Alexandria Natural Resources Manager Rod Simmons has been a prominent voice for environmental concerns around the city in recent years, but Simmons told ALXnow that battles behind the scenes have led him to retire after 27 years in city government.
In recent years, however, the City has gone out of its way either to prevent Rod from commenting on projects that fall within his duties as the City’s Natural Resources Manager or threaten him with being terminated for rather trivial breaches of protocol as a City employee if he does speak out. Despite his conscientious and principled public service, Rod was forced to have PEER’s (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) legal staff represent him in his efforts to do his job as the City’s natural resource manager.