My little packet of justice...

I'll be honest. I almost gave up. Almost. On our State Legislature that is.

Those of you that are familiar with the events of the past year, and how they affected me should appreciate this. That is a VERY unpubilicized report on the findings of the Legislative Committee on Personnel Practices. It is in regard to the "Zero Tolerance Firings" that took place at DelDOT a short time ago.

Allow me to share with you, some of my favorite excerpts...(with emphasis on my REALLY favorite parts)

"Further aggravating the circumstances of the firings was a statement to the press from the Secretary suggesting that employees fired due to this policy were exchanging pornographic material. The Committee believes that this may have been the most egregious and unfortunate action in the ordeal. The accusation added insult to injury and shamed employees and their families. The Committee unanimously agreed that while many of the e-mails were in poor taste and should not have been viewed on the state system, none could be considered blatantly pornographic. Pornography is subjective with connotations of immorality and deviant behavior and the committee stated that the Secretary should have taken this into consideration before commenting to the press. In the absence of a formal apology by Secretary Hayward, the Personnel Practices Committee issues an apology to the employees and their families."

Excuse my french but it's about fucking time. And I'd also like a badge to wear that says "I told you so", so that I can once again hold my head proudly when interacting with the professional community. You can't possibly know what it's like to get "those looks" from others in the work community like you're a criminal. I've done nothing but work hard all my life to build and maintain a reputation within this community and quite frankly, it hurts.

Some more favorites...

"During the course of the investigation the Committee issued subpoenas. The Committee wanted to ensure that witnesses felt comfortable answering all questions posed. This also ensured that there was a legal recourse if false testimony was given. The Committee believes false testimony was provided under oath. This issue was forwarded to the Attorney General for review and action. The Committee believes that this is a serious matter and action should be considered to safeguard the authority of an official body created by the Legislature."

I hope they all serve time. And I hope someone lets me know when they're carted off in handcuffs so I can video tape it.

"Positions seem as though they were created at will by the Secretary with salaries that did not directly correspond to job duties and responsibilities. This created an environment of chaos and suspect cronyism."

No surprise there.

And perhaps my most favorite part. Or at least the part I'm looking back into...

"The General Assembly should, through epilogue language, make whole all employees who were disciplined due to the Zero Tolerance Policy. This includes:
receiving back pay, reinstatement to original workstation, and removal of records (dated previous to the OMB opinion) pertaining to this incident from their file. The Secretary of the Department of Transportation should discipline these employees appropriately according to the Merit Rules and Progressive Discipline Guidelines."

I encourage everyone to send this report to any form of media they have access to. Because we all know, THIS won't receive press any other way. UPDATE: Fellow Blogger Mark pointed out this article to me in the News Journal.