Daniel A. Hoffler resigned as chairman of the state's embattled Department of Game and Inland Fisheries yesterday, the first apparent casualty of a roiling controversy over the use of state credit cards by agency officials to equip an African safari that he led last year.
Hoffler referred obliquely, but not directly, to the furor over the safari and other criticisms in his resignation letter to Gov. Mark R. Warner, who appointed him to the game board three years ago.

"Recent developments regarding the department have caused me to conclude that it is in the best interest of the agency and those individuals it serves that I now leave the board," he wrote.

Hoffler's resignation will take effect on Thursday at the conclusion of a board meeting that is expected to showcase a sharp division over the board's leadership and the agency's direction. The board also is expected to act on recommendations of a committee that is considering changes in agency procurement policy, including the use of state-issued credit cards.

The board directly oversees the administration of the game department, which manages the state's wildlife and regulates hunting, fishing and some boating across the state.

Warner accepted the resignation with praise for Hoffler's "deep and abiding commitment to Virginia wildlife, the environment, and outdoor recreation," and credited him for making progress at the agency.

The governor is expected to name a replacement quickly to complete the rest of Hoffler's term, which ends in mid-2006, said Ellen Qualls, Warner's press secretary.

Qualls said the governor will not comment on the controversy over the credit-card use and other allegations against the department's leadership until after the state's internal auditor completes an investigation into a complaint last fall that led to revelations about the safari.

Hoffler, a wealthy developer and avid big-game hunter, arranged for the safari in Zimbabwe as a state-sponsored trip for department officials to see how conservation and game-management programs work in the African country.

The department's executive director, William L. Woodfin, and two of his top deputies, Maj. Michael Caison and Lt. Terry Bradbery, planned to accompany the chairman and used state credit cards to buy more than $12,000 in equipment for the trip.

The Times-Dispatch first reported the expenditures in an article on Dec. 25.

The month before they left, however, Secretary of Natural Resources W. Tayloe Murphy Jr. told game officials that the state would not sponsor the trip or pay any expenses. The three staff members used personal vacation time, and Hoffler paid most of their travel expenses.

They did not repay the credit-card charges for the equipment, but Hoffler and other members of the game board privately repaid the money that had been charged to the state credit cards. The three staff members do not serve on the board.

Also, a review of spending records published this week by The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk showed that officials regularly traveled to conventions, bought expensive sporting goods and exceeded limits on their state-issued charge cards.

From January 2003 to February 2004, department leaders traveled to six national conventions, including trips to Las Vegas and Reno, Nev. In most cases, the same four officials made the trips: Hoffler, Woodfin, Bradbery and Caison.

Nineteen department employees exceeded their state-imposed monthly limits, many repeatedly. A July 2004 statement showed Bradbery's assistant had charges of $10,132 despite a $2,000 limit on her card.

The spending occurred at a time when the Warner administration had ordered state agencies to prepare budget reductions of up to 15 percent. In response, the department delayed repairs, cut programs and laid off 100 part-time workers.

Pressure on the department has continued to mount. Two former board chairmen recently called for Woodfin to resign or be fired, and urged the board to replace Hoffler as chairman.

Woodfin, a longtime state employee who has led the agency since 1994, had no comment on Hoffler's resignation last night. Murphy, the Cabinet secretary responsible for the game department, said yesterday, "Notwithstanding the recent publicity [involving Hoffler] I know that his dedication to the department is both genuine and sincere."

The secretary called Hoffler's decision to resign "further evidence of the fact that his commitment to the maximum effectiveness of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is his primary concern."

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Sa ... sicArticle

Now if Hoffler would just stop developing everything in Tidewater. Everywhere you look they are building. Knocking down trees left and right.

I said it before, and I'l say it again. I hope there's an accountability chapter to this story. I think Virginia taxpayers and sportsmen have been tken advantage of by these people and they should be held accountable, not just scolded and sent on their way.
After all, us poor common folk would be jailed for such offenses, right?
BB

I agree with you 100% Rhino.

I'm with you also Rhino.

After the talk of how the Governor stole the money from VDGIF, how we need to raise hunting license fees and having to lay off employees

Heck all we needed to do was stop the excessive spending going on in the upper tier by the looks of things.