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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Ind. Gov't, - No, the BMV is not a merit agency
The Indianapolis Star today has a story by Mary Beth Schneider on how Joe Silverman has hired 24 past Galyans workers at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Some quotes:
Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joel Silverman told a panel of Indiana lawmakers Tuesday he has hired 24 former employees of the now-defunct sporting goods retailer he used to run.Here is the agenda from the August 30th meeting. It was in the Senate Chambers, but I don't know if it was watchable online or not.Ten of those openings came when Silverman either fired or reassigned state employees.
Silverman defended the hirings before a House-Senate committee investigating his stewardship of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. * * *
In a computerized presentation, Silverman said 14 of the workers were hired to fill existing vacancies, and that in nine of the 10 other jobs filled, the positions became available when state workers were fired. The 10th was a transfer.
Of those 10, five work in information technology; four are in branch or program management; and one is an administrative assistant to Silverman.
"It's much better to be working with somebody you know has done a good job in the past," Silverman said.
They are better-educated than the employees they replaced, he said, and in most cases are earning lower salaries.
Silverman said that as a group, the 10 make $3,542 less than the people they replaced and have 16 more years of post-secondary education.
In addition, he said, seven took substantial pay cuts to work for state government. One person's pay dropped by $50,000.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 31, 2005 06:38 AM
Posted to Indiana Government