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Brain drain or opportunity for new blood?

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Illinois

* A lot of people are quite worried about the state employee rush to the exits in anticipation of pension reform. I’m not really so sure. Maybe it’s time for some new blood, anyway…

Whether it’s overseeing trail maintenance, knowing when to pump water from a lake or helping mow the lawns, the on-site superintendents of Illinois’ state parks play an important role in managing the state’s natural heritage, from Starved Rock along the Illinois River to tiny natural sites in every corner of the state.

But since late last year, almost a quarter of the park superintendents have retired, taking with them in many cases 30 or more years of experience that will be hard to replace in an agency hit hard by years of budget cuts and unsure whether it can replace them.
Riverbend Humane Society August

At least 23 park superintendents and another half-dozen assistant superintendents have left the state Department of Natural Resources since late 2011. Beyond eight openings the DNR has already filled or is trying to fill now, department officials say they don’t know when they would have the money to find substitutes.

The exits appear to be driven in most cases by concerns about potential changes in the state’s underfunded pension system. DNR says the retirements and earlier cuts and staff shifts have left it with 75 superintendents at its 126 parks, recreation areas and other outdoor destinations.

* Meanwhile, the state’s 2011 “Teacher of the Year” talks about her participation in a recent parade…

Brave said she walked in another parade recently behind Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.

“People along the route booed and hissed him but cheered the teachers,” Brave said. “My thought was, ‘You wanted to destroy our pensions.’ He kept looking back at us to see what was going on.”

I’m pretty sure that was the State Fair kickoff parade. The crowd did cheer the teachers, and they most certainly booed Quinn.

* Other stuff…

* Guards’ union, Quinn fight over prison closures

* About 50 guards still report to IYC Murphysboro

* City hiring Catholic Charities to provide services to homeless

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 11:38 am

Comments

In a normal hiring system, I might agree about “new blood,” but the State hiring system is solely about seniority, not competence. And because of broad job titles and “upward mobility” rules, seniority isn’t even remotely related to competence.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 11:45 am
Quinn would have not been booed if he did the parade as he governs - as a zombie. Folks like zombies.

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 11:45 am
I’m not sure the state could survive without a qualified team of people with 30 years of grass-cutting experience. They might as well demote us to federal territory now since we are going the way of Guam.

Comment by Fight for Chicago Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 11:50 am
–“People along the route booed and hissed him but cheered the teachers,” Brave said. “My thought was, ‘You wanted to destroy our pensions.’ He kept looking back at us to see what was going on.”–

All part of the Dem plot to serve their Big Labor Masters. Why can’t you all see it?

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 11:53 am
@Vanillaman -

It probably didn’t help that the parade route was lined with state employees. I’m just sayin’.

BTW, look for a likely repeat of this story for the Labor Day parade.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 11:54 am
Fight for Chicago: Because every state worker just cuts grass for a living.

I’m seeing a mass exodus at the University, for sure. But then again, who wants experienced teachers either? Or experienced supercomputer administrators?

Comment by Stuff happens Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:02 pm
You know, Fighting For Chicago, that crack is a bit offense ad shows you have little first hand knowledge of what goes into some of these parks. Based on the usual descript of ‘mowing’ in articles though, I guess I can’t totally blame you for the attitude. Several of these parks have certain ‘tasks’ that are unique to the individual park and entails much more than other sites.

I suppose none of what I post would change your mind nor you you even pause to reconsider your little slam, but if you’d like to come on out sometime over the course of a year/season to season, I bet you’d see a few things you had no idea about.

As far as ‘young blood’. Sure. As DNR was and still is an aging agency (direct front line, bottom of the ol’ totem pole). When they were hiring out down at the bottom quite a number of years ago, they hired then not ‘young’ workers (did not want to pay much for their pensions and/or retiree benefits) and of course those people stayed a spell and are long gone. And now a large share of the bottom workers have in anywhere from 20 to almost 40 years.

Comment by Cindy Lou Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:11 pm
Yes it is a brain drain similar to 2002. Just like in 2002 some mistakes will be made while the new folks learn the job, but everyone will survive and yes some new ideas will come, or the folks who are hired will think they are new ideas (often they think of things that were done before). The biggest issue is really to look at how the state handles a transition in employees, and actually do some planning to prepare for the departure. Like everything, the problems arise because of the lack of planning when employees leave. So what is new, we all were aware the state has a problem with developing and implementing plans in many of the things it does.

