The Vanishing Recruitments

On July 1, after failed attempts to get any response from Peter Goldmark, I contacted the Board of Natural Resources about 11 of the management positions posted on the DNR’s employment page.The announcements have since been removed. I can’t credit this as another victory for public awareness until I find out if the DNR is still moving forward with filling the positions Goldmark claimed were eliminated. More public disclosure requests to come and I’m also following up to see if Peter decided to move forward on soundproofing his office.

DNR employment page as of 9:00 PM, Saturday, July 11, 2009:

Getting The Executive Numbers Right

Scrutiny is a good thing – especially if the result is a more accurate picture of how state government managers are compensated and whether their pay increases and bonuses are in line with the compensation of rank and file employees. –Representative Larry Seaquist (link)

I overestimated the cost of the executive branch at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. It’s shy of $2 million a year at $1,890,805 with salary + benefits and breaks down like this: Two individuals from the executive division were missing from my public disclosure request. They are Marilyn Buttler and Margaret Barrett. Some follow-up is needed to find out why their salaries weren’t provided. Add these two individuals and exec at the DNR looks to be significantly more expensive than what it was under Doug Sutherland. Ironic considering Goldmark’s claim of a $600,000 savings over the next biennium because of the positions he eliminated.

When Public Awareness Wins, We All Win

Change Congress received this email from Karen Gadbois and wanted to share it:

I went to the Farmer's Market today. Strangers approached me to shake my hand. Young mothers, older folks, black, white -- people from all walks of life.

They wanted to thank me for the recent commercial where I spoke out in favor of the public option and against special interests. I think together we gave many people a voice, and I can tell we're having an impact.

Thank you for being part of this impact.
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Landrieu's opposition to the public option and her millions in special-interest money had been flying completely under the radar. But in the last few weeks, she's been bombarded with online ads, TV ads, phone calls, and tons of national and local media stories. She now knows the public is watching.

We'll be keeping an eye on Landrieu's upcoming votes and statements. But in the meantime, it's time to start planning our next target -- can you help?

Below are some senators we're considering. Please reply to this email and share your thoughts. We read every email you send.

Potential targets:

• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). He's taken over $2 million from health and insurance interests and opposes a public option. Last week, a constituent asked why he couldn't get insurance as good as the senator's. Grassley's response: If you want quality coverage, "go work for the federal government."
• Sens. Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins (R-ME). They have taken over $2 million together from health and insurance interests (Collins a tad more), and they have opposed the public option so far. Snowe consistently has advocated a "trigger" proposal that the insurance industry wants.
• Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT). He's the chair of a key Senate committee on the health care reform issue and has taken $3.9 million from health and insurance interests. He'd hinted that he may support a public option, but when his committee's draft plan came out, the Washington Post's Ezra Klein reported, "There's no public plan mentioned anywhere in the document."
• Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND). He's taken $2.1 million from health and insurance interests and has offered one of the main proposals to dilute the public option -- a local "co-op" plan. Insurers would prefer this to a strong federally backed head-to-head competitor with private insurance.
• Any of the above or none of the above. Do all of those sound like great targets? None of them? Let us know.

We'll ask our next target to choose between their special-interest contributors and the public. Just reply to this email to share your thoughts on who to target.

Thanks for reading this long email. And for helping to Change Congress.

Adam Green, CEO
Change Congress

P.S. We worked closely with groups such as Democracy for America and MoveOn during our Landrieu campaign, great partners in this fight to hold politicians accountable.

Got IT? | The Picture After The Layoffs

I am just frustrated with state government and it’s lack of doing things right and above board. Everything here is behind your back and under the table.  -from a DNR employee who survived the layoffs and asked to remain anonymous.

_____________________________________________
From: GEBHARDT, PAT (DNR)
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 8:51 AM
To: DNR DL DIV-IT
Cc: CHAMBERLIN, DEBRA (DNR)
Subject: Personnel Announcement

Please join me in welcoming Betty Stephens and Sandra Bahr back to ITD and saying goodbye to Chuck Caruthers and Deb Naslund.  Sandra will be moving into the spot vacated by Chuck on the GIS Helpdesk and Betty will replace Deb Naslund and resume  her role as GIS Project Manager.

Forest Practice’s GIS group has been decimated as a result of budget reductions.  3 or the 4 staff are new, including the lead of the group.  The GIS Migration is in a critical stage and still has a year or so to go before completion.  It was felt by both Julie Sandberg, FP Division Manager, and myself that it was in the best interests of the agency to try and bring continuity at the leadership level of the FP GIS group and the GIS Migration Project.  Given that people with the right skills were in the various positions in question, it was possible to reassign Sandra back to ITD in a GIS support role for which she is very well suited and that made it possible to return Deb to the FP GIS lead position.

That still left the GIS Migration Project manager position vacant.  Chuck has the needed skills to fill the FP Hyrdo Data Steward roll which Betty was filling and this made it possible to move Betty back to ITD and reassign her to the Migration project.

Julie and I are asking Betty, Sandra, Chuck, and Deb to stay where they are for the time being until all the paper work gets processed, which should be shortly.

This has been a long and winding road but one that has finally come to an end and restores some much needed continuity to some very critical agency business.  I don’t anticipate any more moves within ITD but I remain open to surprises and/or new information.