What Color is Your Parachute?

I'm hearing a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth from Democrats about how Janet's departure has wiped out the entire Democratic farm team.  Indeed, if you thought that things were bad at the Republic when 100 people get laid off right before Christmas, think about all the young Democratic staffers who no longer have jobs.

Here's the list of the Governor's staff and it's really striking...well, appalling is probably the better word.  For one thing, there are 150 people on the list and the total salary is $8.3 million.  Dude, when did the Governor get an entourage like that?  Unbelievable. 

Then there's the fact that Governor's office didn't cap the vacation hours.  Most state employees are limited to 240 hours of accrued vacation, but uncovered employees can save up to 320 hours.  Quite a few of the Governor's staff are over this limit, with several of them in the 500 hour range and one staffer has more than 1,000 hours of unused vacation.  That one person will get a check for nearly $40,000 upon leaving service.  In fact, the severance cost alone for the entire staff amounts to over $870,000! 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  The Governor increased spending by double digits year after year.  Everyone blames the current fiscal crisis on the economy, but if the Governor had limited the spending increases to population growth plus inflation, the state would still have a surplus.

 With a record like that, what made me think that she would exert any fiscal discipline over her own office?

I will admit that there's one person on the list who I would like to hire.  I'm taking the Bar in February and if I actually pass, I'll be starting my own little legal practice.  There's one person on the governor's staff who would be a great addition to my legal team.

YUE, SU     GOVERNORS OFFICE STAFF.

Dude, it would be so cool to have "Yue Su" on my legal team. 

Comments

[SuMe]

but isn't her first name "Su"? So it's Su Yue. Still a good choice!

[Matt S.]

FYI: The person with more than 1,000 hours has been there since Gov. Mofford.

[Jim Torgeson]

$40K in vacation pay! In this economy, they ought to buy depressed land or Ford stock. Either way, sheltered right, that person scored!

Along with that sweet retirement pacakge the state offers... whoo-hoo!

While it seems obnoxious, that person was thinking.

[ron]

Question, are these lists public information? just asking...

[Bill]

Jim, if you work for the state for 30 years the retirement package is pretty good, but for political appointees it's nothing special. First, if you're there less than 5 years, you don't get anything, except your contributions back. Second, once you get past five years, retirement is 2 percent of your highest salary, multiplied by the number of years you work there. So if you worked in the Napolitano administration for six years, and topped out at $70,000, your retirement would be $8,400/year. But you don't start collecting that UNTIL YOU TURN 65! Not much incentive for a 30-year-old political go-getter.

Which brings up a scenario we're likely to see in the Brewer administration -- whole bunches of former legislators jockeying for jobs so they can add years, and more importantly, a higher base salary, to dramatically increase their fairly minimal legislative pensions. Think Lori Daniels (already named to the transition team), Laura Knaparek, Mark Anderson, David Schweikert, Bob Robson, Barry Wong, and on and on. They are all getting on the high side of middle age and figuring that their legislative pensions are not going to buy as much as they had thought.

[nick]

Jamit needed staff to assure plenty bucks
spent.

Jan needs large staff to decimate everything.

[Richard]

Ron, any state government worker's salary is public record. But to be fair, Greg, give us some context like this same information at the end of Hull's term. This post and document means nothing in a vacuum

[Name:]

I'd like to defend the person(s) who rarely took a vacation day. If someone was there working for Mecham, Hull, Simington and Jay No, that's got value for taxpayers. She's got built up vacation time. So what.

Bill, Barry Wong was already an ACC member and Schweikert was a county elected official: sure that must mean something re the cashout.

[Brian]

I have been around the capital a number of years and I am just shocked to see the list you have provided and how these employee leave balances have been allowed to accumulate. I recall, at the end of the Symington administration, seeing a news article showing by-name leave payouts of the likely departing staffers. I am almost certain that all were being held to the 320 Annual Leave accumulation rule. What has happened in the intervening years? What payouts have already occurred in the past couple of years and how many of these already departed Napolitano staffers cashed out more than 320 hours? Is there some sort of secret overtime or comp time policy for Governor's staffers? If there is such a policy, what is the legal basis for it? After being preached to the past few years about leave balances and leave payouts, this news you have provided is SUPREMELY disappointing to me. I sure hope there is an explanation beyond plain hypocrisy and duplicity.