Comment by illilnifan Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:18 pm
Because creating jobs in this economy is a bad thing? I’m confused.

Comment by Lakeview Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:20 pm
“Maybe it’s time for some new blood, anyway…”

Please explain this remark………………..

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:26 pm
I don’t get the leaving now before they change my pension thinking. What has been accrued must be paid, whether you are working or not. That seems to be a given starting point for most discussion. You may accrue less under a new system but you will still be adding to what you have already earned.

If the state could actually change existing pensions or accrued pensions it wouldn’t matter if you were retired or not.

Am I missing something?

Comment by jeff in gold Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:30 pm
To Rich and Fight: The lack of knowledgeable and adequate numbers of personnel to maintain the parks is first and foremost a public safety issue. Please, your lack of understanding is showing.

Comment by Loop Lady Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:37 pm
===Please explain this remark===

If what we have right now are people more concerned with protecting their pensions than public service, then, yeah, it’s time for some new blood.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:39 pm
Will the agencies have the room to hire this “new blood”? I’m guessing a lot of agencies will leave a good portion of those jobs vacant to live within their budget.

Comment by Dave V Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:45 pm
The staffing levels at all state agencies are in the tank. In 2007 when Gov. Edgar created DHS, it had 20,000 employees, today there are less than 12,500. You can talk about Dems. loving big gvt. all you want, but the fact is, it’s the Dems. who have, and continue to downsize State Gvt.

Comment by Give Me A Break Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:45 pm
Actually, Give Me A Break, DNR’s first large ‘toss them out’ on the bottom levels came under Ryan. Then Blago had no use for DNR. When lay-off came, they always started down on the little guys. Then under Blago as workers retired, none where replaced at the bottom. Seems now though, the idea is as long as DNR has survived this long with zip, they’re bent on trying to see just how low they can take it.

Comment by Cindy Lou Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:56 pm
Under Ryan, DNR took on a lot of clouted political hires, not necessarily qualified for their jobs. It was a quiet, safe place to hide out and get a check until the patronage job you *really* wanted opened up. Now, there are some really competent and dedicated people there, don’t get me wrong. But they were often shunted aside by these political hires, so the internal structure of the agency is a motley patchwork of the competent, mixed in with the ones who never really belonged. You can see this to greater and lesser degrees in all the agencies, it’s just that IDNR and DCEO have perhaps the worst rep for abuse in this one regard. My guess is the carpetbaggers are more anxious to get out than the old-timers there, because the old-timers have more than just a check at stake -they really believe in what they are trying to do.

The brain drain has been worsened by the flood of outsourcing to consultants for every possible thing. I have never seen an example where the consultants did anything cheaper, except in the make-believe world of creative accounting. But how do you encourage good, young, up-to-date staff to join the state and make it work better, when the news is all about slashing cuts to salaries and benefits? They have a saying at DNR: “When you only pay peanuts, all you get is squirrels”.

Comment by Newsclown Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 12:59 pm
It’s an opportunity for new blood only if the state chooses to hire. Unfortunately, state government is losing employees, some of them good, much much faster than they’re replacing. There are countless areas of government other than DNR & park superintendents that are severely undermanned and lacking competency that they can’t do their jobs. And many other areas are so thin in the ranks that they’re on the cusp of failing. The labor issue is a big deal.

Ask someone at HFS if they have enough competent staff to accomplish what they’ve been tasked to do…save $1.6 billion annually. Unfortunately this is a much bigger problem than the DNR story.

Comment by Budget Watcher Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:05 pm
Yeah it is my selfishness and looking out for myself that made me work 16 hour days and work over 250 hours of overtime trying to cover 5 shifts with myself and one other person so fishermen could fish and hunters could hunt. And my looking out for myself that makes me take and make long distance calls on my dime and my time while on vacation. Good luck finding new blood that will do this.
I wish for all of you that are on that tack that you get all “new blood” and that you need them to “serve” you. You will not find the dedication and personal investment you are losing, but good luck with that!

Comment by Irish Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:12 pm
It’s both.

Some new blood would be good if it was at the worker level and not just a different set of political hacks in middle management.

The biggest problem with the current rush for the doors it is doesn’t allow any time to do an orderly transition. But I’m not sure the State could manage that anyway. Here’s why.

