Louisiana Voice

Anyone who didn’t think the fix was in before the meeting ever convened had only to attend Wednesday’s meeting of the State Civil Service Board to realize that the outsourcing of the Office of Group Benefits was a done deal and the meeting itself a mere formality.

Anyone who thinks the Department of Civil Service has not become a toothless tiger had only to observe the manner in which the commission rolled over and let the governor’s proxy, i.e. Division of Administration (DOA) rub its tummy until the docile feline was once again asleep.

Oh, sure, the vote was close, 3-2, with members Curtis Fremin and Sidney Tobias voting no on the proposal by Gov. Piyush Jindal to issue a contract to Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) which will eliminate 177 positions, 121 of which are actually filled. Voting in favor of validating BCBS’s campaign donations to Jindal and his wife’s foundation were Commission Chairman David Duplantier, John McClure, and Scott Hughes.

Absent and not voting were commissioners Lee Griffin and Kenneth Polite.

Fremin and Tobias apparently were less than enamored by the smooth talking mouthpieces for Piyush as reports filtered out of the meeting that there had been considerable disagreement among commission members in the hours leading up to the meeting.

If those discussions prior to the regular meeting involved a full quorum (four members), then it would have constituted a violation of the state’s open meeting laws.

But that’s no big deal; the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has already set the precedent for ignoring that pesky little law that is of little or no consequence to this administration.

Accountable? Transparent? Open?

What a crock.

The commission majority on Wednesday apparently overlooked the Civil Service Department’s mission which is “to provide human resource services and programs that enable state government to attract, develop and retain a productive and diverse workforce that excels in delivering quality services to the citizens of Louisiana.” (emphasis ours.)

DOA and OGB officials were given time to explain in detail their reasons for wanting to outsource the Preferred Provider Organization which has accrued a $500 million surplus over the past six years but attorney J. Arthur Smith, who represented about 100 employees, was cut off in the middle of his presentation.

When Smith later attempted to respond to what he said was incorrect information provided by DOA, he was cut off sharply by Duplantier who snapped, “This was submitted in April and we just receive a three-inch thick stack of paper from you on Monday. This is not a debate and you have had your time.”

While Smith did, in fact, submit a thick stack of supporting documentation, including reports by two political scientists, and several publications showing problems with privatizing governmental functions, DOA’s complete proposal was contained in an eight-pate Power Point presentation that did little to evidence any real financial advantage of turning over the PPO and other claim services to BCBS.

At one point in the proceedings Wednesday, commission member McClure uttered the most curious statement since then-Rep. M. J. “Mert” Smiley, Jr. inquired of a state official if there were some way in which she could forbid employees from leaving her agency.

In the middle of discussion about whether or not the commission would approve the layoff of the 121 employees, McClure said, “Wisdom should be left to the political arena and not to us.”

Perhaps indicative of the way in which state agency heads across the board have capitulated to Piyush was the casual manner in which Charles Calvi Jr., chief executive officer of OGB (the third CEO since the administration first floated the idea of privatization/outsourcing a little more than a year ago), spoke of his employees who will soon be on the street.

Sixty-two of the 121 are eligible for retirement, he said.

Oh, good. That makes everything okay with them.

As for the others, he told the commission that they could avail themselves of training assistance from the state or pursue jobs with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

“It is our hope that they find work,” he said.

That sounds vaguely reminiscent of another agency head who, in announcing to his employees that they were being outsourced, smiled as he informed them, “I still have my job.”

What went unsaid, of course, was if agency heads want to continue at their jobs, there had best be no dissenting opinions voiced.

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