Perhaps it’s only coincidence, but a trend seems to be developing in Baton Rouge and it’s not a very pretty one.
There is a condescending attitude of arrogance that permeates the Jindal administration from top to bottom and the day to day civil servants who work in the trenches are the ones who are feeling the brunt of the administration’s haughtiness.
The attack has been subtle but steady with no letup in sight.
Forget about Jindal’s campaign flyer four years ago in which he pretended to hold state employees in such high esteem (LouisianaVoice post of April 22). That was just political rhetoric that morphed into bitter irony.
State Employee Recognition Day? That was last Wednesday and for the third consecutive year, Jindal signed a proclamation in which he fawned over “dedicated state employees” even as he maneuvered behind the scenes to have legislation introduced last year to abolish Civil Service, to freeze merit pay increases for classified employees but not for unclassified employees (read: political appointees), and even as he moved to privatize everything in sight at the cost of putting mid-career employees on the streets who are not qualified for social security or Medicare. Some of those employees have life-threatening illnesses and will have no medical insurance.
One state employee, Melody Teague, was fired one day after she criticized Jindal during a forum held by the Commission for Streamlining Government. She won her job back but her husband recently evoked memories of the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” of Oct. 20, 1973, when Richard Nixon fired Archibald Cox and abolished the office of Special Prosecutor.
Tommy Teague, by all accounts, had been doing a superb job as CEO of the Office of Group Benefits. OGB went from a $100 million deficit when he took over to a $500 million surplus and the agency was paying claims within 48 hours.
But on April 15, Jindal decided that Teague was somehow standing in his way of privatizing that agency and Deputy Commissioner of Administration Mark Brady was called on to fire Teague. Unlike Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who resigned rather than carry out Nixon’s orders to fire Cox, Brady was more than up to the task and Teague was shown the door.
All that’s old news. Last week a couple more events, though minor in the overall scheme of things, nevertheless strip away that veneer of piety behind which Jindal prefers to hide. Neither event directly involved Jindal but as was said earlier, it’s the arrogance from top to bottom that makes the latest occurrences seem so typical of this administration.
Let’s take the Office of Risk Management first. This agency was privatized last year at a cost of $68 million to the state with a promise of savings of $20 million per year. The first section to go was Worker’s Comp. That was last July. Less than nine months later, the company that took over ORM, F.A. Richard & Associates (FARA) requested and got approval for a $7 million amendment, bringing the cost to $75 million.
Rep. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro) apparently wasn’t too pleased that FARA was seeking more money or that the Division of Administration approved the amended contract. He has placed ORM on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the House Appropriations Committee which he chairs.
But that’s not the story. ORM Director J.S. “Bud” Thompson sent out word to his troops on Thursday that no one from ORM was to attend the meeting.
That is in direct violation of Civil Service rules. In fact, a very recent memorandum just went out to all Civil Services employees from the Department of Civil Service that addresses that very issue.
General Circular No. 2011-009 reminds state employees that the 2011 Regular Session of the Legislature will be taken up mostly with budget issues. “As classified state employees, some of these issues may have a direct impact on you (and) about which you may wish to speak,” the circular said. “Classified employees are prohibited from engaging in efforts to support a candidate, party, or political faction in an election.
“These restrictions do not prohibit classified employees from expressing themselves either privately or publicly on issues that may be pending before the legislature.”
The circular also said state employees who attend legislative hearings must be on approved leave.
Thompson did not respond to an email inquiry from CNS about his new policy—new, because a year ago, ORM employees were allowed to attend Joint Budget Committee hearings on the privatization—but on Friday he did amend his policy to allow one employee from the agency to attend Tuesday’s hearing.
His Friday email, sent to all ORM employees, attempted to justify his decision to limit attendance. “Because of the need to continue our preparations for the July 1st transfer of handling of General Liability claims to FARA and the concern that rising river levels next week might cause us problems in accessing our office, we will allow only one employee to attend that meeting,” he said.
