Bacon's Rebellion

First question: Is a state employee allowed to hold personal opinions contrary to the official position of the department he works for? The answer is easy. Of course, everyone is entitled to a personal opinion. The state does not engage in thought control.

The next question is a little trickier: Is a state employee entitled to publicly express his opinions if it’s clear that he’s speaking in a private capacity, not his capacity as a state employee?

That second question goes to the crux of the mini-firestorm swirling around Will Vehrs in the photo captions he submitted to Commonwealth Conservative last week, in which he made light of the Martinsville region’s economic decline. The story, first filed by the Martinsville Bulletin — picked up by Conaway Haskins here — was published this morning as the lead Metro & Virginia story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Even though Vehrs has apologized profusely, local politicians and economic developers have called upon the Governor to fire him.

Said Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Henry: “I understand his apology, but he’s in a position where he’s going to be working with economic development. How can he work with a potential prospect after having in a public fashion demeaned the area? … It’s not a criminal offense, but it does destroy his effectiveness in economic development.”

Three observations:

1. Del. Armstrong needs to get his facts straight. Vehrs works with the Department of Business Assistance, not in “economic development.” He mans a hot-line dispensing information to small businesses. He does not interact with business prospects that Martinsville and Henry County might attempt to lure to their region. His job assisting small businesses, even those from Martinsville and Henry County, is in no way compromised.
2. More to the point, Vehrs was not speaking in an official capacity, either for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership or the Department of Business Assistance. He was clearly blogging in his capacity as a private citizen. Has Vehrs violated any state policy? Has he violated any departmental protocols? What grounds would the Governor have for firing him? Does the Governor really want to set a precedent of quashing a state employee’s right to free speech in the blogosphere?
3. Armstrong’s strong-arming of Vehrs is likely to backfire. Everyone can sympathise with the economic plight of Martinsville and Henry County. But few will sympathise with Armstrong’s seemingly vengeful lashing out against a mid-level state employee for words that, objectively speaking, caused no harm. This is not the kind of visibility that Martinsville-Henry County wants to generate for itself. The last thing the region needs is for the blogosphere to mobilize in Vehrs’ defense. No one would benefit from the story going national.

Best solution: Let it go. Vehrs is obviously remorseful. He’s learned his lesson. Let the story die, and get back to economic development.

Update: The Kaine administration has suspended Vehrs from his job for 10 days. Will blogs about it on Commonwealth Conservative.

Andrew Boenau, a Richmond transportation engineer, is a big fan of roundabouts. In fact, he has participated in the design of two of Virginia’s 12 roundabouts — one on the Virginia Tech campus and one in Gloucester County. For anyone interested in finding out more about this unconventional traffic-management tool, he recommends visiting the website of Michael Wallwork, a world-renowned expert. Wallwork, who cut his teeth as a traffic engineer in Melbourne, Australia, and now lives in Orange Park, Fla., explores the abundant design possibilities.

As the photo above from Clearwater, Fla., (taken from Wallwork’s website) makes evident, roundabouts do more than manage traffic flow. They stand out as major landmarks. The circles create visual focal points, which can be amplified with fountains, statues, gardens or other civic ornamentation. And, oh, by the way, this Clearwater roundabout carries 58,000 cars a day and 8,000 pedestrians.

By Boenau’s count, the Richmond region is the lead adopter of roundabouts in Virginia. There are two in Richmond — including the magnificent circle on Monument Ave. with the Robert E. Lee statue — as well as one in Chesterfield County and three in the West Creek office park in Goochland County. Charlottesville is coming on strong with one roundabout and three under construction. Gordonsville, Blacksburg, Amherst, Gloucester and Winchester also sport roundabouts.

Update: Boenau has pointed me to this Virginia Tech web page with an aerial view of the university’s roundabout.

Another post on the behalf of James Atticus Bowden:

Del. Phil Hamilton, R- Newport News, got his op ed response to Sen. Marty Williams (see “Republican Senator’s Blame Game on Transportation“) in the Daily Press on the lowest circulation day. Fewer folks get to see the truth.

Phil pointed out that the 1986 sales tax increase for transportation is a use of General Fund revenues that otherwise would be used for public education, public safety and health care. Also, Phil reminded Marty that he voted for budgets that used $339 million of general fund surpluses and general fund revenues from the insurance premiums tax for transportation.

Most importantly, Phil pointed out that Virginia’s Governors have used special sessions for special issues. Past governors cared too much about good governance and the Commonwealth than hold the budget hostage and push to a government shut down.

