While the Jindal administration has said nothing publicly, more major changes may be in the offing with the merger of departments of three major agencies as a means of further reducing the number of state employees, according to confidential state sources.
A public meeting was held two weeks ago among workers in one of the agencies to be affected by the proposed merger of human resources, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF).
The immediate goal is apparently to lay off about one-third of the staff of the agencies being merged. Initial reports indicate that DEQ and DNR will merge their human resources and information technology sections.
The move is anticipated to save about $3 million, one source told LouisianaVoice.
Other changes as yet unconfirmed have the human resources section of the Louisiana Department of Revenue (LDR) being moved under the Division of Administration along with five departments of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB).
Efforts at creating a state Environmental Protection Agency in 1972 failed and much of the enforcement of environmental violations was left to LDWF and DNR. It wasn’t until 1984 that DEQ was officially created during former Gov. Dave Treen’s administration to relieve the other two agencies of their enforcement responsibilities and moved its offices from the DNR building.
Louisiana Voice 
These consolidations and their attendant layoffs were inevitable. The only real surprise is that it took this long. When past Governors and Legislatures created new, separate, and independent departments for what seems every conceivable matter that can or possibly could affect the state rather than these matters being addressed by a department under a broad umbrella of administration, at some point the resultant teetering structure had to fall. Independent State Offices created in order that legislators could practice political patronage had to eventually end. So what we are now seeing is a budgetary crisis (both real and manufactured) serving as the impetus to apply “business” best practices of consolidation.
In fairness, Jindal is, in my opinion, correct to attempt (albeit heavy-handedly) to achieve efficiencies of scale by consolidating departments and/or departmental administrative functions such as human Resources and Information Technology.
You obviously have no idea how easy it is to rip off an agency or state that has no competent IT staff. The process works for one to three years (enough for Jindal to get out). Then costs skyrocket.
I agree with everything that you said except the comment about how he is going about reducing bloated state employment roles. He is applying classic business management principles. We do not have the luxury of foreknowledge so we must look to examples of government and business where his style of management has been similarly applied.
It is a great way to streamline business. Workers that are displaced will often turn to the government for relief. Where do government workers turn to when the government starts downsizing? What will be the drivers of the new streamlined government? Will we have riots in the streets similar to what Greece and Spain are experiencing?
The Office of Conservation, before the reorganization under Edwards, was called the Department of Conservation, is under the Department of Natural Resources and has been in existence since the early 1900’s, so this is not one of those offices that was established along the way. So when one refers to DNR, it is an umbrella that offices are under that were created long ago. At the consolation time,accounting and human resources were combined, and there were a number of long time employees that retired so there were not any layoffs. I have a vast knowledge of this Office as I worked there for nearly 40 years.
Just how many of these state workers affected by the streamlining of government voted “for” or “against” this administration? If one were to use public outrage as a gauge, I might start wondering if the vote was rigged?