300,000 students at more than three dozen public two- and four-year schools. To do that, you have to ask a few more questions.
``My opinion is that as appointees, we need to be more involved in the council's agenda,'' said Padgett, a partner in the law firm of McGuire Woods Battle & Boothe. ``. . .We need to be more aware of what's going on. I felt we had statutory responsibilities that we were ignoring.''
For Padgett, the debate over recent changes at the agency comes down to this question: What is the proper role of a member of a municipal or state board?
Does he take a back seat to the full-time staff members of the agency he's supposed to oversee, trusting their judgment? Or does he try to keep up with as many developments as possible and shift the agency's direction when he believes it veers off-course?
The images of the Virginia Beach School Board debacle that flitted through his brain helped persuade him to take the latter path. This year, a special grand jury investigating the city schools' finances harshly criticized the board members for trusting some administrators too much.
``Virginia Beach did cross my mind,'' said Padgett, 38, who was appointed to the state council in July 1995. ``When there is a situation like that, you are reminded that you have significant responsibilities when you accept an . .
Padgett, who is active in the Norfolk Republican Party, says partisan politics play no role in his approach. But he said he can't vouch for the motives of his colleagues. ``I don't want to be so naive as to discount that some members of council may have agendas, but I think that applies for both sides of the debate,'' he said.
The council's new chairwoman, Elizabeth A. McClanahan, told business supporters of higher education at a meeting at Old Dominion University last week that she was not interested in dominating the agency. ``The role of the staff will be exactly the same,'' said McClanahan, an attorney from Abingdon. ``They, obviously, are the experts in higher education, and we are the amateurs.''
But Norfolk lawyer Hugh L. Patterson, who was chairman of the agency from 1992 to 1994, worries about the future of the council.
Patterson - who was appointed by former Govs. Gerald L. Baliles and L. Douglas Wilder to serve as a member of the council from 1986 to 1994 - fears that recent developments could tangle the operations of a smooth-running organization.
``If senior management in your company ran your business the way they're trying to run state council, you would not be impressed,'' Patterson said. ``You would not think it would be good for your com-pany. . . . My sense is that they're just trying to make life miserable for everyone.''
The higher education agency had run quietly for years, with council members - who are appointed by the governor - routinely siding with Davies. They rarely challenged his or his staff's proposals, at least in public.
The agency may close academic programs it deems ``unproductive,'' but it does not have authority over such items as teaching loads or tuition. Its major duties include providing budget recommendations and other information to the governor and General Assembly, and nudging colleges in new directions, such as embracing technology and restructuring.
In July, Allen appointed three new members to the council, two of whom used to work on his staff. Things started to change.
At the council's meeting that month, the other appointed member from South Hampton Roads - Norfolk insurance executive George G. Phillips Jr. - had been expected to be elected the next chairman. He had already been serving as vice chairman. But the three new members teamed with Padgett, McClanahan and Kate Obenshain Griffin, a former adviser to Allen, to elect McClanahan over Phillips by a vote of 6-5.
McClanahan had been a frequent questioner during council sessions, raising concerns about the need for proposed new projects and academic centers.
That same meeting, McClanahan quickly moved - over Phillips' objections - to set up a system of subcommittees to more closely scrutinize the work of the agency. That resulted in an eight-hour-long meeting earlier this month, from the start of the first subcommittee session to the end of the full council meeting.
Also in July, McClanahan acted on Griffin's long-running concerns about the accuracy of the council's enrollment projections, ordering a review from another state agency.
At the next meeting, in August, the council heard a report from an economist with the state Department of Planning and Budget criticizing the council's enrollment projections. That contradicted a study last year from an outside consultant who found the estimates to be as good as they can get. Davies, the council director, stood up to defend the council's process of estimating enrollment, but council members then voted to modify the process, with greater involvement from the Department of Planning and Budget.
The next installment in the drama will occur today: Davies and the budget officials have been asked to testify before legislators about the enrollment figures. Some legislators, closely allied with Davies, are expected to rise to his defense and may take a few swipes at the Allen administration - and at McClanahan and her colleagues - in the process.
Skeptics have pointed to what they see as excesses of the new appointed leadership. McClanahan is in contact with council officials almost on a daily basis, sometimes calling or faxing two or three times a day with requests for information. At the ODU meeting, she joked: ``My other job is being a lawyer, although my law partners will tell you I'm probably not doing much of that these days.''
The harmony that prevailed at council meetings has also been punctured. Decisions are no longer unanimous. Phillips was a regular dissenter in votes at the August meeting and even questioned the makeup of the subcommittees. He declined last week to discuss recent events, saying he'd confine his comments to council meetings.
But Padgett said there is an important up side: Under McClanahan and him, there will be more room for serious debate.
After Padgett was appointed, ``my first couple of meetings did not reflect any vigorous debate,'' he said. ``The council may have had 2- or 3-minute discussions prior to a vote. The staff was rarely asked to cut through it all and get to the meat of the analysis. The staff didn't anticipate that their recommendations would be aggressively questioned.''
But previous chairmen of the agency say there's always been ample opportunity to hash out the issues. ``To say that we didn't look into what was going on would be crazy,'' Patterson said. ``We always asked enough questions both in front of the public and behind closed doors to be comfortable that what we were supporting made a lot of sense from a public policy standpoint. .
``But we didn't decide we were going to evaluate every numerical equation. I don't think we were put there to do that.''
Val S. McWhorter, the only remaining member of the council who was originally appointed by Wilder, was the chairman before McClanahan. He said his goal had been to ferret out members' concerns and address them with council officials before meetings.
``This was done in the interest of efficiency and of being certain that the staff knew of our individual views before being confronted at a public hearing,'' said McWhorter, a Northern Virginia attorney. ``I guess you could say it's a different management style'' now.
The new approach of the leaders of the council may also be driven partly by their relative youth, Padgett said. Of the six members who voted for McClanahan, five are under 40. McClanahan is 37. Griffin is the youngest, at 27. The five other members - and the overwhelming majority of previous members - are over 50.
``When you're younger, sometimes you're more aggressive in wanting things changed and less likely to accept things the way they are,'' he said. ``Maybe we're perceived as brash and not as patient as we should be.''
But all they're doing, Padgett said, is following the American way. ``If we always accepted the conclusions of others, then I think we would be history,'' he said. ``That's not how Americans resolve their disagreements.'' MEMO: Supporters of the council's director wonder whether the appointees
are part of a plan to oust him/B2 ILLUSTRATION: Norfolk lawyer John D. Padgett is the council's new
vice chairman.
Elizabeth A. McClanahan recently became the council's chairwoman.
KEYWORDS: HIGHER EDUCATION INTERVIEW by CNB