“In recent history, four different governors have wanted to address a major public policy initiative in their first term. In 1966, Gov. Mills Godwin wanted to impose a state sales tax to create the community college system. In 1986, Gov. Gerald Baliles wanted to address transportation (for the ‘permanent’ solution – JAB editorial addition). In 1994, Gov. George Allen wanted to abolish parole. Finally, in 1998, Gov. James Gilmore wanted car tax relief while several legislators wanted school construction funding. In each instance, the state budget was passed and a special session was called to address these initiatives”

“Gov. Timothy Kaine should follow this successful model of leadership in his desire to address the transportation issue this year.”

Yes sir, Phil!

Gov. Kaine and the RINO Senators could pass a continuing resolution or increase spending (as the House suggests) about 20 percent today with an additional $1 billion in new transportation funding – and set aside the “crisis” of transportation plans and taxes for a special session – today. There’s no problem, no crisis, in funding for government in the Commonwealth. There’s a surplus of revenue.

The phoney crisis that shuts down government will be the most cynical exercise in political power I’ve seen in a Virginia that was the only state name uniquely, uniquely I say, associated with the word “gentleman”, since Massive Resistance. We’ve come too low, and it’ll get worse, unless Gov. Kaine and His Lordship Sir John Chichester and the RINO majority in the senate put the People, our Commonwealth, ahead of their petty political passion for power.

It appears that Will Vehrs, one of Virginia’s leading bloggers (formerly of this blog) and pundits has run afoul of state politicians and local economic developers from the Martinsville and Henry County regions due to comments he made in jest for the Commonwealth Conservative weekly caption contest. Will works for one of Virginia’s economic development agencies, and on last Friday, he submitted quite a few entries, all seemingly under the auspices of good fun. Now, those jokes have quickly turned into a little tempest.

So far, many of the state’s leading bloggers and blog readers have come to Will’s defense, while acknowledging that his comments may have stung some of the more sensitive members of the “victimized” communities. Will quickly offered a heartfelt apology, but that move failed to satisfy some local leaders. Now, the stakes have been raised even more as Del. Ward Armstrong is calling for Will’s head, and others, like Sen. Roscoe Reynolds are adding fuel to the fire.

In truth, Will may have exercised questionable judgment in submitting these comments, and the fact that he contributed several dozen does not look good. But, given that the people that he poked fun at were his own colleagues, and that he apparently has done nice work for and with them, this should never have generated such a high level of controversy. It even got to the point where a noted national blog, Instapundit, picked up on the story.

How this matter plays out should be of interest to all public employees – actually all employees, period – who engage in blogging and opinion writing unrelated to their jobs. Sure, we walk a fine line, but for those of us who blog under our own names, we are simply exercising our rights and engaging in our duties as responsible citizens. One mistake, if you can even deem Will’s comments as such, should not cost him his job or his reputation. If that happens, it should send chills down the spine of all of the Commonwealth’s civil service community and the general citizenry.

The response from Del. Armstrong & Co. was uncalled for, but it is yet another demonstration of how far some politicians will go to score brownie points with constituents while casting aside notions of freedom of speech for others. It is especially troubling when the “free-speaker” (or writer in this case) in question is a public employee who was not acting in any official capacity. Del. Armstrong & Co. should remember that standing in the bully pulpit is one thing, but simply being a bully is another matter altogether.

Without a doubt, this will be a lesson for Will and for all of us in the political blogging community. I’m sure that we will all be a bit more circumspect about blogging during work hours. This should also be a lesson to all the local economic developers out there who are so focused on marketing their locales that they ignore the sometimes harsh reality of those places. The “product” is what it is, and while no one likes to be made fun of, lashing back only enhances the embarrassment for those regions. Though cooler heads may and should prevail, with General Assembly politicians taking a moment out of their busy schedule of do-nothingness to address this non-issue, this situation seems far from over.

I’ve been using the Bacon’s Rebellion forum for some time now to make the connection between Virginia’s energy-intensive pattern of land use and Virginians’ vulnerability to oil price shocks. Every $.20 increase in the price of gasoline translates into $1 billion hit to Virginia consumers. It’s been a lonely job — no one else in the media picked up the theme. No other lobbying or activists groups picked it up either. Until now.

Three leading conservationist/environmental groups have issued a press release making much the same point that I have. Indeed, they’ve done me one better: calling for the state to set benchmarks for per capita Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) as a tangible measure of the effectiveness of state transportation policy.

