THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100506
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER AND LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 94 lines
In an internal memo to the office of Gov. George F. Allen, a state official outlined an attack campaign to discredit a report critical of Allen's environmental policies.
The memo, written by Department of Environmental Quality official Michael McKenna, was anonymously slipped under the office doors of some Virginia legislators Wednesday night. It suggested leaking misleading stories to the press as part of a strategy to impeach a scathing report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC).
JLARC's report, issued in December, alleged lax state enforcement of environmental laws and scant prosecution of polluters. It was based on two years of studying the agency's performance.
Environmental groups said the report showed that budget cuts, downsizing and a new business-first philosophy under Allen had taken a toll on state regulation.
Allen officials dismissed the report as biased and politically motivated.
JLARC, the investigative arm of the General Assembly, is known for its political independence.
None of McKenna's ideas were adopted. But his memo angered several conservationists and legislators, who said it symbolizes the lengths to which some members of Allen's administration will go to avoid serious environmental protection.
``They should be focusing their attention on fixing what's wrong and not on junk like this,'' said Deanna Sampson, program manager for the Virginia Conservation Network, a Richmond-based environmental umbrella group.
McKenna, a GOP political appointee who runs the public information office at DEQ, used football analogies and blunt language about ``friends'' and ``enemies'' of the Allen administration in his memo.
``I think we need to have a strategy to play for the next 30 days to get us out from under the JLARC report,'' McKenna wrote. He urged that the administration ``immediately engage in some play action to freeze the linebackers,'' a football reference to actions that might slow or stymie investigators and the press.
McKenna could not be reached for comment Thursday. But one of his bosses, T. March Bell, deputy director of DEQ, described the memo as ``unsolicited'' and ``unprofessional.''
``Mike will be told not to write these kinds of memos in the future,'' said Bell, noting that he could not recall receiving the document until reporters started calling Thursday.
In his memo, McKenna suggested that the DEQ:
Write a letter to the attorney general's office asking if the agency could sue JLARC for libel. Then, he advised, the letter should be leaked to the press.
``Get someone in Congress'' to write the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for help in analyzing and critiquing the report. ``Leak this to the press and have a congressional oversight guy talk (off the record) about a potential oversight hearing,'' he wrote.
Issue press releases every three or four days, characterizing parts of the report as bogus or unfair.
Copies of the memo were slipped under the office doors of several legislators in the General Assembly Office Building Wednesday night.
JLARC Chairman Del. W. Tayloe Murphy Jr., D-Warsaw, read his copy during a Democratic caucus Thursday morning.
By afternoon, Murphy was meeting with members of the Conservation Commission, trying to figure out how best to respond.
``And I will respond to this. Both verbally and in writing,'' he said in an interview after the meeting.
Murphy, a bow-tied, patrician lawyer whose father also served in the House, said the memo made him ``incredulous.''
``This memo disturbs me. It disturbs me for what it represents,'' he said. ``I can tell you one thing: It's not in the tradition of Virginia government. It is the antithesis of what the Virginia government has been in my lifetime, and I'm 64 years old today.''
Del. James H. Dillard II, R-Fairfax, also was upset. ``It looks like a throwback to the Nixon days,'' Dillard said.
``Not to say that everyone doesn't put political spins on things,'' he added, ``but the idea that they would more or less put out these false leads - I find that very disturbing.''
The memo is especially damaging in light of a new environmentally friendly image that Republicans are trying to cultivate, said Dillard.
Recently announced administration efforts - such as the governor's Chesapeake Bay initiative to devote up to $19 million for cleaner water - are sincere and hard-won, he said.
``And this kind of thing, where you have an agency that tries to cover its tracks, doesn't help,'' Dillard said.
The memo was addressed to the DEQ's Bell, department director Tom Hopkins and Julie Overy, a spokeswoman in the governor's office.
Overy said Thursday that she did not see the memo until after Christmas and that the governor never saw it.
Asked if the governor's office considered the suggestions appropriate, Overy said: ``The fact that none of them happened indicates how appropriate they were.''
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEMO ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT