Former Gov. Bill Owens said Wednesday that he was unaware that top officials in his administration had job-protection clauses in their contracts.
The contracts of at least 23 top officials were revised last year to include a provision that guaranteed they would be able to keep state jobs.
Owens said the decision to alter the contracts – in violation of state law and personnel rules – was made by Jeff Wells, his executive director of personnel and administration.
“Had we known how this would be perceived, my administration certainly would have vetted it and might have reached a different conclusion,” Owens said in a telephone interview.
The annual contracts for “senior executive service” managers – typically the top deputies at state departments – provide for higher salaries than other state management positions. In exchange, the managers give up some job- protection rights they would otherwise get as state workers.
The typical contracts give department executive directors the power to notify those managers in writing that their jobs will be terminated at the end of the fiscal year.
Wells inserted a new provision in the contracts of eight managers in his department that invalidated that clause and guaranteed them jobs. He offered that language to other executive directors in the Owens administration and at least four other department heads used it.
The language of the individual contracts was beneath the governor’s level of review, Owens said.
Still, Owens praised his executive director of personnel.
“I think Jeff Wells did an outstanding job running the department,” said Owens, a Republican.
The administration of Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday notified the managers whose contracts were changed that the provision is “inconsistent with Colorado law” and would not be honored.
“The objectionable clause improperly divests the executive director of discretion in the renewal process, while at the same time giving you the benefit of a higher salary while maintaining the rights and protections of the state personnel system,” wrote Richard Gonzales, executive director of the Department of Personnel and Administration, in a letter to one of the managers.
Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Ritter, said that more than 30 contracts may have included the language.
The disclosure of the contract provisions by The Denver Post on Tuesday prompted Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, to accuse Wells of rewriting contracts to let political appointees “burrow in” to top state government jobs.
“It’s a final slap in the face from the Owens administration to the state employees,” Fitz- Gerald said.
Owens dismissed Fitz-Gerald’s criticism. “In all my years working with Joan Fitz-Gerald, I have rarely known her to say a kind thing about me or my administration,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Owens released a statement that tacitly endorsed Ritter’s effort to invalidate the Wells provision in the contracts.
“I have always felt that governors and their executive directors should have the maximum flexibility in whom they select for key management positions,” Owens said early Wednesday in a written statement.
“I believe it is proper for Governor Ritter and his Cabinet to review these contracts and evaluate the performance of each individual,” Owens said.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
