7000 Emails from the Governor's office

Letter from Governor Bush requesting input on his plan for reform of state government

Your Voice <YourVoice@MyFlorida.Com> 01/31/01 07:20PM

Dear Colleague:

As Governor, I have always considered it an honor and a privilege to lead such a hardworking group of men and women in providing services to our citizens. The talents, dedication and commitment our state employees show on a daily basis continue to leave me both humbled and proud. As public employees, in many ways, you have helped to make Florida a model state, and I believe we should build on your accomplishments by continuing to find ways to better serve Floridians. 

When I announced my budget recommendations earlier this month, I stated that the old way of doing something is not necessarily the best way to go about our business. Recently, the Council of 100, a bipartisan cross section of key business leaders from around the state, issued a report encouraging state government to revisit and modernize its state personnel system. In response to some of their ideas, I am encouraging key policymakers to review and make reform suggestions for our career service and state personnel system. I want to take this opportunity to share with you my own vision of this reform, and more importantly, to ask for your assistance and input. 

First, I hope that any reform effort foremost places a priority on merit. That was the original intent of the career service system. Like the rest of Florida's not for profit organizations and private sector businesses, demonstration of your initiative and ability should count for something in determining compensation, pay raises, and promotions. Today, however, much of our effort to recognize employees is done "across the board" with little means for singling out hard work and accomplishment. Reform should lead to a system where the achievement of performance criteria translates into special bonuses and incentives. 

Second, I believe in giving employees greater choices. State government, through the various forms of leave and benefits offered, should allow you the flexibility to manage your resources. One reform idea for consideration is the option of being allowed to cash out on your unused leave balance at the end of each cycle rather than having it continue to roll over year after year.

Third, employees, especially employees who perform well, should be better compensated. Agency managers and supervisors should be given more freedom to direct unused salary to good employees. Our state budget recommendations for fiscal year 2001/2002 provide for a $158 million increase in pay over last year, including bonuses for performance. If the Legislature embraces these recommendations, many employees will see their annual paycheck increase by as much as five percent or more. As well, building on the concept of the Davis Productivity Awards, there should be greater financial incentives for employees who generate ideas that result in a savings to the taxpayers of Florida.

Fourth, reforms should continue to protect workers against discrimination and patronage. Career service workers should not be concerned about their political party affiliation or their age, race or gender. These are all basic rights that should not be abridged. 

Fifth, I believe in a state personnel system where employment is objectively based on sustained performance and fitness for public service, instead of arbitrarily based on tenure and seniority. No one should be given an unfair advantage over another, especially without regard to performance.

And finally, our processes and practices need to be streamlined in order to more efficiently respond to taxpayers and the needs of the state. Classification systems should be simplified, hiring processes should give agencies the ability to act within a reasonable period of time, and grievance resolution processes should provide for fair and efficient due process. 

In short, a vision for reform should be one that provides a dynamic career service system where hard work, performance and achievement are recognized; where employees still have basic protections; and where merit, not time served, is the final arbiter of success.

There is much to be done, and I would like your thoughts and suggestions on career service reform. Are there particular areas of the state employment system where we should be focused? Do you have any personal experiences that would be helpful in developing reforms? How should bonuses be allocated within an agency to ensure we are rewarding performance? I have asked our Secretary of the Department of Management Services, Cynthia Henderson and Secretary of the Department of the Lottery, David Griffin to work with the Legislature to develop a reform initiative. In addition, in early February, our agency heads will be setting up informal employee outreach sessions to solicit your input and feedback on the career service system and state personnel system. In the meantime, please email us with your own ideas on state personnel system reform at yourvoice@myflorida.com <mailto:yourvoice@myflorida.com. 

Best wishes in this New Year, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Jeb Bush 

• How many emails were really received by the Governor's office?  

  Whoseflorida contacted AFSCME and the host of the site where the files are posted  to find out whether the (2400-2700 emails) files we are linking to  represent the entire CD AFSCME received from their public records request.   AFSCME concurred with the site host's reply:

  • "These files are the entire contents of the CD-ROM received by AFSCME in response to their public records request.  The CD-ROM bore the "MyFlorida" logo, so I know it was an official copy of the e-mails.
  • What happened to the rest of the e-mails (if indeed there were really 8,000 responses) is anybody's guess."  (GJ, 5/10/01)

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