Other lines, or units, will not be involved in preparations for transferring the General Liability line to FARA any more than other lines were involved in last July’s transfer of Worker’s Comp to FARA. In that case, claims adjusters came to work one day and the Worker’s Comp adjusters simply were gone. No pomp, no fanfare, just gone and no one else’s work was disrupted in the least, so the General Liability excuse is a smoke screen easily recognized as such by ORM workers.
Again, though, he is in violation of Civil Service regulations; there is nothing in the regulations that allow him to restrict the number of employees who may attend.
But not to worry: streaming video of the hearing can be accessed by logging onto http://www.legis.louisiana.gov/ and navigating to the proper committee room (5). Thompson’s Friday email also instructed employees they watch the video playback at home but to refrain from viewing it at work. Of course, an enterprising employee could simply plug in his or her headphones and minimize the video and continue working on claims while listening to Thompson’s testimony.
The other event is totally void of any semblance of subtlety.
CNS received an anonymous letter on Friday that contained an email sent from the iPhone of Nick Gautreaux, erstwhile state senator from Abbeville, not to be confused with current Sen. Butch Gautreaux of Morgan City. Nick Gautreaux is the current Commissioner of the State Office of Motor Vehicles.
Dated March 17, the email was addressed to all OMV employees and consisted of only five sentences but it was the third sentence that appeared to hold true to the philosophy of superciliousness that has become the hallmark of the Jindal tenure.
“I am proud of our teams (sic) hard work this past week,” the email began. “All of you have shown a willingness to progress to a higher level of production and customer service.”
Then came that third sentence: “I must say that the individuals who continue to defy change will suffer the wrath of my management team.”
He closed by saying, “I want everyone to know that I have an open door policy. Thanks for the hard work.”
It’s pretty evident that Gautreaux didn’t go to the Zig Ziglar School of Employee Relations. If he did, he was absent on Motivation Day.
Defy Change? Management wrath? Could OMV be next? Holy Privatization, Batman!
Louisiana Voice 
Anyone who is fed up with the bullying by the Jindal administration is invited to join our march Saturday may 14 at 9 a.m. leaving from the governors mansion ending at the Capitol. We are marching to protest this administration’s assault on hard-working state employees and retired Workers who are dedicated to public service. Look up our group up at Facebook group “fight back Louisiana”
you can expect the administration, and most likely the governor himself, to go on the attack pretty soon… one thing i’ve learned in my life is that arrogance attacks; it seldom backs down, especially when wrong
state workers who don’t vote en bloc against politicians who want to destroy them should not be surprised when it happens
True knowledge and competence is marked by respect and humility. The arrogance we see in this administration is born of the obvious ignorance and disrespect they hold for all things Louisianian. They simply are following the scripts of their international “disaster capitalist” bosses who desire to turn this state into their latest cash cow. Ignorance is the prime ingredient of arrogance.
I agree with you, but I have a question . . . I thought employees hired after 1986 have Medicare coverage. I am a “mid-career” employee as well. Can you please clarify who ISN’T paying into Medicare? This could cause undue alarm. Thanks!!!!
Employees hired before 1986 do not qualify for Medicare but don’t take my word for that. Call a representative of Group Benefits and they will be happy to explain it for you.
make sure you call Group Benefits BEFORE 1/1/2012. The new RFP for financial analyst indicates they expect the privatization to take place by then. The RFP on OGB’s website is for a financial analyst to evaluate the lines of business and other services provided by OGB, and negotiate a sale.
you are right Tom; I began proudly working for the state in 1973 and had to disable retire 2001. I and many of my hard fellow workers made the State civil service our career path. We put our heart into our jobs. Yes, we had paid leave that we EARNED and took a lower paying job with the State, but we did it proudly and humbly. So the thousands of state employees who worked for the state prior to 1986 could not afford to catch up the Medicare/Social Security taxes so we were grandfathered without the right for eligibility in either entities. I will only have OGB for my medical insurance till the day I die. I will NEVER be eligible for social security or Medicare. THERE IS NO PRIVATE COMPANY OUT THERE THAT WILL GIVE ME PREMIUMS OR BENEFITS AS OGB DOES. OGB was a state law made in 1979 to stop governors and administrations from taking possession of the funds of OGB and mismanaging the funds and not paying claims. PLEASE STOP THE GOVERNOR from privatizing our benefits. Please tell me what I can do. I have contacted my legislature numerous times. This cannot happen. Doesn’t Jindal care what he is doing to us????
