There's an excellent feature in the Herald-Leader this morning. Ryan Alessi has been putting some things together and come up with some good food for thought. Once again though, all things point towards Fletcher being the very thing he sought to get rid of.


The 12 'Disciples' and their mission

Fletcher aides used group to 'streamline' hiring

By Ryan Alessi

HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU


FRANKFORT - The governor's office handpicked a dozen personnel representatives from across state government to hasten the hiring of Republican supporters and then monitored the activities of those so-called "Disciples," documents show.

Several top aides to Gov. Ernie Fletcher, including former chief of staff Daniel Groves, began setting up what was known as the "governor's personnel initiative" late last fall.

Officially, it was billed as a way to "streamline" the hiring process. But it also established a direct link between the governor's office and key appointees who handled personnel decisions for the nine cabinets during the first five months of this year.

At least two dozen hiring decisions and other personnel moves in that span -- mostly in the Transportation Cabinet -- have come under question by investigators looking into allegations of an "illegal patronage" scheme. Some employees were slated for transfers or firings based on political affiliations and recommendations. Others said they were passed over for jobs solely because of politics.

Fletcher's administration has denied any suggestion of criminal wrongdoing and has maintained that the personnel initiative was a series of training seminars.

But in one e-mail message obtained by the Herald-Leader, a key Transportation Cabinet representative in the initiative told the other participants that he was looking forward to doing the governor's bidding.

"As 'change agents' and 'missionaries' of the Governor, our task will not always be embraced by those around us," wrote Tim Hazlette, then deputy administrative services commissioner of transportation, in a Jan. 25 e-mail.

"But with the leadership of Mr. Turbyfill and support of Mr. Wilson, we can accomplish our mission."

Hazlette was referring to Basil Turbyfill, the head of the governor's office of personnel and efficiency, and Robert H. Wilson, deputy personnel cabinet secretary. All three have been indicted on one misdemeanor count each of conspiracy related to the ongoing hiring investigation.

Turbyfill, who reports directly to the governor and chief of staff, and Wilson coordinated the initiative meetings. By March the sessions were a weekly Wednesday afternoon routine at Berry Hill Mansion near the Capitol and later at the Old Governor's Mansion in downtown Frankfort.

While Hazlette doesn't spell out the initiative's mission in that message, other documents and e-mails show that the participants spent much of their time discussing how to strategically alter the state personnel process, as well as how to fill individual open positions in each of the cabinets.

'Initiative' called 'corrupt'

So far, the investigation into the Fletcher administration's hiring procedures has concentrated on the Transportation Cabinet, the agency that has employed six of the nine former or current officials who have been indicted.

But prosecutors recently described the "governor's personnel initiative" as an engine of a "corrupt political machine."

Fletcher called that characterization "ludicrous" and a "diatribe" by an overzealous prosecutor.

But the governor's office declined to answer questions about the initiative last week.

"Because this is related to the grand jury proceedings, it's best that we don't comment on it at this time," said Jodi Whitaker, spokeswoman for Fletcher.

Participants have been reluctant to talk about the initiative, which was sometimes called the personnel "roundtable."

Several former members didn't return phone calls last week.

Others, such as Tom Hoehner, the representative from the Economic Development Cabinet, said that they were "not at liberty to talk about it."

Much of the information about the initiative has trickled out through documents and e-mail messages filed in court or released by the state in response to open records requests.

An undated handwritten memo in a notebook confiscated from former Transportation Cabinet official Dan Druen listed main agenda items for one of the roundtable meetings.

"Cover positions for merit & non-merit for following week/projected," the note said, specifically listing an open director-level position in the Education Cabinet.

It also listed a suggestion "to eliminate internal registers," which give an inside track for a position to current employees who are looking to move up. The administration has said it is still considering such a proposal.

"Let's put together a joint memo" on that plan, Druen's notes conclude.

Druen declined to comment last week.

'Effective and accountable'

While the discussions wouldn't be considered improper on their face, prosecutors have argued that the work of personnel initiative participants was a key step in a systematic effort to hire rank-and-file "merit" employees based on politics, not qualifications as the law requires.

"These individuals would be the 'eyes and ears of the Cabinet' so that the cabinet secretaries could be freed up to do cabinet business and not have to deal with personnel," according to a court motion filed by lead prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Scott Crawford-Sutherland. He quoted from sealed grand jury testimony, including that of Pam Ritter, who recently resigned as deputy director of the governor's local outreach office, called LINK.

A Jan. 20 message that LINK executive assistant Jessica Ditto sent to all the local outreach staff members across the state described the purpose of the initiative as a way "to streamline the process and ensure that it is effective and accountable."

Ditto and the LINK staff members attended the first Jan. 6 personnel initiative training seminar, according to that e-mail.

