By Dick Miller
Some 521 employees of the PA Department of Labor and Industry (L & I) are set to lose their jobs tomorrow, less than a week before Christmas.
Perhaps this is as good of a time as any to review Gov. Tom Wolf’s business prowess for the top state government job.
Afterall, he spent $10 million of his own money to buy a 2014 Democrat primary victory over three more government-experienced competitors. Wolf then went on to crush incumbent Republican Tom Corbett’s attempt to win re-election.
Corbett competes for most incompetent, ineffective PA Governor in our over 200-year history. Corbett may get competition from Wolf for that dubious distinction as the affable Democrat nears midway in his first term. The line grows longer of Republican challengers who think they can deny him a second term.
This tale of mismanagement flies in the face of an old business axiom “No one ever gets fired for picking IBM.”
In this case, maybe someone should have.
Former Dem Gov. Ed Rendell signed a $110 million contract with the world-renowned technology company to modernize the state’s unemployment compensation computer system in 2006.
After seeing the tech project run $60 million over budget and 42 months behind schedule, the Corbett administration decided to pull the plug in July, 2013. This from a Republican administration known for seldom implementation of sound business practices.
Corbett had help. His administration spent $800,000 on a contract review by Carnegie Mellon University. CMU eggheads declared spending any more money on the system developed by IBM would have been a waste, Harrisburg Patriot News said in 2013.
IBM’s Chicago office registered surprise at the state’s reluctance to throw more good money after bad. “We’ve been meeting weekly . . . That’s ridiculous that they say they are surprised. They must be in denial,” said L & I spokesperson Sara Goulet in the July 21, 2013 article in the Patriot-News.
The above is worth noting because this same Sara Goulet still holds the sensitive position of mouthpiece for L & I in the Wolf administration. Apparently, no Democrat was qualified for this job.
The layoffs tomorrow were foreseen five months ago, but taxpayers only learned about it in late November. This from the supposedly “transparent” Wolf administration.
L & I Secretary Kathy Mandarino, a 58-year-old attorney with union connections but limited business experience, was appointed by Wolf.
Mandarino claims beginning last spring she began raising concerns about a funding shortfall that would lead to the closing of three important unemployment compensation call centers.
Her first utterances that got public ink was only about two weeks ago.
“I am doing everything I can” to avert layoffs, Mandarino offered to PennLive reporter John Micek, December 10, at cocktail party merriment at the annual Pennsylvania Society gala in New York.
Even her boss, Tom Wolf, passed up the notoriously Republican event for the second consecutive year. Given the state of conditions in Harrisburg, Wolf did not believe it was appropriate or timely for him to participate in such gala.
Mandarino, in reading the tea leaves, may be concluding her tenure at L & I may be as short as her predecessor and is looking for her next job.
Mandarino assumed she would be able to use money from the Service Infrastructure Improvement Fund, established in 2012. The goal of this fund is “to provide for a more automated way to apply for jobless benefits and to maintain a decent level of service to those making claims in the meantime.”
This funding mechanism requires legislative approval, however. The legislature has historically solid Republican majorities and many GOP lawmakers want to run and defeat Wolf for re-election in 2018.
Wolf and Mandarino knew the situation looked bleak when the funds were not included in the budget adopted in July. Then the legislature announced there would be little business this fall to include no “lame duck” session in November.
Bottom Line: If the Republicans are so inclined, they might take up the task of restoring this funding stream when they return to legislative sessions in January.
But what is Wolf offering?
Since most laid off workers are at the bottom of the food chain and, therefore, probably Democrats, why do the Republicans want to see their plights eased anyway?
