Louisiana Voice

The state continues to face a severe budgetary crisis, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services has yet to approve the controversial state hospital privatization plan submitted by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-Iowa, R-New Hampshire, R-Everywhere but Louisiana) and the proposed changes to plans offered by the Office of Group Benefits have state employees and retirees understandably concerned, afraid and boiling mad.

But you have to hand it to Commissioner of Administration Kristy Kreme Nichols: she has her priorities. She knows what’s important and she’s not about to deviate from the course she has set.

Kristy is nothing if not competitive and she is determined to be a winner—even to the point of strong arming agency directors.

The Louisiana Marathon is scheduled for Jan. 16-18, 2015, and Kristy has a bet with Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Kathy Kliebert (who also is facing the same problem with fed approval of the infamous hospital deal) and Kristy is determined to win.

On Sept. 12, as the OGB open enrollment controversy was brewing, she sent out an email blast to “Team DOA-OTS (Division of Administration-Office of Technology Services) in which she said:

“Wondering how Team DOA compares to Team DHH? Well we’ve got a website for that! Indeed she does: http://www.thelouisianamarathon.com/doa/

(No word what the cost was of setting up the web page in terms of time and salaries to IT personnel.)

“The figures will be updated daily,” she continued. “As of now, we’re beating DHH at nearly a five to one ratio of runners!”

“Let’s keep up the momentum and reach our goal of 200! So recruit! Recruit! Recruit! And beat DHH!

“Remember! Our next big challenge is being worked up now and the reward will be well worth the wait, a BBQ with a surprise location! All participants who are registered by Oct. 15 will be eligible to attend.”

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The day before that motivational message went out to all DOA employees, another email blast went out informing anxious DOA employees that the DOA team recruited “upwards of 70 DOA employees” for the first Marathon Health and Wellness Luncheon and Competition. “We also set a goal of recruiting 200 people to represent the Division for the big race,” she said.

“Today’s winners were based on percentage and total recruits,” she continued. “First, I think it should be made known that my office (emphasis Kristy’s) won both categories with a 55 percent participation rate and a total of 18 recruits. However, we will concede our casual dress days to Human Resources and OTS. HR reached a participation rate of 23 percent and OTS wins the overall recruitment with 11 runners.”

While she complimented OTS on one hand, she also said, “It should be mentioned that while OTS wins with 11 runners, there are 780 employees in the section. Come on OTS!”

Our sources on the seventh floor of the Claiborne Building tell us that Kristy Kreme has taken steps to ensure her legacy as DOA Commissioner by ratcheting up the pressure on agency directors. That pressure, which borders on a mandate, requires directors to “encourage” employees to participate in this critical competition that is all but certain to eclipse the Saints’ 2010 Super Bowl championship or LSU’s national championships of 2003 and 2007.

That would certainly offset the lack of pay increases over the past five years and improve employee morale.

And to think, all this time we believed Kristy Kreme was devoid of compassion.