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Fairfax news in brief

March 28, 2012

Virginia ranked near bottom

in transparency, accountability

Virginia ranked near the bottom of states in a yearlong study released last week of transparency, accountability and anti-corruption measures.

Virginia was 47th of 50, with an “F” and a score of 55 percent, in the State Integrity Investigation, a collaborative project of the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International.

Virginia scored above the median on its civil service management and state purchasing but was near the bottom on public access to information and its ethics enforcement mechanisms, lead Virginia reporter Laura LaFay said.

“The Old Dominion is one of nine states with no statewide ethics commission, one of four states with no campaign finance limits and one of only two states [South Carolina is the other] where the part-time legislators handpick the judges before whom many of them practice law,” LaFay wrote in her recap of the study’s findings.

The project included an intensive academic review process to verify the rankings and other findings. It used a scoring rubric of 330 indicators in 14 categories to determine the rankings.

As Cait Ginley of the Center for Public Integrity noted, the study was not designed to measure actual corruption or people’s perceptions of corruption in their state. The grades are an indicator of the “risk of corruption,” Ginley said.

New Jersey had the highest score in the report because of measures enacted after some high-profile scandals in that state involving elected officials; it scored a “B.”

Stottlemyer is appointed

to airports authority board

Todd Stottlemyer, chief executive of the IT firm Acentia, has been appointed to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of directors, filling the Virginia seat previously occupied by Mame Reilly, who resigned.

The board oversees operations of Washington Dulles International and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports, as well as the Dulles Toll Road. The authority also is managing construction of the 23-mile Dulles Metrorail extension. The board includes appointees from Virginia, Maryland and the District, as well as presidential appointees.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) originally appointed Stottlemyer to the authority’s board in November, along with Caren Merrick, after Congress passed legislation expanding the size of the board and giving Virginia two additional appointees. To date, the airports authority has not agreed to seat Virginia’s additional members, citing legal advice from its counsel.

New RECenter fees take effect April 1

Sightly higher fees for use of Fairfax County RECenters and other changes to park system fees will go into effect April 1. The Fairfax County Park Authority Board approved the new fee schedule this month.

Not all park fees will change, and some were reduced or eliminated. There will no longer be a fee to use skate parks, and fees to rent some historic properties were reduced. A list and explanation of all the fee changes is available at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/feeproposal-fy12.pdf.

— Fairfax County Times