(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Sept. 12, 2016)
In the last month or so, we’ve seen a subtle but major change in the way a governor—who is not very popular with many Kansans in recent polls and is facing a Legislature for the last two years of his term that is going to be less conservative than he would like—makes policy for the state.
The way you do it isn’t by introducing bills that even Gov. Sam Brownback’s fellow Republicans might not want to or be able to pass into law.
You do it through rules and regulations that are little-known, don’t get much publicity and which can have the force of law without requiring Republican legislators to put their votes for it on public display.
Well, Brownback is well on the way to doing just that. The most noticeable example was last week’s proposal to take a shot at the already weakened civil service protection for employment of state workers.
And, like every governor, Brownback would like his supporters to have state jobs and those other folks, well, not so much.
Last week, the Department of Administration’s division of personnel services came up with a laundry list of new rules that will make it easier to get rid of state employees that administrators or the administration don’t care for and replace them with friendlier folks. That’s not hard to understand. It’s what you do when you can.
But personnel policy is such a tricky area that it has to be done carefully. Years ago it was that good old Civil Service standard that offered equal treatment of state employees, new hires and those being fired, with the idea that their jobs, if done well, would be protected from new-administration firings and rehiring of the politically like-minded.
While that civil service protection was designed to insulate good workers for all the people of the state from political pressure, it also means that the governor and his appointees can’t really put those workers through a political sieve.
Last year, for example, the governor succeeded with a bill that makes civil service jobs almost optional for new employees, who can seek state jobs on an “at will” basis, where they don’t qualify for those civil service protections that assure state workers aren’t fired for political reasons unrelated to their ability to do their jobs. That makes them easier to hire, easier to fire.
While that was a strong step for conservatives, it means that job protections and worker rights are diluted considerably. A raft of new employment policies that would make it easier to fire workers that the bosses don’t like and easier for new hires to take their jobs met with largely Democrat, of course, objection in a rules and regulations hearing last week.
Taken as a whole, the changes mean that if state employee layoffs occur—and the state of the budget makes that a pretty good bet—those civil service protections, such as opportunities for hearings and for employees to defend their work records and keep their jobs, are diluted.
The right to challenge a job performance rating that makes an employee more fire-able is cut, and bosses can make new specialized skills a reason for bypassing a long-time employee for rehiring. Challenging a low job performance rating that could lead to loss of a job is restricted.
Now this rules and regulations gambit—and remember that the administration and Republicans generally oppose rules and regulations that they say hamper efficiency and cost everyone money—is likely starting to be put into use as the administration winds down.
Worth watching out for…