UVa responsible for Pat Michaels.

1. “It will still be a state climatologist office under AASC [certification], it just won’t be under the auspices of the governor anymore,” Wood said. “Perhaps we might consider calling it the ‘state climatologist at the University of Virginia’ or something along those lines.”

   […]

   Michaels himself said he thought the Kaine administration’s letter should settle the recent questions about whether he was subject to political removal.

   “I think the letter speaks for itself,” Michaels said. “It’s pretty definitive.”

   […]

   Michaels should refer to himself as the “AASC-designated state climatologist,” the Aug. 17 letter states, adding that his office would be the “state climate office, as authorized by that same group.”

   […]

   Zieman said he thinks by the time Michaels returns to UVa, if not before, the recent controversy will have long since passed.

   “I suspect we’ve heard the last of it,” Zieman said.

   It sounds to me like the battle was won but the war was lost. From the article it seems as though UVA has no intention of doing any more than the Govenors letter specifically states, and the wording changes to the title really seem very minor.

   Perhaps VA Tech should put up one of their proffessors to AASC certification so they to could use the title: “AASC-designated state climatologist,”

2. It sounds to me like the battle was won but the war was lost.

   On the contrary — this opens the door for the real work.

   The story that started all of this is that Pat Michaels is accepting money from power companies. He’s not allowed to do that if he’s UVa’s state climatologist. He’s also not allowed to do that if he’s Virginia’s state climatologist. But each claimed he wasn’t their problem, so he couldn’t be held to the ethical guidelines that each entity uses to prevent that sort of impropriety.

   Now that he’s been claimed by UVa, it should be a relatively simple matter to demonstrate that he’s violating UVa’s ethical standards.

3. “AASC-designated state climatologist.” still has the sound of ‘state climatologist’ to me.

   The way the progress article read to me was that- a) the authority for him resides with UVA. b) he still gets to keep some semblance of the title ‘state climatologist’ and c) UVA has absolutely no intention of doing anything about him.

   The article still reads that way to me. However now I understand your point.

4. How about changing his title to “AASC-designated Virginia climatologist”? Still ambiguous, ridiculous but with that big, fat UV[irginia]a stamp. And it’d still allow Mr. Michaels to receive power company contributions without immediate retribution from either the state or The University. Kidding. I agree with you, Waldo: I think the letter very clearly states whose ethical guidelines are being violated, and as a graduate of their EnviSci department, I can only hope UVa acts accordingly.

5. So how does this all come into play with the supposed $90k he was getting per year as “State Climatologist”?

6. The problem is that the AASC DOES NOT designate or certify state climatologists. Another issue is that if you read the letters, the state is not about to come up with another dime. Since UVa has cut the funding strings to the state, they will have to foot the bill. Wanna bet?

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