“Certainly, neither VDOT’s long-term plans nor the proposals before the General Assembly account for the predicted continuation of rising gas prices,” says Lisa Guthrie, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. “We are concerned about the absence of fundamental reform in land use and transportation planning in this era of high energy costs.”

“Our first priority in transportation should be to set and meet a goal to reduce the amount that current and future Virginians have to drive,” says Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. Progress would be measured in terms of Vehicle Miles Driven per capita. Reducing the amount of driving not only would reduce traffic congestion but cut energy consumption, energy dependence, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

“To achieve this goal we must reduce the growth that is extending farther and farther away from our job centers. By revitalizing our cities and towns, and creating more mixed-use walkable communities we make walking, bicycling, carpooling, transit and shorter car trips possible,” says Chris Miller, President of the Piedmont Environmental Council.

“In America,” he adds, “one of the largest contributors of global climate change is the air pollution which results from the increasing vehicle miles traveled. Reductions in per capita VMT do more to reduce greenhouse gases that are the cause of global warming than new technologies and improved energy efficiency.”

(The press release does not appear to be online at this moment, but the Coalition will get around to posting it eventually. Click here to check its website.)

Full disclosure to readers: The Piedmont Environmental Council underwrites Bacon’s Rebellion’s Road to Ruin project. Chris Miller and I chat from time to time but we have never discussed the connection between land use and energy dependence. This is an issue the PEC has arrived at independently from Bacon’s Rebellion — unless, of course, they’ve actually been reading our stuff! In any case, we’re delighted to have someone else sharing our perspective on this issue.

An enduring theme of Bacon’s Rebellion is the escalating cost of higher education. Higher ed is both a vital institution in our society — and out of control. I recall reading that tuitions are rising at the rate of eight percent this year (sorry, no source) — not just in Virginia’s public universities, which are compensating for the supposed miserliness of the General Assembly, but throughout the nation.

The cost of attending Harvard has reached about $42,000 a year. Remarkably, this most prestigious of institutions maintains this exorbitant fee even as its endowment surges in size, reaching $25.9 billion in 2005 — or roughly $1.3 million for each of its 19,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Invest that $1.3 million per student in U.S. Treasuries, and you’d generate income of about $65,000 a year. (Clearly, no matter how much money you give this particular university, it will never be enough.)

Of course, Harvard is known for the acumen of those who manage its endowment. The university has invested a significant percentage of its portfolio in hedge funds, an investment category that has been generating higher returns than normal stock market indices — and much more than the five percent example used here.

Now, it seems, other universities are eyeing the outsized investment returns of Harvard and Yale, and they’re pumping their endowment money into hedge funds, too, according to a May 3 article in Business Week (and forwarded by alert reader David Kaplan). The risk is that hedge funds are now the “hot” investment category, they’re attracting billions of dollars in capital, and that too much money is now chasing too few opportunities. As in any other financial bubble, the late-comers will end up with sub-par returns — if they don’t lose their shirts outright.

I would be very interested in knowing the extent to which Virginia educational institutions are investing their endowments in hedge funds. I recall reading that the University of Virginia has done quite well by emulating Ivy League investment strategies — not that a booming endowment has been reflected by a moderation in tuition price hikes.

What concerns me is what happens if the hedge funds go bust as a category and endowments take a hit. Will Virginia university boards use that as an excuse to jack up tuitions even more aggressively? Heads we win, tails you lose?

Fredericksburg stands athwart the sluiceway of growth running from Northern Virginia south through Interstate 95, and the local Economic Development Authority is preparing itself for the inevitable. Instead of trying to halt growth, the the EDA has formed a JumpStart! committee to fogure out how to shape it.

Inspired perhaps by its beautiful historic downtown, JumpStart! is touting mixed-use development. That’s quite a departure from, and improvement upon, the gargantuan and ghastly Central Park retail complex across the Interstate. Thomas Crimmons, a member of the EDA, lays out his thinking in a column in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star:

Mixed-use development creates neighborhoods that include open public space, recreation areas, housing, offices, and retail space, all in one development that has an architectural theme and beautiful landscaping.

Mixed-use projects create pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods that allow people to live near where they work and shop….

The EDA is positioned to encourage, prod, advocate, lobby for “smart development,” and, when appropriate, finance mini projects throughout the city.

