That timeframe coincides with a wave of privatization within the state, including the divestment of IT from state governance to an outsourcing deal and broad tax cuts that devastated local government and education.
I'm not engaging in knee-jerk partisanship. The playbook for modern republican governance calls for contracting services out, diminishing the role of civil servants, and making tax reduction a cornerstone policy position. When you replace civil servants with political appointees of any party, this sort of thing happens. It just so happens that republicans are the offenders in this story.
I'm sure those chicken companies appreciate the tax break though.
I assume that you're talking about Atlanta.
The Marta? Nope. Not even close. It's great if you want to go downtown, but not much else. Also it closes before the bars do.
Don't even get me started about the highways there.
Not knowing the broader GA situation, can you shed light on "strip the organization of resources over time"? I don't see that in the article. It does sound like he could have used more support, but that can be the case in many jobs, in industry or government.
From what I see, Schronce has been a civil servant since October 1996.
PDF: http://atlantacityga.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=4&...
Oct 1996 - August 2014 Director of Public Affairs, GA Dept of Agriculture
August 2014 - Marketing Representative for Municipal Market Board for City of Atlanta
I wasn't able to fill in the gap between working for the Municipal Market Board and returning to the Dept of Agriculture.
His blog was part of the Dept of Agriculture website. Describing the situation as "former garden blogger turned director of whatever" is an unfair characterization of the situation. I don't see in the article whether the Director of Public Affairs is an appointed position or not, nor could I find information about that online. He has a background in agriculture, a horticulture graduate of North Carolina State University. If it was an appointment, it doesn't appear to be purely political.
http://agr.georgia.gov/artys-garden.aspx
I also don't see an indication from the article that he was worried about reprisal. I agree it's important to shield regulators to let them do their jobs as free of influence as possible.
He did write a memo, raising the issue. With the light that's now been cast on the situation, hopefully it'll get fixed. No system is perfect. What makes a difference is whether it gets fixed now that the issue is known.
The particulars of the Georgia Dock aside, how does this compare with other states, red, blue, or purple?
Not everything in this world requires knee-jerk political name calling.
Strip the organization of resources over time, put politically appointed people in charge of work that should be performed by civil servants, and create a situation where the inmates run the asylum.
Even if nobody applies pressure, there's an implied threat of reprisal when the an appointed former garden blogger turned director of whatever gives an undesired answer. That job should be a civil service gig protected from direct reprisal.
Compare this ridiculous methodology compared to something more robust like the CPI calculations performed by the US DOL.