Blunt Setting Table for Another Giveaway to RGA Funders
The Blunt Administration will introduce a plan this week to reshuffle many of the state's skilled craft and building maintence employees so their jobs can be more easily contracted out to Republican Governors' Association funder Johnson Controls.
The Governor will attempt, via executive action, to move hundreds of the state employees responsible for maintaining state facilities from under the control of the departments in which they currently reside into the command of his closely controlled Office of Administration. In turn, the move will allow the Office of Administration a free hand in doling out a lucrative contract for maintenance of state buildings to a corporate contractor with a history of big-time giving to the organization which pumped $2.6 million into Matt Blunt's political machine in 2004.
Why suspect that the contract will be steered to Johnson Controls? Largely because the Office of Administration has already contracted out to the Wisconsin-based outfit maintenance work for which it was previously responsible. Last June, Jo Mannies reported:
Johnson Controls Inc., a firm based in Milwaukee, has been awarded a contract of more than $3.2 million to take over maintenance and security services at several state office buildings in St. Louis, including the Wainwright building, and a counterpart in Springfield, Mo.
The move will prompt the layoffs of 57 state workers in the two cities, said Blunt's spokesman Spence Jackson.
The administration will undoubtedly claim that this is merely a bit of "streamlining" that will provide cost-savings to the state. It isn't. It's a cynical ploy to accomplish the Blunt administration's dual goals of severely hampering the quality of services the state provides to taxpayers while simultaneously rewarding another wealthy special interest for financing his campaign. Missouri should expect better.
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And Tomorrow The WORLD
If the executive order doesn't do the trick, then Nathan Cooper's bucket, HB 1223 in which he carries the Governor's water, will codify the theft of state jobs.
This bill (which includes several threats to sound asset management -- including granting authority to the Office of Administration to sell any existing state building without legislative authorization) gives the Office of Administration, Division of Facilities Management, Design and Construction (which used to be two divisions before mini-d was given the double duty by Blunt) would expand the control of OA/DFM,D&C.
Currently, OA/DFM,D&C controls just the state buildings "at the seat of government" (Jeff City) and the few other state office buildings that were financed and formerly controlled through the Board of Public Buildings. This legislation will expand the OA/DFM,D&C hegemony to ALL state buildings.
Since OA/DFM,D&C quickly gave away jobs of state employees who had worked in the state buildings it previously controlled, we are very likely to see hundreds of additional jobs sold to private contractors, probably including Johnson Controls, shortly after DFM,D&C gains this expanded authority over all other state buildings.
PARTIAL TEXT FROM HB 1223: "8.010. 1. The governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor constitute the board of public buildings. The governor is [chairman] chair and the lieutenant governor, secretary. The speaker of the house of representatives and the president pro tempore of the senate shall serve as ex officio members of the board but shall not have the power to vote. The board shall constitute a body corporate and politic. The board has general supervision and charge of [the] all public property of the state [at the seat of government], except property deeded to the department of higher education, the conservation commission, and the highways and transportation commission, and other duties imposed on it by law.
2. The commissioner of administration shall provide staff support to the board.
8.110. There is hereby created within the office of administration a "Division of Facilities Management["], Design and Construction". The division shall supervise the design, construction, renovations and repair of state facilities, except as otherwise provided in sections 8.015 and 8.017 and except for state facilities of institutions of higher education, the conservation commission, and the highways and transportation commission, and shall review all requests for appropriations for capital improvements. Except as otherwise provided by law, the director of the division [of facilities management] shall be responsible for the management and operation of office buildings titled in the name of the governor. The director shall exercise all diligence to ensure that all facilities within [his] the director's management and control comply with the designated building codes; that they are clean, safe and secure, and in proper repair; and that they are adequately served by all necessary utilities."
On the (maybe) lighter side, DFM,D&C used to call the organizational section that ran and maintained the state buildings, "Building Operations". Now it is called the "Asset Management" group. Might we conclude that it is appropriate to refer to the leader of DFM,D&C as the Ass. Man.?