Jindal fires appointee who disagrees with his proposal

12th March 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

The shadow of a woman looming obscured the Gulf sunshine cascaded over the dining tables at the Starfish Restaurant of Grand Isle.

A fifty-something professional lady meandered through the eatery asking the more informally dressed patrons, “Would you sign this petition to keep the Department of Elderly Affairs from being transferred to HHS?” the acronym for the State Department of Health and Hospitals.

Not being your typical introduction at luncheon mere feet from the beach, she quickly added, “If the transfer goes through, it means that the Grand Isle Senior Center would close.”

Being the off-season in the seaside tourist town, the mostly local crowd was immediately sympathetic and jumped to sign. The Senior Center serves an essential purpose for the small community, she explained, serving not only as a social nexus, but the place where many older residents “eat their only full meal of the day.”

The woman confessed to working at the Island’s Senior Center, and yet despite being on the state payroll, stood in opposition to the governor’s plan to transfer oversight authority. At least she is still employed. Her boss lost her job the day before for making the same case.

Martha Manuel, executive director of the Office of Elderly Affairs, told a legislative committee last Tuesday that her organization’s move to DHH was a bad idea. By Wednesday morning, the Jindal Administration had fired her—and dispatched workers to her office within 15 minutes to pack her belongings for her.

Although Jindal appointed her to her position, Manuel said it was Tammy Woods, the governor’s community programs director, who terminated her employment. “She said since my thinking wasn’t in line with the governor’s, I wasn’t needed any more,” Manuel told The Baton Rouge Advocate.

The Office of Elderly Affairs oversees state funding to the councils on aging, which provide the aforementioned meals and other services designed to keep elderly citizens in their own homes as long as possible. As soon as Jindal included the request move the office to DHH, parish council on aging officials began to fear that their organizations will lose protection from budget cuts under the umbrella of a larger agency.

“We’re not going to discuss, we never have discussed … personnel decisions,” the governor said in a press conference on education late Wednesday. He went on to argue that moving Elderly Affairs from his office will allow DHH to leverage dollars to maximize federal funding.

Both the Grand Isle Senior Center manager (who asked not to be named), and Manuel both fear that DHH would do to Senior Centers what has occurred to mental health services, centralization in pursuit of savings—and the consequent closure of small parish-based facilities. That’s why the latter spoke up during budget hearings before the House Committee on Appro­priations. She explained that she had to make the point, “We’ve been ignored. No one’s ever consulted us.”

Just hours after the firing, LSU System President John Lombardi issued a “gag order” all LSU system administrators to not complain about the budget cuts made to LSU by Jindal.

Calling Jindal “the new Huey Long,” Good Government advocate C.B. Forgotston told The Louisiana Weekly, “Jindal’s firing of Manuel sends a chilling message to any public servant who may find themselves before a legislative committee.”

“If leges want candor from state public servants,” he continued, “they should address this matter of summarily firing Manuel. Other-wise, there is no need to ask them to testify before the committees.”

“The failure to address this type of action by the governor will result in testimony before the lege committee that is not to be believed or merely a regurgitation of the governor’s position. The leges would do better to simply contact the governor’s press office and get a statement on any manner dealing with state government. At least that want jeopardize a public employee’s livelihood. Overall, this action of Bobby Jindal will result in less transparency into how our government operates.”

“It seems that Jindal and his minion Lombardi have effectively disenfranchised a class of people in Louisiana from exercising their rights as granted under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Obviously, Jindal and Lombardi cannot suspend the operation of the U.S. Constitution for certain state employees, but they have in effect done just that.”

“Anyone who dares to defy the orders of Jindal and Lombardi facing the likelihood of losing their state jobs. This sounds more like the old Soviet Union than America.”

State Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro and chairman of the House Appropriations Com­mittee, said his panel is not responsible for consequences like Manuel’s firing. “We just invite folks to the table,” he said.

Of course, Manuel, unlike the civil servants is an $88,000 per year at-will appointment of the Governor. She served at Jindal’s pleasure, and by her own admission, did not clear her comments with the administration.

Moreover, not everyone believes the Elder Office move to DHH is a bad idea.

A coalition of organizations including The Advocacy Center of Louisiana, PhRMA, Community Volunteers Association of New Orleans, Firehouse Ministries of New Orleans, First Step into the Basics of Nursing Care, Julian CNA Training School, Louisiana Health Access Network, Louisiana Medicare Rx Network, Louisiana Partnership for Prescription Assistance, Louisiana Women’s Health Access Network, Louisiana Women’s Network, and the First Step into the Basics of Nursing Care backed transfering oversight to DHH.

In a letter to The Weekly, they write, “We the undersigned, understanding the growing demand of care for Louisiana’s senior population and the need to leverage precious resources, support the transition of the State Unit on Aging designation from the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs to the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH).”

“Combining the administration of the primary funding sources for senior services and planning a comprehensive service network is best done by a central entity. We believe that DHH has the strongest capacity to serve as that centralized entity. While Councils on Aging (COAs) and Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) play a key role serving seniors in their community, we recognize that those organizations have also faced challenges in providing services, including reductions in funding to the innovative and critical areas of pharmacy assistance, elderly protective services, and the one-stop shops initiated by Aging and Disability Resource Centers (LouisianaAnswers.com). We also share concerns regarding the state’s ability to meet the demands of the significant projected growth and diversity of the senior population while continuing to maintain separate systems.”

“We support the continued role that COAs and AAAs will serve across our state and understand that under DHH’s leadership and coordination, they will not only continue to be a trusted focal point for services, but also will be strengthened under a funding formula that closer tracks the seniors served through the fair use of census data to determine resource availability. Furthermore, we are encouraged by commitments from DHH’s leadership to protect funding for COAs, AAAs and the areas they serve.”

“Therefore, we encourage the Louisiana Legislature to support consolidation of these important services to seniors under a central entity at the Department of Health and Hospitals.”

This article was originally published in the March 12, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper