Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Early Exits

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
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by Dick Hall-Sizemore

After barely three months in office, there has already been turnover among the ranks of Governor Youngkin’s appointments.

The first to go was Phil Wittmer, whom Youngkin appointed to replace Nelson Moe as head of the Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA). He left less than a month after his appointment was announced. There was no public explanation for his abrupt departure. Several days later, the no. 2 person at VITA, Jon Ozovek, announced he was leaving, making it clear that he was leaving because Moe had not been reappointed.

Yesterday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on the appointment of Jackson Miller, a former Republican member of the House of Delegates, to head the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). Not included in the article was the information that, six days after he took office, Youngkin submitted a list of agency head appointments to the General Assembly that included the reappointment of Shannon Dion Taylor as the DCJS director. (She had originally been appointed to the position by Governor Northam.) Final confirmation of the appointment occurred in early March.

Finally, the Governor also announced on Friday the appointment of Randy McCabe as State Comptroller, the head of the Department of Accounts (DOA).  McCabe previously was Deputy Comptroller and was a long-time employee of DOA. The RTD announced that David Von Moll, who had been Comptroller for 21 years, going back to Governor Gilmore, was retiring. However, Von Moll’s name was also included in that early list of appointments submitted to the legislature and subsequently confirmed. The question unasked was why a long-time agency head would agree to his reappointment and then retire a little more than a month after his appointment had been confirmed.

Did Wittmer, Taylor, and Von Moll become disenchanted with the administration soon after being appointed to their positions or did the Governor suddenly have second thoughts about his choices and force them out? Only those on the inside know the answers.

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35 responses to “Early Exits”

  1. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Nothing is as easy as it first appears.

    The chlorine in the gene pool is burning their eyes.

    1. Lefty665 Avatar
      Lefty665

      I hear that is especially bad in the shallow end.

  2. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Certainly, in the absence of any evidence, assume and report they are fleeing due to dissatisfaction. That’s fair.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      You’re correct Steve. We should assume the most-oft cited reasons for such resignations first before jumping to other reasons. Therefore I, for one, will assume they left to spend more time with their families.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      You’re correct Steve. We should assume the most-oft cited reasons for such resignations first before jumping to other reasons. Therefore I, for one, will assume they left to spend more time with their families.

    3. Lefty665 Avatar
      Lefty665

      To be expected at the political appointee level. It’s especially pervasive when the party in office changes. That’s as opposed to the B employees – We be here when you got here, we’ll be here when you’re gone.

  3. Kathleen Smith Avatar
    Kathleen Smith

    State government is hard work and a lot of laying low until the landscape every four years is changed and then revealed.

  4. Paul Sweet Avatar
    Paul Sweet

    I used to get upset about government bloat. Now I’m just thankful that government inefficiency keeps us from being governed as much as we’re being taxed for!

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I always wonder how much an efficient govt will/should cost – sort of a benchmark to judge against what we have.

      here’s one way to measure: Total State Expenditures per Capita

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba08e898a8bc1e873f727c253d79531d8338ddf41ecb0b2cc001bc50744186b5.jpg

      https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/per-capita-state-spending/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Per%20Capita%20State%20Spending%22,%22sort%22:%22desc%22%7D

  5. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I’m always amazed at just how many appointed slots there are in govt.

    surely Conservatives would want to reduce all that overpaid overhead, no?

    😉

    Youngkin could decree that every agency would have to shed 5% of their administrators, right?

    1. millennial Avatar
      millennial

      The purpose of government jobs is simple – they are sinecures to ensure a dedicated “vote bank”. The right has only barely discovered this, whereas this has been the modus operandi of the left since the 60s.

      The first step of any sensible right-wing governor would be to remove every single state employee by force, with a full pension, so long as said employees agree to never work for the state government again . Better to deliberately staff as much of the government with right-leaning people as possible and ensure party discipline down the line, broken eggs and all. Of course the left will cry bloody murder, but only because the right is not allow to do anything effective.

      For some reason the governor prefers to do his job with both his hands tied behind his back and the entire state apparatus filled to the brim with dem loyalists who hate him, but hey, to each their own!

      1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        Obviously, you know nothing about state government and how it works. First of all, most state employees are part of the classified system, which means, among other things, they cannot be fired arbitrarily, only for cause. Second, under state personnel law and rules, it takes awhile to fill a position. If all those “leftist” employees are fired, who is going to do the work while their positions are being filled. Lastly, there are quite a few employees who were hired during Republican administrations. So, I assume that, by advocating the removal of “every single state employee,” you are including them as well.

        1. millennial Avatar
          millennial

          I don’t care about the current laws. I am describing what it would take to actually change anything from a right wing perspective. (I am asking you to use a little imagination – laws can change, after all). And yes, I fully understand many of these people were hired under Republican (not necessarily “conservative”) governors; unfortunately for the commonwealth, their views were not vetted before they were hired, probably because of those pesky laws you were going on about.

          And as far as no one doing their work in the interim? Lol, I honestly think we’ll survive… what are we going to do without DGIF working for a few months?!?!?! The deer will run us over!!! What would happen if VDOT wasn’t there during an emergency? I seem to remember a certain snowstorm on 1-95…

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            this is where the wackadoodle word emerges…

            Without govt, there would be chaos and anarchy.

            and we do know – 3rd world counties with minimal “govt” do exist.

            snowstorm on I-95? How about no I-95 to start with ?