Back in 2002 I was part of a bunch of specialists anywhere from 1 to 4 years away from retirement. We had tried to get people hired (or reassigned) that we could train before we retired to ensure some continuity. Didn’t happen. Then the 2002 ERI came along and we all said we were leaving. The State finally managed to hire one person (on contract, not payroll) and four of us had a total of two months (Nov & Dec) to try to pass on something like 140 years of knowledge. Didn’t work very well plus the person left for greener pastures about 8 months after. To add insult to injury, when that person left, all the written documentation we had created was just tossed out.

Over the intervening years, all of us have been hired back (75 day rule) to fix this or that crisis. The last time I went back in 2009, I was assured they would assign a person to work with me that could be properly trained. When I first reported in, they didn’t have a person assigned. I did manage a bit of knowledge transfer, but that was to 2 people due to retire in one or two years.

When I had fixed what I was supposed to, over half the available hours were unused. I again asked to have someone assigned that I could train. After reporting to work for a couple of days and no action, I told the boss it was stupid for them to pay me to sit around, that I had better things to do with my time (even if they were paying me), and to call me when they figured out who was suppsoed to be trained. They never called.

Based on my personal experiences, I don’t think the State is capable of planning beyond tomorrow.

And I’m standing by my previous prediction a lot of the State’s procedures and operational programs are no more than 18 months away from either partial or total collapse. I’ve heard about too many close calls from friends that are still working …

Comment by RNUG Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:15 pm
Budget watcher: let’s not forget implement managed care for Medicaid, implement the changes from the ACA (or Obamacare), and manage a system that partly fee for service and part manged care in between.

Comment by Dave V Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:15 pm
Excellent point, Newsclown and add DCFS to the list of agencies which badly need some new ideas and new direction. Director Calica says he is trying to reduce excessive and duplicative middle management (increasingly redundant in the 21st century computer age) but he needs to cut loose from the McDonald era and wrap up the expensive (really expensive) contracts w/McDonald and former McDonald execs that we’ve been reading about. They were great, but their time is over.

And as to the widely publicized management restructuring, a lot of those being “restructured,” and shuffled into highly paid new “assistant regional manager” and other high level positions are holdovers from Blago, even Ryan, many with the requisite clout. Maybe some of them will join the retirement ranks but with those $$$$ salaries, many will probably choose to stay on, and on. Meanwhile, other than restructuring, we’ve heard of little in the way of innovation at DCFS. That’s what we are paying for–better quality and better ideas for helping mistreated kids–not endless restructuring eight months into Calica’s term, with no end in sight.

Comment by cassandra Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:19 pm
===You will not find the dedication and personal investment you are losing, ===

Perhaps

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:21 pm
==If what we have right now are people more concerned with protecting their pensions than public service, then, yeah, it’s time for some new blood. ==

That comment is a joke, Rich. Of course people are concerned about their pensions and for you to make such a flippant statement like that just shows your lack of character and understanding of just how big of an issue it is to people. In your famous words - BITE ME!!

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:23 pm
===Of course people are concerned about their pensions===

They have a right to be. But if they’re leaving with the belief that their exits will damage the government, then we’re better off without them, in my opinion.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:27 pm
You have to have some brain to teach the new blood if you don’t haven’t had any new tenderfoots before the drain.

Comment by Dirty Red Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 1:53 pm
Here’s where pension, salary and fringe benefits reform would come into play:

If the state is looking to cut personnel costs and eventually (and sizeably) cut into future obligations, bringing new hires on board with less (or no) collectively bargained (or not collectively bargained) COLAs, a 401(k) or hybrid retirement system and higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles, those cost savings will quickly add up as the state replaces retirees. The legacy costs would drop as the state could use current savings to pay past-due bills and use future savings to hedge against collapses and massive budget deficits.

Comment by Team Sleep Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 2:41 pm
@Team:

That’s fine but that doesn’t do anything to the current pension shortfall. It only stops it from getting any bigger.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 2:47 pm
@Rich -

There’s no doubt that the psyche of many public servants has been poisoned by the rhetorical bashing they’ve taken over the last 18 months.

Who, in their right mind, would want to be a Chicago public school teacher for example?

But let’s not ignore who poisoned the well.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 2:51 pm
Team Sleep # 2:41,

They’ve already created ‘tier 2′ with reduced benefits (including lower COLA) and higher employee contributions effective on new hires as of 1/1/12.

