Top state workers asked to resign
Lamont seeking to trim payroll
HARTFORD – In a surprise move, Gov. Ned Lamont sought resignations Thursday from top, nonunion employees in order to cut staffing in state government and find the right workers to carry out his agenda.
In a letter sent to all agency heads, Lamont’s chief operating officer, Paul Mounds, asked for “all unclassified appointment personnel to submit a letter of resignation” effective at the close of business on Feb. 28.
The letter, obtained by The Courant, states that Lamont “has undertaken a thorough look at the way state government is designed with an eye
toward right-sizing offices and agencies.”
Longtime state employees said they became nervous Thursday when the letter went out on the day after Lamont unveiled his two-year budget. Sometimes top officials are asked to submit their resignations at the start of a new administration, but Lamont ended up keeping at least nine commissioners from the administration of former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Those commissioners cover a wide variety of areas, including consumer protection, labor, tax collection, banking, veterans affairs and mental health services.
But the letter Thursday went a step further to reach down into state government below the commissioner and highest-paid levels. The move could potentially involve hundreds of employees at multiple agencies.
“In all cases, this is being done with an eye toward ensuring that the staffing in various offices and departments best supports the needs and demands of our constituents,” Mounds wrote. “Gov. Lamont began this process with his own office and moved on to a review of commissioners, all of whom had previously provided him with a letter of resignation as he began to build his administration. Consistent with this work, he is now focusing on a similar review of unclassified appointment positions across the agencies.”
Mounds said in an interview Thursday that the number of employees involved is in the “hundreds,” but that does not mean that they would all be reassigned or dismissed. He said there was no pre-determined head count or dollar amount that the administration was seeking to reach for savings.
“This is standard operating procedure,” said Mounds, who previously served in the Malloy administration. “It should have been done earlier.”
Mounds and Lamont’s senior adviser, Colleen Flanagan Johnson, said the timing was not specifically tied to the day after the release of Lamont’s budget.
The jobs involved include senior policy advisers, legislative liaisons, communications officers and some with misleading titles who could be essentially operating as chief of staff for a particular agency. Besides departures, the changes could potentially include increased staffing if Lamont, for example, decides to expand the economic development staff in an attempt to create more private-sector jobs, officials said.
Copies of the letter were sent to the top officials in the adminis- tration, including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz; Lamont’s chief of staff, Ryan Drajewicz; Melissa McCaw, the state budget director; along with the human resources officers in all agencies.
Mounds noted that many of the employees in the non-union jobs have served under both Republican and Democratic governors.
“Many individuals in unclassified appointment positions have served several administrations well, and their historical knowledge of state government has proven to be vital over the years,” Mounds wrote. “Therefore, a thorough review of each agency’s staffing needs and the associated unclassified appointment positions is an important step in our process.”
Once the resignations are submitted and reviewed, the governor’s office will discuss any potential changes with the various agency heads before any dismissals or changes in staff.
“You have my commitment, working with you, that any potential changes to unclassified appointment position staffing at your agency will be conducted in a timely manner, understanding the impact that any decision may have on the individuals who currently hold these positions and the agency’s operations,” Mounds wrote.
Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell conducted a similar process before Malloy took office, Mounds said. Malloy then asked commissioners and deputy commissioners to submit letters of resignation before Lamont took over.
During Malloy’s administration, 32 highly paid executive branch positions were moved into politically appointed jobs, making it easier for them to be dismissed.
Malloy’s office said at the time that the personnel changes were unrelated to party affiliation and instead were based on factors such as effective dealings with the press and compatibility with their agencies’ commissioners, who are given discretion over the appointees who serve them. In general, those who were leaving were being replaced by new employees who were paid less, Malloy’s office said.
The 32 employees long had enjoyed civil service protections that would have made them difficult to fire or transfer. But those protections ended after legislative Democrats tucked a provision into a massive, 686page budget implementation bill that switched the positions into the same category of “unclassified” political appointees as deputy commissioners or executive assistants, who can be fired at any time.