Cash bonuses to top bureaucrats weren’t the only perk bestowed by former Gov. Bill Owens’ administration: Some top officials got job protection too.
In their final annual employment contracts, at least 23 appointed senior managers in the Owens administration got a promise that they could return to other state management positions at the highest-possible salaries for those jobs.
The manager-protection program appears to violate state personnel rules by guaranteeing jobs to senior political appointees.
The contracts, valued at nearly $2.8 million this year, would tie Gov. Bill Ritter’s hands in forming his own team by limiting the number of job openings his department heads could fill and by ensuring that Republican political appointees survive in a Democratic administration.
Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Ritter, said the governor’s office on Tuesday delivered letters to state departments notifying managers that the Ritter administration will not honor the job-guarantee provision.
“The letters state that we do not believe this provision is consistent with the state law and therefore we will not honor it,” Dreyer said.
Dreyer said some of those 22 workers – one of the managers has already retired – could be offered new contracts.
Jeff Wells, former executive director of the Department of Personnel and Administration for Owens, said the contract language was crafted to reassure those senior managers that they wouldn’t lose their jobs when a new governor took office.
“I was approached by people who had contracts to come up with something like this,” said Wells, who offered it to other department directors for use in contracts with their top managers.
Labor leader rips Owens
A labor-union leader assailed Owens, a Republican, for trying to burrow his appointees into the Ritter administration.
“These contracts are just another example of tricky business as usual,” said Jo Romero, president of the Colorado Federation of Public Employees, representing about 1,200 state workers.
Wells denied that the provision was intended to tie Ritter’s hands. The contract language was written last spring before it was clear whether Ritter or Republican Bob Beauprez would win the election, Wells said.
Dan Hopkins, former spokesman for Owens, said he did not know details about the contracts.
“It was a policy that originated with the executive director of personnel and administration and it was handled entirely by that department,” Hopkins said.
The contracts cover workers who are part of the state’s “senior executive service.” Those workers get annual contracts that typically provide limited job protection.
In exchange, those managers get higher pay than they would in other management jobs in state government.
Under the usual language in the contracts, senior executive service managers can be “separated from state service” or “appointed to a vacant nonsenior executive service position” when their contracts expire on June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
To do that, the manager’s boss – the executive director of the department – must give the manager written notice by May 1.
But last year, some executive directors in the Owens administration inserted a new clause that contradicts existing language in the standard contract.
The new provision states that “regardless of whether notice was timely given,” the employee “shall be returned to the traditional” pay plan of the state. Those managers would automatically get their contract salary or the highest-possible pay for their jobs – which no longer include a specified termination date.
In other words, some executive directors appointed by Ritter would not have hiring power over top managers in their departments.
Contracts under review
David Kaye, director of human resources for the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration, referred questions about the contracts to the department’s spokeswoman. Kaye’s contract includes the manager-protection clause.
Julie Postlethwait, spokeswoman for the department, said officials are reviewing the contracts.
The new clause was not inserted into every senior executive service contract. There are 55 senior executive service contracts, but only 22 with the job-protection provision, Dreyer said.
Some departments used the new provision more aggressively than others.
In the Colorado Department of Transportation, the contracts of 10 top managers included the provision, while eight officials at the Department of Personnel and Administration had the clause added.
The effort to protect the jobs of selected managers is the latest revelation of patronage by the outgoing Owens administration.
Earlier this month, The Denver Post disclosed that Owens rewarded executive directors who stayed on the job through the end of 2006 with two-week bonus checks.
The 12 executive directors who discontinued their employment with the state at the end of Owens’ term received a combined $64,000.
Russell George, who ran the Department of Natural Resources for Owens and is now Ritter’s executive director of the Department of Transportation, received a $5,350 bonus.
Dennis Ellis, former executive director of the Department of Public Health and Environment and now a deputy attorney general, was paid a bonus of $5,008.
In total, executive directors in Owens’ Cabinet collected $74,358 in bonuses. Including the staff in the governor’s office, the state paid bonus payments of $187,298 at the end of Owens’ term.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
Final contracts offered at least 23 appointed senior managers in the Owens administration promised they could return to other state management positions at the highest possible salaries for those jobs – a total of nearly $2.8 million this year.
Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
Lisa Esgar, senior director, Operations and Finance Office – $126,000
Barbara Prehmus, senior director, Medical Assistance Office – $123,600
Department of Human Services
Ronald Huston, chief information officer, Office of Information Technology Services – $122,086
Stephen Swanson, chief technology officer, Office of Information Technology Services – $115,628
Department of Local Affairs
Barbara Kirkmeyer, deputy executive director, Division of Local Government – $131,988
Department of Personnel and Administration
Paul Farley, deputy executive director of the Executive Office – $131,628
David Kaye, director of Human Resources – $116,160
Scott Madsen, director of Central Services – $116,400
Richard Malinowski, director of Information Technologies – $124,644
Jeffrey Schutt, director of Human Resources (retired) – $123,036
Les Shenefelt, state controller – $118,800
William Taylor, deputy director of Central Services – $88,128
Michael S. Williams, director of Administrative Courts – $117,600
Department of Transportation
Celina Benavidez, director of Human Resources and Administration – $122,220
Margaret Catlin, deputy director, Executive Director’s Office – $131,160
Jennifer Finch, director of Transportation Development – $125,244
Ed Fink, Region 3 transportation director – $122,052
Karla Harding, Region 4 transportation director – $120,972
Timothy Harris, Staff Services director, $120,600
Pamela Hutton, chief engineer, Executive Director’s Office – $127,608
Jeff Kullman, Region 1 transportation director – $125,832
Richard Reynolds, Region 5 transportation director – $122,556
Robert Torres, Region 2 transportation director – $119,916
Source: The Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration
