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Wex Wimpy
September 2nd 03, 07:09 PM
Sticking it to state workers

By MARTIN DYCKMAN, Times Columnist © St. Petersburg Times published
August 31, 2003

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TALLAHASSEE - The management of any sensibly run business wants its
workers to believe that they will be promoted if they work hard and
work well. This used to be the ethic in Florida state government too,
in large part because of the civil service reforms that Gov. LeRoy
Collins fought for almost 50 years ago.

But the Jeb Bush administration is quietly hanging up a sign - only
for top jobs, they insist - that says in effect, "State workers need
not apply."

A document entitled "hiring guidelines" that was handed May 7 to all
the governor's agency heads says that three or more candidates should
be considered for every position and that "at least two of the
candidates must be from outside of government."

To that extent, it resembles commonplace affirmative action policies
that require minority or female candidates to be identified for all
job opportunities. The obvious irony here is that Bush abolished
affirmative action in that traditional sense.

His new policy, however, actually creates preferences and implies
quotas.

Under the subheading, "Hiring from within," the document makes it
explicit: "On occasion a candidate from within may be the best
candidate. Remember, however, that we are looking to bring new talent
and fresh ideas into state government. Please make sure you have
exhausted external search before proceeding with internal candidates."

On occasion?

The document also said that one way to find "good candidates" would be
to ask the governor's office for a list of names. Another would be to
"network with people in your industries to find good candidates to
bring into state government . . ."

In your industries?

The policy reflects the apparent authorship of Sara Struhs, chief of
the governor's Professional Development office. When last heard of,
Struhs - the wife of David Struhs, secretary of the Department of
Environmental Protection and sister of Andrew Card, President Bush's
chief of staff - was making $20,000 a year as a part-time policy
analyst at the Florida Department of Education. She is paid $78,796 in
her new full-time position, the governor's office said Friday.

Responding to other questions, the governor's press secretary, Alia
Faraj, said by e-mail that the executive office is not checking to see
how agencies comply because the document was "merely a suggested list
of guidelines," Moreover, she said, they were intended only for
"senior management" positions.

Within the document, however, there is no explicit reference to
"senior management," but only to the importance of "management
responsibilities" in determining salaries.

However it was intended, the governor's agency heads clearly
recognized the document's potential for explosive controversy, and
closely limited its circulation. It did not turn up in a public
records request asking for several randomly selected agencies' hiring
and promotion policies. When sent a followup request that made plain
what I was looking for, three of the agencies promptly found it in
files at the chief of staff level.

"The only place I could find it was in the deputy secretary's office,"
said Catherine Arnold, press officer at the Department of Juvenile
Justice. She said also that no action was taken to carry it out.

It may be only a coincidence, but the Miami Herald reported Friday
that Jerry Regier, secretary of the Department of Children and
Families, has signed on an $82,000-a-year special assistant to the
general counsel "who identifies himself as a culture warrior for
religious conservatives." The new hire, James H. K. Bruner, most
recently a failed political candidate in New York, is not yet licensed
to practice law in Florida. It defies belief that there were no
equally qualified Florida lawyers already on the state payroll.

I am told there is nothing in the law to prohibit a bias against
promoting existing state employees. But, perhaps inconveniently for
the governor, there is a master labor contract that says "promotion
should be used to provide career mobility within the career service
system. . . . Except where a vacancy is filled by demotion or
reassignment, those employees who have applied for promotion will be
given first consideration."

The largest state employee union, the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees, may file an unfair labor charge over
the promote-from-without policy.

"It leaves you speechless at the audacity that someone would say I'm
going to develop a policy that is specifically discriminatory against
those people who have spent their lives and sometimes their lifetimes
in building up the state of Florida," says Alma Gonzalez, special
counsel to the president.

The Bush administration would contend, I am sure, that the contract
does not apply to promotions outside the career service (which it has
been aggressively shrinking). Legalities aside, however, the policy
will be widely seen as it is plainly meant: As yet another put-down of
state workers. As one more way to pack the government with ideological
carpetbaggers who know little and care less about Florida's history
and values
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/31/Columns/Sticking_it_to_state_.shtml