Mr. Gwartney should resign

The issue of PERSI retiree's COLA sure stirred up some interesting stuff at the Idaho legislature.  I hope you have been keeping up on all of the newspaper articles and I hope you're considering finding someone else to send to the legislature in place of a few of the current Republicans in the House of Representatives.  I'll be submitting a "Reader's View" to the Statesman in the next few days in rebuttal to the last justification made by the Republican House leadership.  I'll post the article here when it's written.  Every time we were able to neutralize one of the arguments of the proponents of the bill, they came up with a new one.  This last one is the old standby : "unfunded liability."  I'll disprove that argument as well.  Don't let them fool you.  You are the voters and you have a right to expect your legislators to explain their positions with the truth and not with scare tactics. 


Here's a link to an article in the Idaho Statesman about Mr. Gwartney.  IPEA has long been asking the Governor to do something about Mr. Gwartney, and it's nice to see someone else bring up some concerns.  This article, while lengthy, is worth the read.  IPEA has been complaining to our legislators and to the Governor about Mr. Gwartney for some time, but, for the most part, our complaints have fallen on deaf ears.  Maybe now that the general public can see how costly Mr. Gwartney really is to the state and to the state's taxpayers, Governor Otter will do something about him.  Mr. Gwartney only receives $1 a year from the state for his service, but we contend that firing him and paying a decent salary to a real professional would save the state a lot of money in lawsuits alone, and things in general would operate a lot better. And, as they say, "you get what you pay for."  

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/02/28/1098575/a-cost-cutter-or-kingdom-builder.html

A couple of legislators went on record as to their displeasure with Mr. Gwartney in the article. The article quotes Senator Dean Cameron (R) Rupert, as saying "It is the imperialistic attitude Mr. Gwartney brings to a lot of the projects he does."  But Senator Cameron draws the line at linking the problem with Mr. Gwartney to the Governor.  He said, "I do not lay this blame on the governor. I do not blame him. I lay the blame at Mike Gwartney's feet."  I think he's wrong in that aspect.  Mr. Gwartney is Governor Otter's right hand man.  He appointed him and he supposedly oversees him. If the Governor really doesn't know what Mr. Gwartney is up to, well, he darn well should, and that's a problem in itself.

Senator Kate Kelly, (D) Boise said, "Having worked with a number of directors of the Department of Administration during the years that I have served in state government, it is my observation that the current director manages the agency with less transparency, less stakeholder and public involvement in decision-making, and less respect for legislators and public employees." We agree with that statement wholeheartedly.

Senator Elliott Werk (D) Boise, said, "Mr. Gwartney led the charge to basically disembowel the benefits of the state employees, which aren't as generous as people think they are."  Senator Werk cited Gwartney's cuts to part-time employee benefits that he said "devastated" colleges and universities and Gwartney's "mishandled" attempt to cut retiree medical benefits two years ago.

It's nice to see some of these legislators go on record with their concerns about Mr. Gwartney.  We hope more of them will, and we hope they will all collectively demand Mr. Gwartney's resignation.