Charlottesville City Counselor Kevin Lynch asks if there really is such thing as a "Virginia State Climatologist", and if the position is real, the conflict of interest Pat Michaels has taking money from oil and energy interests.

So, the backstory here is that at UVA we have a professor who is a global warming denier and who has the title of Virginia State Climatologist. Recently he made the news when he ran into funding trouble and was soliciting money from energy interests to continue his "research" into the fraud of global warming science.

Now he's got a problem. Our very own City Counselor has done what the press never seems to do well, he started checking facts rather than taking them for granted. And we're learning some interesting things.

Does Virginia really have a State Climatologist?
And if not, why are taxpayers spending $91,530 a year for the Virginia State Climatologist Office?

As reported in the Progress a couple of days ago, there is a difference of opinion between the University of Virginia and the Governor's office as to who is responsible for the Office of the Climatologist. According to the Governors office, the Climatologist is not a gubernatorial appointee, while according to the University the position of State Climatologist is a gubernatorial appointment.

This matters of course, because using his Office of State Climatologist, Dr. Patrick Michaels publishes some rather controversial opinions on global warming and associated phenomena - opinions that seem to be very closely related to those he promotes as a private consultant to coal and power industries. This would appear to be a conflict of interest, however at this time, neither the University or Governor's office will claim responsibility for Dr. Michaels' actions as State Climatologist. Thus the determination of whether or not a conflict exists is left to editorial page writers.

The lack of oversight by the Governors office or University raises a much more serious question: If the State Climatologist is accountable to neither, than who appointed him and by whose authority has his office been drawing approximately $2.5 million dollars of taxpayer money over the past 26 years?

Having reviewed the documentation available thus far, I believe that the Governor's office is right - the Climatologist is not a gubernatorial appointee. He was in fact given a letter of appointment by Governor Dalton in 1980, but his appointment does not appear to have been legitimate, nor was it ever recorded with the Secretary of the Commonwealth or with NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

Now this is bizarre. He's the Virginia State Climatologist because 26 years ago a governor gave him a letter of appointment, and he's held that as a lifetime position, with no oversight ever since.

In 1980, the University recruited the current Climatologist, Dr. Patrick Michaels, to become the permanent State Climatologist. On July 8th, 1980, Governor Dalton sent a letter of appointment to Dr. Michaels in which he states: "It is my pleasure to appoint you as State Climatologist." Note there is no "acting" designation. This is the letter for which the University bases its claim that the Climatologist is a Gubernatorial appointment. However, no action establishing the State Climatologist Office had been taken (nor has such action been taken since). Thus I do not believe Governor Dalton had the statutory authority to issue the letter. Furthermore, only the University seems to have had a copy of this letter. There was no copy at the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office, nor was there any copy in Governor Dalton's personal records of appointments and memos. Unlike the previous appointment, no copy of the letter was filed with NCDC. The result of this is that even if there were some possible legitimate basis for the letter of appointment, no Governor since Dalton has had any inkling that there ever was an appointment, and thus there has been no reappointment of the State Climatologist in 26 years.

There is also the mention that our very own bigot George Allen may be responsible for this guy maintaining this totally non-existent position, despite no good statutory reason for it. Very interesting no? The conflict of interest story is also very interesting, and I think, raises questions that may be relevant to an honor code inquiry. Professors have to obey it too right? I guess we can give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he's just confused about how his job exists, and that he hasn't just been riding a single appointment for 26 years with no statutory basis. Who knows, maybe it will turn out his appointment is somehow a crazy, unlikely loophole in state appointments. Either way, it's time to replace him if Kaine has the authority, and if he's just a UVA professor giving himself a title, and claiming government authorities authorized it, then, well, time to have a talk about how honest that is.

Finally, who else has been thinking about Office Space throughout this story? Doesn't this remind you of Milton? The guy who was laid off years before but just kept showing up to work?


Caption: Virginia State Climatologist Pat Michaels