RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Employment Commissioner Ellen Marie Hess no longer appears on the state agency's website.
A spokesperson for new Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin confirmed on Tuesday that Hess was no longer with the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC).
Change at the VEC, following a challenging two years for the agency, was among Youngkin's campaign promises.
As thousands of Virginians left jobless in 2020 due to the pandemic attempted to collect unemployment benefits from the VEC, the agency could not keep up with the sudden demand.
In 2021, the General Assembly’s watchdog agency, Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), found the VEC was in need of more oversight and assistance.
“The Virginia Employment Commission is right at the top of my list, so I wasn’t surprised to by the JLARC study, and we’re going to work,” Youngkin said in an interview with CBS 6 following his election win. “We’re going to need new ways of doing things. We’re going to need a change management system to deliver results. We’re going to have metrics, we’re going to measure against those metrics and we’re going to deliver outcomes.”
Earlier this month, Youngkin named George “Bryan” Slater his pick for secretary of labor.
That's a Cabinet role that will involve overseeing the VEC overhaul.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