The Metropolitan Washington area can accommodate another 200,000 households and reduce traffic congestion just by putting the new houses in mixed-use, transit-oriented development. That’s the startling conclusion of an exercise conducted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

In his latest article for the Road to Ruin project, “Incentives out of Joint,” writer Bob Burke says there’s just one problem: There’s little financial incentive for local governments to cooperate. Given a revenue stream based largely upon property taxes and a state funding formula that reimburses affluent Northern Virginia localities as little as 20 percent for their education costs, local governments conclude that new households cost them more than they contribute in local tax dollars.

Until the tax structure and funding formulas change, it is unrealistic to expect local governments to support transit-friendly development that may relieve traffic congestion but brings in new families who pose a fiscal liability.

The bill for overtime sessions in the General Assembly have surpassed the $90,000 mark, according to the Warren Fiske at the Virginian-Pilot.

Gasp! Individual legislators are racking up a breath-taking $130 a day while twiddling their thumbs. Who do those guys think they are? The president of Exxon-Mobil?

K-Mart clerks, more likely. Most of these guys are professionals who get paid for their time. They’re losing money the longer the budget impasse continues and they cool their heels in Richmond.

Ninety-thousand dollars may be a lot to the Bacon household, but it’s a pimple on a mosquito’s butt in this year’s $53.9 million legislative budget: about 0.17 percent. As for the overtime’s impact on next year’s $17.9 billion General Fund budget, it doesn’t even register. G.A. overtime as a percentage of the total buget is so small my calculator won’t even calculate it. It doesn’t even amount to the the interest on the interest of state funds in the bank.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch also has made a big deal about the mounting cost of the extended session, dramatizing the numbers with informational graphics. My advice: Get over it. I’d much rather see our legislators take their time and get it right. Brother, what a non-issue.

This comes from the University of Virginia website, Top News Daily:

Don’t Stereotype:
What You See is NOT What You Get

Students in a Sustained Dialogue group handed out 1,000 T-shirts to their peers, and everyone who wore them on April 26 wrote their own statements on the back to shatter stereotypes. Students from left to right and part of their sayings: Casandra Bruce, “I’m graduating from the Comm School and I’m going to work in a kitchen;” Muslim student Alaa “Lulu” Buhisi, “I have Jewish friends;” Reem Ghoneim, “I am Egyptian and I don’t read hieroglyphics;” Nneoma Amadi-Obi, “I am Nigerian and I speak proper English.”

I’m all in favor of busting unfairly negative stereotypes. Here’s one more t-shirt I’d love to see: “I’m a Southern White Male — and I’m Not Prejudiced against Minorities!”

The Virginia Department of Transportation is way ahead of the public and the politicos in dealing with traffic congestion. For all the grief it gets, VDOT is one of the more technologically progressive transportation departments in the Country. In the latest example, the department has hired Open Roads Consulting Inc., of Richmond, to help the Virginia State Police respond more quickly to traffic accidents. (See press release.)

Open Roads’ computer-aided dispatch system (CAD) distributes information to all the regional Smart Traffic Centers, the 511 Virginia Clearinghouse, the Transportation Emergency Operations Center and local 911 dispatch centers. Explains David Sutton, a VDOT project manager: “One of the critical needs of traffic operations is to discover incidents quickly. The operators receiving real-time CAD data have significantly improved their ability to detect and respond to incidents. This enables the incident to be cleared sooner, traveler information is provided quicker, and traffic gets moving again faster.

Makes a lot more sense than punishing speeders and reckless drivers with excessive fines that they’ll fight to the death in court.

The National Park Service has ranked Virginia second among the 50 states in the use of federal tax incentives to rehabilitate historic buildings. The Service’s annual report lists Virginia with 140 approved approved proposals and 74 completed projects, second only to Missouri in both categories. The City of Richmond is second only to St. Louis, Missouri, of all cities in the nation for the number of rehabilitation tax projects using federal tax credits during the past five years.

The total private investment in Virginia leveraged through rehabilitation projects completed and certified by the Park Service during fiscal year 2005 was $128,603,161, making Virginia seventh in the nation for money spent. “The Commonwealth’s ranking highlights the power of historic preservation as an economic and community revitalization tool,” commented Gov. Timothy M. Kaine in a press release. “Historic rehabilitation through public-private partnerships, combined with state and federal tax credits, has the added benefit of supporting smart growth and helping to stem sprawl in our urban and suburban areas throughout Virginia.”

That’s the Tim Kaine I knew — back before he went over to the dark side, favoring tax hikes to support sprawl-inducing transportation projects. I remember chatting with him during the early days of his campaign — back when he was still spending time in Richmond — and discussing his ideas about economic and community development. Kaine, a former Richmond mayor, cited the historic tax credits and Richmond’s tax abatement program for restored properties as an engine in the city’s resurgence.