          2. millennial Avatar
            millennial

            I am very pro-government. I am not advocating getting rid of government – I’m advocating for a government run and staffed by people who actually care about the interests of conservative Virginians, a government where electing a “conservative” translates into actual change and not symbolic token gestures.

            Youngkin will likely do nothing to stop the actual tidal wave of progessive nonsense in this country, because he is unwilling to change the functional direction of the state – we need someone at the helm who can actually do that.

            Again – government is the solution, not the problem – for too long the right has misunderstood this to its own peril.

          3. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            how would you propose to accomplish this when hiring;

            ” advocating for a government run and staffed by people who actually care about the interests conservative Virginians, a government where electing a “conservative” translates into actual change and not symbolic token gestures.” ?

            what should Youngkin specifically do to accomplish this?

          4. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
            Dick Hall-Sizemore

            The inmates in the state prisons would love your suggestion. The patients in the mental hospitals would have a difficult time. And, since a new governor would be coming in during January, travelers had better hope there are not any ice storms.

          5. millennial Avatar
            millennial

            Compromise – we keep VDOC and VDOT staffed, but only the guys who actually watch prisoners or who can fix potholes/salt roads. Deal? Leadership gets a paid vacation forever and has to work in the private sector.

          6. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            So basically you do not think an administrative command function is needed? Just a bunch of workers all at the same hierarchy who do nothing but fix potholes all day without any direction as to where or when , etc? Just go find and fix?

          7. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
            Dick Hall-Sizemore

            You will also need to keep the folks who cook the meals in the prisons, provide medical care to inmates, and keep the HVAC and other systems working.

            Local governments will be in a quandry. There will be no one in state government to disburse the funds for the state share of operating the schools and reimbursing them for the salaries paid to deputies. Maybe they can float some loans until those conservative employees get hired and learn their jobs. Of course, I am not sure who will teach them their jobs because all the former employees will have been gotten rid of.

          8. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            To be fair, he does have the basic Conservative approach. He’s just more open about the details of how to have a smaller govt. 😉

          9. Timothy Watson Avatar
            Timothy Watson

            You mean the prisons and mental hospitals that can’t maintain their needed staff due to chronic mismanagement?

          10. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            well, if it were just Virginia with those issues, might agree but it’s more widespread- those jobs are tough and often don’t pay well enough to attract good quality personnel.

        2. MarcelLefebvre Avatar
          MarcelLefebvre

          Quite uncharitable to assume those things about millenial!

          You seem to be describing a rotten, bloated, bureaucratic system. I see no issue cleaning house!

          May God guide you my friend. Christ will rise tomorrow!

      2. MarcelLefebvre Avatar
        MarcelLefebvre

        Great ideas, but the republicans are too scared to actually do anything to gain power. They only make noise in the playground that the actual people in power have built for them.

      3. Lefty665 Avatar
        Lefty665

        What utter nonsense. The state (and federal) governments are mostly staffed with career employees. They do their jobs year in and year out. Administrations change, as do laws and policies. Career employees execute the laws and implement the policies.

        Elections provide for change at the top of the executive branch, and the executive branch names political appointees, agency heads, etc to govern as the elected choose. The General Assembly also provides for changes in governing philosophy and law. That is how we get conservative or liberal laws and policies. Quaint as it may seem, elections are how we change the way we are governed in both the executive and legislative branches of government.

        There certainly have been places where patronage jobs were a big prize for those elected, D.C. local government comes to mind. In my experience that has not been true in either Virginia state or Federal employment.

        I don’t want either a conservative or liberal state workforce. I want what we largely have had, a workforce that is dedicated to working lawfully for the citizens of Virginia. All of them, conservative and liberal alike.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Well, until Reagan the head of the CDC was a career professional. Ronnie replaced the GS with a political appointee. Worked very well, until it didn’t.

      1. Lefty665 Avatar
        Lefty665

        It’s been amazing, for decades the CDC was the authority on diseases. What a clown show it has been in recent years.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Political appointees wear big shoes and rubberball noses.

          1. Lefty665 Avatar
            Lefty665

            Oh, you mean those bozos:)

  6. Ron Jordan Avatar
    Ron Jordan

    They were 120 day appointments. Really nothing nefarious or unusual. The outgoing agency heads are retained for a short period while the new administration looks for replacements. VITA is really an anomaly.

  7. Timothy Watson Avatar
    Timothy Watson

    Worth noting that VITA has had repeat audit findings for not making IT service contractors comply with the terms of service contracts, compromising cybersecurity for every executive-branch agency.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      that’s been the challenge of most every top-down IT approach for organizations.

      The subordinate groups hire their own IT guys and what to do IT their own way –

      Saw this with NMCI a while back. Virtually every agency opposed standards for systems and configurations even as their machines were getting hacked.

      And to be fair, the private sector ain’t much better. I’ve
      had multiple companies inform me that their systems with my personal info has been hacked. “So sorry, better get some identity theft help”! 😉

  8. Toro Avatar
    Toro

    Nothingburger Bra

  9. James C. Sherlock Avatar
    James C. Sherlock

    Dick, the Governor makes about 900 appointments. On average, if one leaves for other climes every week, he will only lose about a quarter of them in his entire tenure.

    He has been in office 3 months.

    You name three appointees. You offer two possible reasons: “disenchantment with the administration” or they got fired.

    I offer you two more:

    1. They found they did not like government service. Many don’t, especially if they are used to moving forward with a new idea. Many of the rest haven’t been there long enough to get frustrated.
    2. They got a better offer. It happens.

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