Lee and Paulette Albright had a few simple questions about the popular fish hatchery that abuts their farm in rural Nelson County.
Representatives of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the agency that runs the hatchery, essentially gave the couple the brush-off, no doubt expecting their concerns to fade.
Bad idea.
Couple shines light on game department
By David Hendrick / Charlottesville Daily Progress 12.30.2005
MONTEBELLO – Lee and Paulette Albright had a few simple questions about the popular fish hatchery that abuts their farm in rural Nelson County.
Representatives of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the agency that runs the hatchery, essentially gave the couple the brush-off, no doubt expecting their concerns to fade.
Bad idea.
The Albrights, soft-spoken and friendly though they may be, pursued the matter with the tenacity of pit bulls, engaging in a costly, years-long battle with the agency that unveiled an array of embarrassing revelations and led to the resignation of its director.
The whole affair didn’t need to be so circuitous.
The two retired professionals saw their government doing wrong, and while seeking to ferret out the problem, found roadblocks at every turn.
Miraculously, rather than expressing disgust at their encounters with the seamier side of bureaucracy, the couple’s faith in “the system” remains strong, if not strengthened, and they’re both delighted with changes they’ve helped spur at the department.
Indeed, Lee Albright is fond of calling the experience both “a good investment” and the civics course he never took in school.
The whole tortuous tale began with a Game and Inland Fisheries decision to close the state’s fish hatcheries to tourists. Knowing that the sites served an educational purpose and cost little in upkeep, the Albrights began to question the agency’s budget priorities.
When neither they nor neighbors received satisfactory answers from their legislators, the Albrights began to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain information the department seemed reluctant to release.
“We weren’t sure what to look for,” Lee Albright said of the initial documents they received. “But the expenses in a budget crisis didn’t make sense.”
Among the items uncovered were big-ticket charges such as an African safari hunt involving agency brass, pricey out-of-state conferences and a number of smaller items, such as high-end shotguns and payments to retrofit agency vehicles with coffee holders.
The pair continued to use FOIA to request additional documents despite the agency’s often costly copying charges. A $3,000 charge spurred one of the couple’s three lawsuits against the agency.
As the pair’s findings deepened, a whistleblower at Game and Inland Fisheries called the state’s fraud, waste and abuse hotline, causing the state to launch an internal investigation, the third such audit of the agency in as many years, the pair discovered.
Meanwhile, the Albrights began to contact media outlets with their findings.
As a steady trickle of damning information became impossible to ignore, the powerful chairman of the agency’s board of directors resigned, with the director leaving a short while later.
Throughout the ordeal, the Albrights spent days and nights in Richmond, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from their home, trying to obtain documents and attending Game and Inland Fisheries meetings.
The pair estimate that they spent about $5,000 during the ordeal.
Meanwhile, change is under way at the department. A new director with a mandate for change, Col. Gerald Massengill, has been hired, and board members are now required to post their contact information on the agency’s Web site.
Neither of the Albrights has a history of activism, and the best explanation Lee Albright has for his actions comes from his Navy days.
“I spent 36 years in the military,” he said. “In the military, someone is always responsible. When you talked with the game department, or the department of natural resources, no one was ever responsible.”
Despite their faith that the agency has turned a corner, the pair keep an eye on things, and they make regular trips to Richmond for meetings.
“This is not over,” said Lee Albright, who expects the next General Assembly to introduce measures to provide for more oversight. “We intend to see the changes through.”
According to Frosty Landon, director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, the Albrights’ quest represents a great victory.
“This is why we have a Freedom of Information Act, for citizens like Lee and Paulette to access government records and keep government honest,” Landon said. “It’s a great success story.”
At a recent meeting of the Coalition for Open Government, Lee Albright was elected as a board member.
According to Landon, the vote was unanimous.