Mixed Messages? State workers left wondering

Gov. Bobby Jindal officially proclaimed today, May 5, as State Employee Recognition Day – a week early, it turns out – even as administration officials testified about outsourcing state jobs and displacing state workers.

Mark Brady, chief of staff to Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, was taken to task last week by members of the Senate Finance Committee during hearings on Senate Concurrent Resolution 33. The resolution was approved in the full Senate by a vote of 33-0. It now goes to the House for concurrence.

SCR 33 directs the Division of Administration “to publicly disclose, as a part of the contracting process, the savings to be achieved by outsourcing any services currently performed by state employees and the benefits, including but not limited to health insurance and retirement benefits that the proposed contractor will be providing its employees who will be performing such services before any contract is entered into which changes the manner in which the state provides services to its citizens.”

On March 15, employees of the Office of Risk Management (ORM) learned that F.A. Richard and Associates (FARA) of Mandeville had the winning bid to take over operations of ORM, the agency that provides liability and workers compensation insurance for other state agencies.

During questioning by the Senate Finance Committee, Brady spoke globally while Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) said she preferred to speak about Louisiana. Peterson authored SCR 33, but she had two allies on the committee in Sens. Edwin Murray of New Orleans and Lydia P. Jackson of Shreveport.

Brady was grilled last Monday by the finance committee on the effect Jindal’s Streamlining Commission and its proposed privatization of various state agencies would have on state employees and their families. Two members of the finance committee who expressed support for the Streamlining Commission’s work were Sens. Jack Donahue (R-Mandeville) and Mike Michot (R-Lafayette). Both Donahue and Michot were members of the Streamlining Commission.

The committee also peppered Brady and Commission of Administration attorney Pam Perkins with questions about the validity of estimated savings from privatization. Many of the questions dealt with the fate of state employees who will be displaced by privatization.

Brady repeatedly alluded to “thinking globally” when questioned about outsourcing of state services until Peterson finally interrupted him to say she preferred to think in more limited terms, specifically Louisiana.

At one point when Brady appeared to evade a question directed to him by Peterson, she interrupted him, asking, “Why don’t you answer my question?”

Murray also had pointed questions about claimed savings from outsourcing. “Where did you get your numbers (for the projected savings)? Did you pull them out of thin air?” The Office of Risk Management is one state agency scheduled for privatization after F.A. Richard was named the top bidder with a projected five-year savings of more than $50 million.

Jackson expressed her concerns about what would happen to state employees who have years, even decades, invested in state service but who are not yet eligible for retirement. “What are we going to do about their benefits?” she asked. “What about their health insurance, their retirement?”

The three senators were persistent in their questioning with Brady being asked at one point, “What’s going to happen to these state employees down the road when you realize the projected savings aren’t going to be realized and the state has to come back in and clean up?”

Near the end of the questioning of Brady, Davis was forced to step in and try and smooth things over with the committee members whose patience appeared to be wearing thin with Brady’s attempts to debate them. “We will provide any information the committee wants,” Davis said.

An e-mail was sent to employees of the Office of Risk Management last Monday proclaiming May 5 as State Employee Recognition Day. The proclamation said in part, “Louisiana’s state employees contribute significantly to the well-being and quality of life for all citizens of our state” and that “State government is more responsive, innovative and effective because outstanding employees produce excellent work products.”

The e-mail, however, was signed by Gov. Jindal and dated May 5, which was more than a week away, leading to speculation that the message had been sent prematurely. The irony that it went out to employees of an agency scheduled for privatization was not lost on several ORM employees.

“The irony and hypocrisy are simply unbelievable,” one employee said.