That means they’re pretty confident that the house and senate subcommittees that have oversight re: any contract are in their pocket… the main fight at the moment is to have hb 32 removed pronto… I realize the gov. thinks he has a right to OGB’s surplus even w/out this bill, but the fact that it was introduced tells me that he doesn’t want to take any chances.
As for the medicare question, my understanding is that even today some state employees (maybe some teachers?) haven’t accumulated the quarters needed for medicare… this isn’t really an OGB question; all employees can check their deductions in leo to see what goes where or check with their local social security office.
I completely disagree that you are the voice of Louisiana. I would consider your comments as a hostile attack of Commissioner Nick Gautreaux. Approximately 1000 Louisiana business owners and TAXPAYERS were given the opportunity to attend a conference where Commissioner Gautreaux and his staff provided extremely beneficial information to the audience. He is a breath of fresh air to state government with his philosophy that state workers should actually earn their paycheck by providing service to Louisiana citizens in a compassionate and expedient manner. I understand this a novel concept by many state employees but nonetheless an expectation of the newly appointed Commissioner. He repeatedly acknowledged his staff and the amount of knowledge they have in relation to the motor vehicle and driver licensing laws of Louisiana. He held them with the highest regards and pointed out that he felt truly blessed to have the opportunity to represent his staff of over 600 statewide. I am sure his comments hit home for the employees that expect a paycheck without having to earn it. In closing, my LOUISIANA VOICE will assume your source of this information fits into that category.
Don’t be misled into confusing the voice with a voice. LouisianaVoice has never claimed to represent the voice and/or opinions of everyone.
But his email was more than a little heavy-handed by anyone’s standards.
Moreover, LouisianaVoice tried on three separate occasions to contact Commissioner Gautreaux before publication of our post but he never saw fit to return our calls.
Lynn, just because Commissioner Gautreaux is the head of OMV does not give him the right to threaten his employees with “his wrath” if they do not embrace his change. He needs to understand that these employees have worked longer than he has been appointed over OMV. He needs to work with his employees instead of trying to bully them into submission. They are human beings. With any job there is a method to get rid of unproductive employees. Threatening and bullying is not one of the methods.
Typically in private industry the method utilized to “get rid of unproductive employees” is to walk up to them and say “you are fired”. I am no expert in the civil service arena but I have heard over the years that it is extremely difficult to remove a civil service employee just because they are unwilling to perform at the level we as customers expect especially when we have to visit the DMV. I personally hate having to wait in a long line. Maybe you could recommend he move all the defiant employees that need time to slowly adjust and adapt to higher customer levels to your DMV office. Then YOU can threaten those employees that you are going to call Commissioner Gautreaux to get them to help you before the office closes for the day. Or maybe you could just come back tomorrow and the next day and the day after that until they FEEL like waiting on you. You keep that patience coming and enjoy your days at the DMV. My vote goes to the newly appointed Commissioner and his willingness to raise the bar on customer service. Whatever he is doing must be working. I got my drivers license renewed yesterday in less than 15 minutes and the employees were smiling at my DMV.
Thank you Senator Nick Gautreaux,
For creating more jobs for others around Vermilion parish. You have done so by causing a ruckus at the place I worked for and getting me fired from my current job because I gave you no special treatment. My apologies for not realizing how much more important you are than every other resident from Louisiana. By informing the local newspaper and radio stations I plan to make sure that everyone knows to treat you as royalty because you believe you are better than everyone else.
Sincerely,
A Financially Struggling College Student That Believes Everyone Should Be Treated Equally