It’s good to see that the Governor is still thinking in these terms, even if he hasn’t taken any tangible action yet. Maybe we’ll see an urban renewal initiative next year. It would be cool if we could bump Missouri off its perch.

I am posting this passage for Jim Bowden who encountered technical difficulties and could not add it himself. — Jim Bacon

My state senator, Marty Williams (R), has another op ed in the Daily Press ( “Ball is in House’s court now,” May 2, 2006). Apparently, according to Marty, the ball is a ‘regional plan’ for Hampton Roads passed by the Senate last week.

Marty concludes with his conditions for a Transportation Plan:

“Provide meaningful support for transportation needs for the foreseeable future.

Do not raid the general fund ensuring that roads do not compete with schools, public safety or health care.

Do not pay for road construction by saddling other parts of the budget with additional debt that will have to be paid back later with interest.

We’ve heard enough criticism from House Republicans. What Virginians deserve from them now are constructive contributions. That means taking action on the Hampton Roads regional plan now.”

I agree. The House should reject the regional plan if includes another unelected government with taxing authority. Marty pushed this before and the voters in his own district have decisively beaten it – twice – at the polls.

Marty never gives us a number on how much money is needed each year for meaningful support. We need a number, not an adjective.

Marty was happy to raid the Transportation Trust Fund to move money to the General Fund. Either he has a principled reason to raid funds one way only – from Transportation – or he is just being a politician.

Marty was thrilled to support saddling Virginians with huge debts a few years ago. Again, has he has discovered, recently, a principle that forever more he will fight bond issues, or he is just being a politician?

Marty never tells us how much the professional staff will cost for this unelected regional government. How many persons will be hired for what jobs? How much will they be paid?

Marty never explains why VDOT can’t manage the tolls across the James River – and maybe on I-64.

Marty has failed to offer a plan to fund the first priority for Hampton Roads since he was elected in 1995. Eleven years without any leadership, except to demand a new, unelected government with taxing authority and no oversight, means the ball really is in the House. Clearly, the Virginia Senate, especially the ruling majority of Republican senators, isn’t up to setting priorities, making decisions and providing leadership.

What is the url for this Senate plan for unelected regional government for Hampton Roads?

One of the persistent themes of Bacon’s Rebellion is that human settlement patterns influence the demand for new roads. Some of us have argued that scattered, disconnected, low-density development patterns force motorists to make more car trips and drive greater distances — thus putting more stress on the transportation system — than their counterparts living in more compact, more balanced and better designed communities.

While most people commenting in this blog accept the idea that the pattern and density of development has some impact on travel, some disagree that it’s a significant factor. In the end, everybody’s arguments go around in circles because no one can produce “conclusive” evidence one way or the other.

Maybe it’s time to start gathering “conclusive” evidence. Building upon an idea suggested by Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council, I would propose a two-part initiative.

(1) Categorize every census block in Virginia by its dominant development pattern, accounting for variables such as population density, building type, street pattern (grid street, cul de sac, whatever), presence of mass transit and other salient characteristics. (I’m open to ideas on which key variables should be considered.)

(2) Then append to the list of census blocks these two data sets: (a) Census commuting data, and (b) Division of Motor Vehicle data on vehicle miles driven by every licensed driver residing in the census tract.

That relatively simple exercise should provide the data to answer once and for all the question whether certain settlement patterns generate more automobile traffic than others — and by how much.

Given the General Assembly’s new-found interest in measuring the impact of new development upon traffic, the findings of such a study would prove extremely useful to everyone from academic researchers to local planning offices, from metropolitan planning organizations to VDOT.

Virginia industry released 3.2 percent fewer toxic chemicals into the environment in 2004 than the previous year, according to the latest Toxics Release Inventory produced by the Department of Environmental Quality.

Even more significant was the progress made in a group of chemicals known as “persistent bioaccumulative toxics,” which remain in the environment for long periods of time and can build up in living tissue. Releases of these persistent chemicals in 2004 declined 20.6 percent from the year before.

Virginia is moving in the right direction. If industry can maintain these gains year after year — through on-plant recycling, incineration, chemical substitution and other strategies — we can look forward to 30 percent improvement in toxic chemicals and truly dramatic reductions in the persistent, bioaccumulative toxins over the next decade.

I would have expected more press coverage of this good news, but the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star is the only newspaper that I’ve noticed has picked it up.