Despite push from Landry, effort to weaken state worker protections fails
20th June 2024 · 0 Comments
By Julie O’Donoghue
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — Louisiana lawmakers rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have weakened state worker protections, in spite of a final push from Gov. Jeff Landry to pass it at the end of the state’s legislative session.
The Louisiana House of Representatives took two votes on Senate Bill 181 during the last four days of session, but the proposal never got support from two-thirds of the chamber as needed. It received 62 votes on May 30th and 68 votes on June 3rd, not the 70 required.
Landry put pressure on lawmakers to pass the measure, including threatening to pull state resources from the districts of legislators who didn’t support it, according to lawmakers who did not want to be named for fear of retaliation from the governor.
Supporters also watered down the proposal in an attempt to attract more support from House members. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, agreed to exclude firefighters and police from the legislation. They also removed the city of New Orleans civil service, which would have come more under state government control in earlier versions of the bill.
The legislation was one of the only proposals to expand the governor’s power that lawmakers did not approve this session. A couple of Republicans who may have voted for the bill were absent when the final vote took place, leaving the proposal dead until at least next year.
“This civil service takes the politics out of our government workforce,” said Rep. Joe Stagni, R-Kenner, who voted against the legislation.
If it had been approved, the amendment would have given state lawmakers more power to transform classified state government positions, which enjoy more protections, into unclassified jobs, from which state employees can be fired more easily.
Landry also would have gained far more control over the state Civil Service Commission, which oversees the hiring and firing of 28,000 classified state employees.
Morris said he believes the current civil service system is too cumbersome and makes it too hard to fire government workers.
Stagni and others have said civil service is better than the alternative – a “political spoils” system in which those who have the favor of elected officials receive state jobs.
Under current law, the governor appoints six out of the seven members of the state Civil Service Commission. Those picks must come from a list of three people each president of six private colleges in Louisiana recommends. Classified state workers elect the seventh commissioner to represent them on the board.
Had Morris’ bill been approved, the proposed system would have allowed governors to pick three of the seven commissioners directly. Private university leaders would still be involved in recommendations for the governor’s three remaining appointees, but the list of potential commissioners would include many more people for each slot.
The governor also wouldn’t be required to appoint someone recommended by each of the six university presidents. He could instead pick all three nominees off a list provided by just one school leader.
At the beginning of 2025, Landry also would have been able to assign people already on the commission to terms of one to four years, and he could replace any commissioner who has already served eight years on the board. Governors who come after him wouldn’t have had this power.
The terms of the commissioners would also have been reduced from six years to four.
Though the legislation didn’t pass, it might have signaled Landry’s intent to overhaul civil service protections during a state constitutional convention.
The governor wants legislators to convene a convention to rewrite the state’s 50-year-old constitution, which includes civil service protections. So far, lawmakers haven’t agreed to do so, in part because Landry has been unwilling to share what specific law changes he is seeking.
One of the provisions of included in Morris’ failed bill said the changes wouldn’t go into effect if “a new Constitution of Louisiana is enacted and becomes effective.” This has led Democratic lawmakers to speculate that civil service would be targeted if Landry held a convention.
“We don’t have a constitutional convention scheduled at this time. Do you know something I don’t know?” asked Rep. Amy Freeman, R-New Orleans, last week of Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, R-Hammond, who was advocating for Morris’ bill.
This article originally published in the June 17, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
