AUSTIN, Texas -- About 200 people who have landed state government jobs that can pay well into six figures have avoided normal job posting requirements or scrutiny and share the common tie that they all once worked for outgoing Gov. Rick Perry, the Austin American-Statesman reported Saturday.
An analysis by the newspaper shows some of the hirings may have violated state law. Others took advantage of a provision that allows regular hiring rules to be sidestepped. The posts include agency spokesmen, midlevel managers and even directors.
On Nov. 5, the day after the general election, the Texas Railroad Commission posted a new job opening for communications director, paying up to $115,000. Applicants had one day to respond, and 10 did.
Perry spokesman Rich Parsons got the job, hired by the agency's director, also a Perry appointee.
"It was an honor and privilege to serve Gov. Perry in his historic administration," Parsons told the newspaper. "I'm deeply grateful to the Railroad Commission for the opportunity to continue in public service for the people of Texas in an agency so vital to protecting the public, our natural resources and our economic success."
Directors at the Parks and Wildlife Department, the Health and Human Services Commission and the state water board, among other agencies, are former Perry people.
John Fainter, chief of staff for Gov. Ann Richards, said the jobs can be a reward for loyalty.
"The bigger problem is: Are you taking positions that could be filled by people who have worked their way up?" said Becky Motal, a former general manager for the Lower Colorado River Authority who now runs a consulting firm.
State law requires any agency that has an "opening for which persons from outside the agency will be considered shall list the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission." But the newspaper's review shows state agencies frequently don't comply or don't open the jobs for competition.
According to the newspaper, that's what happened with the Health and Human Services Commission's hiring of Casey Haney, Jessica Olson and Jay Kimbrough to jobs that pay more than $130,000 annually. Haney and Olson were Perry budget and policy aides; Kimbrough was Perry's chief of staff.
"We selected highly qualified individuals for new jobs where the person needed to hit the ground running," commission spokesman Stephanie Goodman said. "While our selections were good, our process was not."
Over the past two years, the Texas Water Development Board has hired at least seven former employees from Perry's office; six of the jobs weren't posted. Agency spokesman Merry Klonower said the people were hired during a legislative-ordered reorganization, meaning the board could bypass the usual process.
Larry Lynn, who teaches public administration at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, said the effect is an agency "penetrated by cronies of the powerful, and that can affect the quality with which laws are enforced and the allocations for enforcement."
A Section on 12/28/2014