But that may not help because there is some question as to whether ‘tier 2′ will continue to remain exempt from Social Security participation because of the lower benefit levels. Right now the TRS and SURS systems are currently non-coordinated (SS exempt). If the State eventually has to pay in to SS also, then the ‘reformed’ system will cost the State more than currently projected.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 2:55 pm
Nobody isn’t expendable. NOBODY.

Feel free to post this phrase in all government offices, including (Especially?) those of legislators.

Comment by Cincinnatus Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 3:17 pm
I retired in May. Yes pension was a big part. But also no raises, uncompensated OT, reporting to hacks, and general tiredness with no money, no staff, etc.

Comment by Sir Reel Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 3:51 pm
LOL! The “new blood” theory only works if the state actually hires anyone! Don’t you people know that the state of Illinois has an unofficial hiring freeze on and has had for almost 10 years. Why do you think prison guards get so much overtime? Our office had to have the ADA lift inspected and it took almost 6 months for the guy to get to us. He said there used to be 20 elevator inspectors for the state - now there are 2! The workforce is and has been shrinking because of no new money and across the board cuts. My agency has lost 30% of its headcount in the last decade. We used to have 6 people employed at my worksite - now there are 3. There are plenty of vacancies, but there won’t be any new blood - only more work for those still employed.

Comment by Lincolnlover Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 4:16 pm
“===Please explain this remark===

If what we have right now are people more concerned with protecting their pensions than public service, then, yeah, it’s time for some new blood.”

Well, yeah. If the people left are a shell of what is actually needed to run these facilities, wouldn’t you want to bail if you had the chance?

Cool. “New blood” Operative word here is: “If…”

So….Let’s see now. Who is getting these jobs? Well qualified, natural resource types? Or more political strokes? You’ve got the contacts; let us know.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 4:42 pm
Rich Miller: “But if they’re leaving with the belief that their exits will damage the government, then we’re better off without them, in my opinion.”

Rich, you lost me on this comment. Can you elaborate?

Comment by Holdingontomywallet Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 4:43 pm
Where the state is really going to be hurt is with professional employees (lawyers, professors, etc.) I’m an attorney for a state agency, and have held this job for approx 3.5 years now. I am currently looking for new employment outside of government.

I am a merit comp employee, so no guaranteed raises. My starting salary was 50k and I am lucky enough to have gotten a small boost since then - still not even making $60k. $60k is nothing to sneeze at, but what you have to factor in is that many attorneys are coming out of law school with monster amounts of debt (Mine are approximately $140k). It makes it much more difficult to make ends meet.

Within the last year, our Department has lost 6 attorneys due to retirement or people finding employment elsewhere. We have 10 attorneys remaining. Nobody has been hired to fill these spots. Caseloads for remaining attorneys have gone up a great deal.

My point is that, at the end of the day, the State is going to want competent attorneys to do legal work on its behalf. But the State is not doing anything to attract or retain talented attorneys.

Our Department deals with a very specialized area of law, and it would need to retain at least SOME of its talented attorneys to assure that the Department runs effectively. Significantly more work with a smaller compensation package is not going to keep these people around.

Comment by Anon - amiss Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 4:47 pm
Lincolnlover,

Nothing new. The State has had a unofficial hiring freeze for most of the past forty years. If you wanted to hire someone, you had to get the approval of the Gov’s office. It was mostly a ploy to be sure only the “right party” people got hired.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 5:05 pm
- RNUG - Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 5:05 pm:

Lincolnlover,

“Nothing new. The State has had a unofficial hiring freeze for most of the past forty years. If you wanted to hire someone, you had to get the approval of the Gov’s office. It was mostly a ploy to be sure only the “right party” people got hired.”

That is only partially true. I conducted many interviews for the state in the 90s, and the best candidates in my agency were hired for the open positions, based on their scores in the interviews. I worked for an agency that required professional licenses and/or other credentials for the positions. I can’t speak for other agencies, but the worst shannagins were in the Blagojevich administration.

Comment by Holdingontomywallet Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 5:35 pm
Sorry… an IT professional with a typing problem.

Comment by mythoughtis Monday, Aug 27, 12 @ 7:03 pm
–Nobody isn’t expendable. NOBODY.–

That NOBODY guy must be pretty good.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 11:39 am