DATE: Thursday, June 5, 1997                TAG: 9706050011

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

29 DEQ STAFFERS REPLACED ENVIRONMENT WILL SUFFER

Just when you think things can't get worse in the state's environmental offices, they do.

Now comes a report that 29 people at the Department of Environmental Quality - including the air operations director, the water director, the waste director and the head of program support and evaluation - are losing their jobs. Meanwhile, 34 new positions are being created.

The old team can apply to be part of the new, but the new jobs could have less pay or vastly different responsibilities. They could be located in Hampton Roads rather than Richmond.

It seems clear that the Allen administration's environmental team, starting with Secretary of Human Resources Becky Norton Dunlop, is responding to a slap from the legislature with a 20-megaton bomb.

Acting on the advice of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the Assembly last winter directed the department to eliminate or revamp a half dozen or so positions (not 29). That has been taken as license to come up with a whole new organizational plan and, potentially, a whole new crop of employees, just six months before the Allen administration leaves office.

Philosophically, the Allen administration has put business first and the environment second. But the latest DEQ changes were protested in a letter signed by representatives of even pro-business groups such as the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Virginia Manufacturers Association, as well as the Virginia Municipal League and various environmental organizations.

The letter said many of the dismissed employees ``have demonstrated a reasonable, common-sense approach and have earned the respect and trust of those who work with them. . . .'' Their dismissal, the letter says, ``will seriously hamper DEQ's ability to work with the regulated community and to protect Virginia's environment.''

Hugh Keogh, president of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, said the loss of senior DEQ officials will cost the state a substantial amount of institutional memory and expertise. The changes, Keogh said, could even hurt business recruitment, Allen's priority No. 1, because Virginia is losing the employees who can explain Virginia's regulatory process and help new business obtain needed permits.

Governor Allen should put a stop to this nonsense. His environmental record is the weakest part of a legacy that he hopes to sell during a U.S. Senate bid in 2000. To leave the DEQ a debilitated and demoralized agency is in no one's interest, including his.

Heads need to roll in the DEQ chain of command, but not the ones that are rolling.

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