At that time, LINK officials had for months been given the task of vetting job candidates around the state and forwarding recommendations from local Republicans, particularly for highway department jobs.

"Please go directly to the people listed as the contact," Ditto said in the e-mail regarding personnel initiative members. "Do not take the recommendations to anyone else."

As a result, longtime merit employees in each cabinet's human resources department wouldn't control hiring decisions. Some of those personnel employees who were holdovers from Demo-cratic administrations were viewed as obstructionists when it came to hiring Republicans.

"Although most merit employees are hard working, dedicated workers, in some areas merit employees are politically motivated to undermine new non-merit management," according to summary minutes from a May 13, 2004, LINK meeting.

'Disciples' emerge

It remains unclear who conceived the idea of the personnel initiative and for what specific purpose.

The groundwork for it dates back to at least November. Druen's calender, which was part of a stack of unsealed court documents, shows he had an interview with Wilson and then-chief-of-staff Daniel Groves on Nov. 15.

Personnel initiative "training" began Jan. 6 and the dozen participants met with Turbyfill and Wilson five times in the next two weeks. At some point during the Jan. 19 meeting, someone dubbed the group "Disciples of Big Personnel," in reference to the personnel cabinet, according to an e-mail from Druen to former Deputy Transportation Secretary Dick Murgatroyd.

In one meeting, Wilson even told the group that the plan to fill merit jobs with as many Fletcher supporters as possible was a defensible goal, according to prosecutor Crawford-Sutherland's court filing.

"I don't care what they say. By God we can make the argument. I'll stand up any day of the week and make the argument in front of the personnel board that this person was the right candidate," Crawford-Sutherland quoted Wilson as saying, adding that Wilson "pounded his fists on the table" for emphasis.

Even Commerce Secretary Jim Host at one point addressed the participants about a "review of hiring practices," according to a Feb. 15 meeting agenda.

Republican frustration

Still, leaders of the group continued to hear frustration from Republicans around the state who were unhappy with the speed by which the administration was hiring loyal supporters.

"Three visitors from Monroe County came -- same story -- GOP locked out, getting face rubbed in, etc.," wrote Turbyfill in a March 3 e-mail to Druen. "They came with fire in their eyes but left with smiles of hope."

Other officials who weren't part of the exclusive roundtable said that they noticed a renewed effort this spring to fill more rank-and-file merit positions.

"There were people in our cabinet who were refocused on the personnel issues and reported as I understood to Mr. Turbyfill," said Frank Miller Jr., former general counsel of the Transportation Cabinet. "I did not know who he was, only that he worked in the Capitol."

Miller said he didn't learn much about the personnel initiative until earlier this summer, after he had left transportation. He moved to a different cabinet in May before resigning from state government last month.

He said from what he has learned about the personnel initiative, there "may have been some errors in terms of crossing their T's and dotting their I's" but couldn't say if they had broken any personnel laws.

Ties between Hazlette, Cave

In addition to Turbyfill, the initiative included another member with ties to the governor's office.

Hazlette, who sent the e-mail about the mission of the initiative, cited the governor's chief of staff, Stan Cave, at the top of his rŽsumŽ's reference list when seeking a state job in 2004.

Hazlette is a longtime state police official who retired in December 2003 when Lt. Gov. Steve Pence took over the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. He didn't get a state job until December 16, 2004, two weeks after Cave took over as Fletcher's chief of staff.

Hazlette and Cave also attend the same church in Lexington, according to Hazlette's resume and the Southern Acres Christian Church Web site that lists Cave as a Sunday School teacher.

Soon after joining the cabinet, Hazlette became heavily involved in the personnel initiative alongside Druen. Both corresponded regularly with Turbyfill and Wilson about personnel strategies, according to e-mails obtained through open records requests.

Hazlette did not return several messages left at his office and home. Whitaker, the governor's spokeswoman, declined to comment on the ties between Haz-lette and Cave.

The e-mail Hazlette wrote to the initiative participants was heavily laced with religious overtones. At one point he added, "No one on earth faced more adversity than the Apostles -- we should not think we are any different."

Response

Sorry this one was pretty long but it's a good article. It details the system the Republicans tried to put in to get their people in office much faster. If you're going to do that way, you need to be a little smoother. Really it's ridiculous. I also notice Hazlette's reasoning they are persecuted because they're "Good Christians". It seems there's a logic here that deserve the job regardless of what others thing because they are good and faithful servants. Yeah... as if any of the others in these jobs weren't just as religiously devout. I hate to be break the news, but being Republican and Christian doesn't make you one of the chosen people of God. That sounds almost Jewish. Try again. It's great you've found religion but don't try to use it as a basis for your job and your political aspirations. We're a REPUBLIC...not a theocracy and we shouldn't become one.

posted by Stithmeister @ 4:48 PM
 
0 Comments:


Post a Comment

<< Home