Today's Virginian-Pilot (which is oddly not available online... sorry) reports the strange tale of an investigation into the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which following a state audit in May 2005, was a state agency outed for its "waste, cronyism and misuse of state property." State police investigated the charges and submitted a report in July 2005 to then AG Judith Jagdmann.
Dan Hoffler of Armada Hoffler, a bigtime developer down here in the Beach, is also the former chairman of said game agency. Hoffler, the big man himself and Armada Hoffler, the company, each kicked in $12,500 to AG Bob's AG campaign. Fancy that!
AG Bob gets himself inaugurated in January 2006 and poof! the investigation goes bye-bye. He contends that he pawned it off on his deputy AG Bill given the conflict-of-interest and all, but now as the VP discovers some of the original whistleblowers are like starting to wonder "Wha' happened?" Mims is mum of course.
Turns out that the focus in citing abuses in the 2005 audit of the agency centered on four particular individuals who have since left the agency. Take a wild guess as to who one of those individuals might be. Hmmm...
"I'm shocked", says Hoffler to the VP. "I haven't spoken to anyone about it in almost three years."
Well, maybe only his safari buddies know for sure. The fab four, which incidentally included the agency's director Col. Terry Bradbery, went on a two-week African safari in September 2004. Hoffler picked up the tab for the trip, but apparently $11,532 for hunting gear went on the state credit card. But, hey, what are friends for anyway?
Hopefully, the Virginian-Pilot stays on top of this story.