8,000 staff members at ODJFS might or might not be replaced

Toll of transition: State workers sweating it out
Many await word on government jobs
Candisky, Catherine, Alan Johnson, James Nash and Mark Niquette.
Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 4, 2007.

Will they have a job Monday or will they be home watching Oprah?

As Gov.-elect Ted Strickland and four other new state officeholders prepare to take over next week, many of the nearly 8,000 people who could be replaced are still waiting for that answer.

Many may follow Jon Allen’s lead. "I'’ll keep coming until somebody tells me not to," quipped Allen, who has worked under seven directors during 10 years at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

There’'s no pattern to the employment roulette that’s causing panic in the suites.

In the attorney general’s office, for example, many of the nearly 1,300 employees have had to formally reapply for their jobs or quit. In the secretary of state’s office, all applicants were required to write about how they would improve the office.

Like thousands of other state workers, Allen submitted a resume to Strickland'’s transition team in hopes of keeping his communications job. Strickland has appointed a new director for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and seven other agencies, but other high-ranking officials are awaiting their fates.

"I knew this day was coming. I took this job 7½ years ago, knowing that there would eventually be an end to it," said Scott Zody, a deputy natural resources director and one of 38 permanent unclassified workers.

Like Allen, Zody has given a resume to the new administration. "Can (not knowing) be tough on you emotionally? At times it can be. I’'ve had more melancholy days in the last month than I’ve had in the last seven years, but you work through it."

There’s a lot on the line: more than 4,700 unclassified employees with salaries totaling $228 million annually are appointed by the governor; another 3,000 with a payroll of $177 million are controlled by other statewide officeholders, the judiciary and the legislature.

More than 3,400 people from both inside and outside the state have submitted resumes for jobs so far, according to records released yesterday by Strickland’'s transition team.

While most state employees are "classified" and have civilservice job protection, the unclassified employees serve "at the pleasure" of the appointing authority - the governor, the attorney general, secretary of state and others.

Jon Allison, chief of staff for outgoing Gov. Bob Taft, sent out a memo yesterday clarifying the employment situation for cabinet directors and other upper-level unclassified staffers. Allison said he met with John Haseley, who will be Strickland’'s chief of staff, and that all cabinet members will be told whether they are being replaced or retained as acting director.

Keith Dailey, a spokesman for Strickland, said that will be done by the time Strickland takes office Monday. The larger group, about 4,700 unclassified employees under the governor’s control, should report to work Monday unless they are told otherwise as the transition continues, Allison advised.

Throughout the state’s vast bureaucracy, hundreds of employees have asked to move from the vulnerable unclassified jobs to protected civilservice positions. Records from the Ohio Department of Administrative Services show a 16 percent increase in the number of such transfers in 2006 compared with the previous year.

Not all transitions are going smoothly. In the secretary of state’s office, for example, about 50 of the 63 unclassified employees have been told by incoming Secretary Jennifer Brunner that they will be replaced.

But no separation agreement has been reached for those employees. That means they would have to show up for work Monday and be fired by Brunner, said Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for outgoing Secretary J. Kenneth Blackwell.

Brunner spokesman Patrick Gallaway said that won'’t be necessary and that Brunner is communicating with all employees before Monday. Gallaway said Blackwell’s office hasn’t provided all the transition documents or other accommodations that Brunner requested.

LoParo denies that.

Gallaway also said Blackwell moved some employees into classified or protected status -including some after the election.

LoParo said that wasn’t done to protect workers. Attorney general-elect Marc Dann, a Democrat taking over from Republican Jim Petro, told employees in early December that they should submit resumes if they intend to keep their jobs.

Petro did not do the same when he took over from fellow Republican Betty D. Montgomery four years ago.

"This is a complete change of administration," said Dann’s spokesman, Leo Jennings III. "Marc has a different philosophy, a different set of principles in office."

Officials in Petro’s office said the atmosphere is thick with anxiety as some staffers receive calls telling them to report for work next week and others do not. By comparison, the transition has been "smooth and professional" at the state auditor’s office, where Republican Mary Taylor is replacing Montgomery. Taylor will announce her appointments to some key positions when she takes office Monday.