“That should be noticed and so forth,’’ Pattison said. “I was wondering if it was an oversight. It’s a significant oversight.”
Alicia Hughes — an independent member of the Alexandria City Council who serves on the commission and a work group — said she was surprised that the governor’s office had determined that the meetings were exempt from the state’s open-meeting law. Hughes, who ran for council with Republican support, said she plans to speak to the administration about it. “That is not something I was aware of,’’ she said.
Last year, the commission released its first set of recommendations to shrink government and make it more efficient, including allowing employees to work four days a week, consolidating accounting and payroll systems and eliminating toll-free numbers.
During its first year, the bulk of the commission’s work has been done in committee, although the full commission has debated and voted on the recommendations.
Some of the proposals have been implemented by the governor, and others were passed by the General Assembly this year. The commission's most controversial recommendation — to sell the state’s 350 liquor stores — died after McDonnell spent months lobbying lawmakers and residents to support getting out of the liquor business.
The commission chairman, Fred Malek, founder of Thayer Capital Partners and a major Republican donor, did not return a call for comment, and he declined, through the governor’s office, to comment.
House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), who serves as commission vice chairman and sits on one of the work groups, said he does not know why the committee structure changed. “Call the governor,’’ he said. “It’s his commission.’’
Several commission members interviewed this week said they received notice in early July from Jeff Palmore, McDonnell’s deputy counselor and the commission’s executive director, about the new work groups.
The governor’s office declined to release a full list of members who have participated in work group meetings, although it did provide the names of commission members who are serving.
“They are ad hoc and oftentimes consist of those who can attend on a certain day or who have a specific interest in perhaps one specific item of discussion,’’ Martin said. “They are designed to produced new ideas and not get bogged down in process, and that means they must be elastic and informal.”
Three Democratic legislators — Sens. Mary Margaret Whipple (Arlington) and L. Louise Lucas (Portsmouth) and Del. Robert H. Brink (Arlington) — serve on the commission, but they were not assigned to any work groups, although at least one asked to be included.
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, the fourth elected Democrat on the commission, is serving as an adviser to all five work groups, but he and his staff had not been notified about meeting times, said Bryan Pennington, Norfolk’s director of intergovernmental relations.
Bill Leighty, who has worked for both Democratic and Republican governors, serves on the natural resources work group.
Whipple called it “very disappointing” that commission members did not receive notice of the work groups’ participants or meeting schedule.
Brian Coy, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia, said: “Holding secret Republicans-only meetings outside the view of Virginia taxpayers further proves that Bob McDonnell’s government reform commission is not about accountability and transparency in government; it’s about furthering his own political standing with right-wing donors and ideologues.’’
Loading...
Comments