MIRACLE HAPPENS IN SACRAMENTO

by Bob Walsh

Yes, it is true, Something truly miraculous happened in Sacramento recently. A state auditor's report recently released (this happens about twice a year) specified that an unnamed department director pulled strings to get her own daughter a job in her department back in 2011 even though the daughter did not meet the MQs for the job. She then directed her staff to interfere with disciplinary action against the daughter and attempted to diddle with the state auditor's office during the investigation. Allegedly during the audit a significant number of other "bad faith" appointments and bypassed civil service regs to give homies jobs.

The state auditor says her people went over 1,000,000 (one million) emails and interviewed dozens of witnesses, many of who reported fear of retaliation.

The investigation actually started in 2015, but people high up in the Jerry Brown administration gave the unnamed director a heads up on the investigation. The director apparently made strenuous efforts to identify whistleblowers and declined to keep interview information confidential in violation of state law.

One of the people interviewed was the director's brother, who also worked for the department.

As far as I can tell from a muddled news report the department referred to is the Department of Industrial Relations, which operated under the Secretary of Labor, headed by Julie Su. Ms. Su has released a statement, expressing her concern about a breakdown in a department under her oversight.

The department head is a woman named Baker. The audit was finished in May of last year, but since the Brown administration declined to take any action on it the report was released.

Ms. Baker is no longer at that job. She was moved by Jerry Brown to......wait for it......here it comes the state Fraud Assessment Commission.

Strangely I just checked their web site. There is no one named Baker listed.