Louisiana Voice

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—If you believe you’ve done a good job at work and would like a nice bonus, you might get in touch with Gov. Bobby Jindal or Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater.

Never mind that times are tough, that unemployment is up, or that state classified personnel have not received a merit increase going on three years now.

Heck, even if you think you deserve a bonus just for showing up at work, you might place a quick call to Baton Rouge.

For that matter, if you’re taking college courses or taking on additional duties at work, you may already be a winner.

While the Jindal administration has been trying to cut the number of employees on the state payroll and continues to put the squeeze on employees by denying pay increases, several employees received around $250,000 in bonuses in the past year, according to records provided by the Louisiana Office of Civil Service.

The State Department of Children and Family Services paid several classified employees $132,184 in rewards and recognition bonuses. Many of those received multiple bonuses for taking on emergency preparedness duties.

Regional administrator Catherine Michiels received more than $11,000 in five separate payments over and above her $90,000 salary for agreeing to be a lead area manager on emergency preparedness, according to a spokesman for the agency.

The Division of Administration (DOA) paid out nearly $90,000 in payments to employees on top of their regular salaries to help upgrade the state’s computer systems.

But wait. Wasn’t it just a short while ago that Jindal admonished state employees and state agencies quit whining and to “do more with less” just before he left on yet another of his frequent out-of-state fund raisers?

In a departure from what has become a familiar routine at DOA, division spokesman Michael DiReso said the administration decided to pay employees extra to take on the project in favor of hiring outside help. The Jindal administration has demonstrated a propensity to hiring contract workers but decided against that in Rainwater’s agency.

Ray Stockstill, an unclassified employee, received $9,000 over three pay periods in December of 2010. Rainwater said he made the decision to pay Stockstill in addition to his $180,000 salary because Stockstill was needed during the recent fiscal crisis and difficult budget process.

“The reality is Ray is 67 years old,” Rainwater said. “There was a possibility of him considering retirement.”

At 180 grand per? That’s only $20,000 less than we paid President Bill Clinton to walk around with a little black briefcase with which he could launch a nuclear war.

At any given time in state government, there are hundreds of employees who are “considering retirement,” but because Stockstill works for Rainwater, he apparently warranted special consideration over others “considering retirement.”

Rainwater said Stockstill was instrumental in helping win passage of a state operating budget that spared health care and education from drastic cuts. “Ray’s a very strong leader,” Rainwater said. “He’s a good negotiator.”

But wasn’t that his job? What’s wrong with tossing a good ol’ “attaboy” his way, something that other rank and file civil service employees find missing from the governor’s repertoire these days?

He said he offered Stockstill the lump-sum payment as an incentive to persuade him to remain with the administration for another year. He now plans to retire in November—unless, of course, another surplus is in the offing.

Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola Warden Burl Cain received $14,872 and Dixon Correctional Institute Warden Steve Rader received more than $11,000 for “regional warden duties.”

Department of Corrections Pam Laborde said the wardens did not receive lump sum bonuses but that they were added to their pay every two weeks.

Well, that certainly softens the blow to employees who have gone without raises while the costs of fuel, food, utilities, college tuition and other commodities have continued to rise.

Laborde said the regional warden concept dates back four years. Cain and Rader help oversee other parts of the prison system, she said.

Again, we refer you to Jindal’s “DMWL” (Do More with Less) obsession as the phrase applies to rank and file workers.

State Rep. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he would not have made the payments while at the same time talking about budget cuts. “I certainly would have handled it a different way,” he said.

That seems logical but what is logical does not policy make with this administration. Jindal preaches that because of budgetary constraints, all must share the pain but in the final analysis, pain-sharing appears to be doled out on a somewhat selective basis. Ask the bonus recipients sometime if they adequately shared the pain.

The administration finally got around to making it official. State agencies were specifically prohibited last year from granting merit raises to the great unwashed, as the administration seems to think of them. We prefer to call them what they are: state classified employees.

Before that, it was strictly by subterfuge—smoke and mirrors, if you will.

It was during the tenure of former Commissioner of Administration Angéle Davis that word came down to agencies under the DOA umbrella that the method of grading employees’ performance on annual professional performance ratings (PPRs) was to be altered.

Oh, the change was subtle, to be sure, but it was change nonetheless and its effects were immediate. The word came directly from DOA. Supervisors and managers were told privately—conveniently, nothing was put in writing—that they were strongly encouraged not to give ratings of 4.0-4.5 (the highest rating, for “outstanding”) or even 3.5-4.9 (exceeds expectations). A rating of, 2.5-3.49 simply means an employee “achieves expectations,” but supervisory personnel were verbally discouraged from awarding anything higher than a 2.0, which would automatically make the employee ineligible for a merit increase.

There will be official denials from the administration, of course, but too many supervisors—all independent of one another—have shared this information with LouisianaVoice for there not to be more than a grain of truth to the story.

After all, they had nothing to gain from revealing this unwritten policy. All they gained was the ability to look their employees in the eye and themselves in the mirror.

But certainly no bonus.