THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 11, 1997 TAG: 9701110286
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAURA LAFAY AND SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 81 lines
Michael McKenna quit his job Friday after Virginia's governor, lieutenant governor, and state senators and members of the House of Delegates denounced his tactics and called for his resignation.
Before the day was out, McKenna, the 33-year-old director of policy and planning at the state Department of Environmental Quality, had been compared to former president Richard Nixon and Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. His transgression: a memo he wrote in December outlining a strategy to impeach a report critical of Gov. George F. Allen's environmental policies.
That report was issued by the Joint Legislative Review Commission, a bipartisan group that investigates Virginia's executive agencies at the request of the General Assembly.
McKenna's memo recommended a 30-day Machiavellian strategy of criticism, press leaks and harassment to discredit JLARC and cast doubt on the authenticity of its findings. The memo was addressed to DEQ Director Thomas Hopkins, Deputy Director T. March Bell, and Julie Overy, Allen's deputy press secretary. None of its recommendations appear to have been carried out.
Copies of the memo were slipped anonymously beneath the office doors of several lawmakers as Allen gave his annual ``State of the Commonwealth'' address Wednesday night.
By Friday, the memo had caused a legislative firestorm.
Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., a Fairfax Democrat, stood up on the floor of the state Senate and compared it to ``the techniques of propaganda used in the early 1930s in Germany.''
``This is evidence of press manipulation to implement `the big lie' technique,'' he said.
In the House of Delegates, state GOP chairman and Chesapeake Del. Randy Forbes stood up and announced that the Democrats and Republicans were united in their ``disdain'' for McKenna and his memo.
Roanoke Democrat Del. Clifton ``Chip'' Woodrum called the memo ``Nixon-esque,'' which prompted Front Royal Republican Raymond R. Guest to stand up and defend Nixon. Petersburg Democrat Jay DeBoer read a letter to Allen requesting McKenna's resignation and invited everyone to sign it.
``You have stated on many occasions that it is your policy to promote and encourage conduct. . . that is stringently ethical,'' DeBoer read from his letter.
``The writer of the memorandum appears not to share your high ethical standards of conduct.''
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Allen announced that he had made it clear to his secretary of natural resources, Becky Norton Dunlop, that he wanted McKenna's resignation and that McKenna had resigned.
``Obviously, I did not find the memo to be appropriate,'' Allen said. ``I found it to be highly inappropriate.''
Allen first saw the memo Thursday, he said, after it had surfaced publicly and had become the subject of contention. Prior to that, he said, his staff had not considered it important enough to show him.
Meanwhile, according to DEQ deputy director Bell, McKenna walked into DEQ's headquarters in Richmond pn Friday and announced that he intended to resign.
``It was the first thing he said when he got in,'' Bell said. ``He didn't want to embarrass this agency or the administration.''
Bell has called the memo ``unsolicited'' and ``unprofessional.'' But he emphasized that none of its recommendations were adopted, and that most top officials never saw it.
Bell had said on Thursday that McKenna would face no disciplinary action, but would be instructed not to write such memos in the future.
McKenna did not respond to calls from the media on Thursday or Friday. He left a message on his office phone saying that he no longer could be reached there.
As director of policy and planning, McKenna was a high-ranking official, making $65,000 a year. Responsible for fielding media questions and lobbying lawmakers, he was widely viewed as DEQ's ``spin doctor,'' a guy often seen bending the ears of reporters and politicians in the back of meeting halls.
In the General Assembly, McKenna was particularly active in helping pass a controversial bill two winters ago that shields businesses from disclosing pollution problems.
He was hired by Dunlop, with whom he shares a conservative political philosophy. Like Dunlop, McKenna often criticized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for ``interfering'' in state issues, and frequently found himself at odds with environmental groups.
``Let's say his politics were not exactly cutting-edge environmentalism,'' said Roy A. Hoagland, assistant director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia.
KEYWORDS: RESIGNATION