How many people have lost their jobs because of E.Coli-Gate? A lot. Unfortunately, not very many of them were actually involved. They were collateral damage from Nixon's attempts to control the story. Most of the people who caused the problem still remain.
Here's the casualty list:
Nearly 100 State Parks Employees:The DNR claims these layoffs were the result of declining tax revenue. The decision was announced by former Missouri CIO Bill Bryan on October 19, who announced the layoffs only a month into his tenure.
The State Parks Advisory Board claims the layoffs were rushed and the DNR didn't explore alternatives. Both of these things are true - when Bill Bryan sent out his infamous e-mail, he didn't even know if he could fire all the employees.
The process of finding out who, Bill Bryan claimed,
could take weeks. So the natural course of action was to tell everyone that he's going to fire them if he can.
Why rush them out the door?
Mark Templeton, who had been placed on temporary leave (a slap on the wrist, all things considered) was set to return that week. Having Templeton do the announcement would have been unpopular and faced serious press scrutiny. Unpleasant headlines had to be avoided.
Joe Bindbeutel:Joe Bindbeutel was at the center of the decision to withhold the test results. He wasn't the only one involved but ended up taking all the blame. At the time he could at least look forward to Nixon appointing him to a six-figure job in the Administrative Hearing Commission.
After his appointment got held up by the State Senate, Nixon withdrew it. Someone had to be thrown overboard, and Bindbeutel was vulnerable. That was his reward for his misplaced loyalty.
Now he just has all the blame, while his former colleagues like Mark Templeton, Jack Cardetti and Jeff Mazur go on with their careers as if nothing happened.
Director of Administrative Services Laverne Brondel, Director of Field Services Alice Geller, Director of Environmental Quality Dan Schuette: Between the three they had 85 years of experience in the DNR. Their crime? Being in Mark Templeton's inner circle. No reason has been offered for their firings.
One of their three positions would have been redundant because the Field Services and Environmental Quality Divisions were being merged - but all three ended up being fired to make room for two promotions.
Over the course of a few days, the DNR variously said they had been demoted, fired, placed on administrative leave and would be fired, and were still working there but still would be fired. It's good to know that they have a handle on events.
Jim Yancey: Yancey went on vacation and didn't forward E. coli test reports (separate from the ones that caused E.Coli-Gate) to the relevant authorities. He got fired, even though Nixon appointees who have been involved in the same issues still have their jobs intact.
People Who Left Themselves:Both Susanne Medley and Earl Pabst left the DNR shortly after the E.Coli-Gate story began to break. Medley's account, given to the Senate investigators, is a depressing story of someone who had good intentions but ran into a bureaucracy that just wouldn't do the right thing.
They knew early on that things were going to go bad - and probably didn't want anything to do with it.
There are still a lot of loose threads in the official account of E.Coli-Gate. The Senate investigation is ongoing, but our impression is that a lot more innocent people are going to lose their jobs before the right people are held accountable.
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