| I used to tell people that if somebody in state government ever really crossed the line, I could always "go nuclear;" that is, make a public records demand for a massive state email dump. As state mail through state servers on state equipment, written and sent on state time, it seemed a slamdunk. Imagine what awaits; legislators inappropriately interacting with lobbyists, people in the Governor's office doing campaign work, or illegally colluding with commercial or political interests over issues such as Vermont Yankee or the Intervale.
Really, the mind boggles, and the reason I always thought of it as "going nuclear" is that, once the floodgates were opened by somebody making a large-scale high profile request, it seemed likely that others would jump on board creating not merely potential political tidal waves, but possibly technical/logistical ones as well. Certainly there are people I know connected to the state who have shuddered at the prospect for years, now.
Well, the Vermont State Employees Association either just came to the realization that this strategy was possible, or simply decided that they were tired of sitting there with their finger on the button while the Douglas Administration continually screwed them over, year after year. VSEA, of course, made their request, Douglas tried to push them back with stickershock, but the nuke went off yesterday:
Internal e-mails on a continuing round of state government job cuts show high-ranking administration officials worried about protecting Gov. Jim Douglas and saying members of a key House committee are "like children."
The Vermont State Employees' Association, the state workers' union that has criticized the Douglas administration's staff reductions since they were announced last November, on Wednesday released some of the results of a public-records request for correspondence about the reductions...
...But the e-mails show that internally, another priority was keeping Gov. Jim Douglas out of political trouble over the issue...
...Another e-mail, dated Nov. 14, has McIntire sending Human Services Secretary Cynthia LaWare an electronic scolding before she is to receive one in person the next day from Smith.
"Mike set this meeting up because word has come back here that you have been complaining about your (staff reduction) targets to other departments and he needs to understand why you are not on the team re this project ... (Y)ou need to be here tomorrow and be prepared to talk about being part of the team. See you then."
VSEA is supposed to advocate aggressively and forcefully for their rank and file, and good for them for doing so, especially given the fact that they haven't always done so to their members' satisfaction.
But there's no denying that crossing this line has the potential to bring a lot of sunshine to corners of state government (in every branch) that have never been near any of the windows before. Start the popcorn! |
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