[Jim Torgeson]

Bill;

How long had that person w/ $40K worked as a staffer?

She certainly saved a rainy day fund.

[muckraker]

Greg, if you want to play make-believe-I'm-a-reporter, why don't you do some reporting. Instead of telling us with outrage that she has 150 people on her staff, why don't you find out what size staff her predecessors had. It's called putting things in context.

[Wailing Teeth Gnashing Obamaniac]

Pretending to be a journalist while spouting one sided partisan political venom is pretty much par for the course for this blog. Along with ad nauseum Janet bashing.
Of course Mr. Patterson did not look up and post the size, salaries, and accrued vacation time of the staffs of Jane Dee Hull or J. Fife Symington the Third. It's easier to feign outrage and bash Janet than it is to actually look up and compare facts.
One could also point out that Mr. Patterson is now an elected official and will be sitting on the board governing the Maricopa Integrated Health Care System in January. One could point out the outrageous $368,000 annual salary of Betsey Bayless, the CEO of this organization with no qualifications and no experience in health care. One could point out that the system under her direction is still struggling to maintain its JCAHO accreditation. One might also note that her salary exceeds nearly every attending physician's in the system and is six to eight times that of the nurses and residents and technicians who actually do the work and care for the patients. One might even look up and see the salaries of other CEO's of county run health care systems and compare them to that of Ms. Bayless. But that might involve a negative finding about a Republican. That would just be too journalistic, wouldn't it? Heaven forbid we actually practice journalism. We just critique it for partisan political bashing.

[Sam]

Well, Obambot, you are more than welcome to open up your very own blog where you may whine and opine to your heart's content.

Of course, you probably lack the fourth grade education required to do so in an intelligent manner, and nobody would read what you had to say. Sounds like the history of Air America.

[Jim Torgeson]

Bill;

I understand what you are saying. I didn't realize staffers have a different package than most state employees.

Legislative retirement packages I already knew. Certainly, Barry Wong will make out like a bandit.

I bet those guys in the Dept. of Commerce are happy about those inflated salaries right now.

[silver surfer]

Both the House and Senate roll back vacation overages to 320 on 1/1 each year for their employees, none of whom are covered by the merit system. If you don't use vacation hours, you lose them! Even having 320 hours of vacation time is quite a bit. It doesn't seem fair that the governor's office allows folks to accrue with no limit, when EVERY other agency, including other branches of government, stick with the policy of fiscal responsibility and cut people back to 320 once a year. To have over 1000 hours seems a *bit* excessive.

[todd]

If people are working so hard that they don't take vacation this reflects some bad management but I don't understand the desire to cap vacation hours. These are part of the benefits of employment. Does seem to run counter to the lazy government bureaucrats meme.

[Matt]

I wonder what a lieutenant governor might make.

[Chad]

The state of AZ mandates that companies allow employees to carry over up to 5 days of unused vacation and sick time. Anything beyond 5 days is at the company's discretion.

Shouldn't the state of AZ give its employees the same package that the state requires of private companies?

[VWgal]

Some of those people listed have worked for the State 19+ years. Under many different administrations.

[VWgal]

I hope this helps clarify this note is at bottom of the staff Members paychecks -

Which makes it pretty clear that 320 is the max.

"SPECIAL NOTE:

Excess Annual Leave
For calendar year 2008, excess annual leave will be calculated as follows:

The last pay period in calendar year 2008 begins on Saturday, December 27 and ends on January 9, 2009.

The leave balances on pay date January 16, 2009 will reflect:

The deduction of any annual leave used during the 12/27/08 - 1/9/09 pay period.
Any annual leave balances over 240 (covered employees) and 320 (uncovered employees) will be forfeited.

The accrual of annual leave for pay period 12/27/08 - 1/9/09 will NOT be included in the forfeiture.

Holiday annual leave balances will no longer be included in the calculation of determining excess leave."