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Gov. Bobby Jindal's hiring freeze is raising concerns at some state agencies in Lafayette, including UL Lafayette and University Medical Center.
Jindal signed an executive order last week implementing a hiring freeze throughout state government to save $25 million. The hiring freeze is effective through June 30, said Michael DiResto, director of communication with the commissioner of administration's office.
Commissioner of Admini- stration Angele Davis is working with department heads and does not forsee problems with a process for granting hiring freeze exemptions if they are deemed justified, DiResto said.
But some state officials said the freeze already is causing headaches.
Colleges and universities are recruiting faculty for the fall 2008 semester and need to be able to finalize offers to compete with other institutions, Commissioner of Higher Education E. Joseph Savoie said.
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Claire Taylor and Marsha Sills
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"There's a lot of angst because deans and department heads are recruiting new faculty and they're trying to make commitments. They're very nervous about that," he said.
Technical schools also may be feeling the pinch starting this week. They begin classes Monday and need to hire adjunct faculty on the spot based upon enrollment in individual courses, Savoie said.
"The other irony is, last year the legislature and governor provided significant new dollars for higher education," he said. "We've got money to grow and we're being told we can't grow."
Savoie asked the administration to exempt from the hiring freeze some 7,000 employees who provide auxiliary services such as bookstores and research enterprises that generate their own money and pay for their own expenses.
For the remaining 31,000 employees, he suggested system presidents have the authority to approve hirings, then substantiate those decisions to the division of administration.
"To the administration's credit, they have been very sensitive to our arguments," Savoie said.
Davis appeared Friday morning before the joint legislative budget committee to discuss the hiring freeze, said state Sen. Don Cravins Jr., D-Opelousas.
Staffing of hospitals, particularly in New Orleans during the raucous Mardi Gras season, is a big concern and Davis said she was granting exceptions in that case, Cravins said.
Savoie said the New Orleans teaching hospital needs 400 nurses and needs to be free to hire them as soon as possible without awaiting approval of each position through the state bureaucracy.
The hiring freeze has impacted University Medical Center and other teaching hospitals within LSU Health Care Sciences Division.
UMC administrator Larry Dorsey said the hospital has received the go-ahead on some positions that had already been finalized.
"We had already made commitments to these people and we were told that we could go ahead and hire them," Dorsey said.
There are other vacancies that UMC would like to fill, including nurses, radiology technicians and food service workers, he said. A list was sent to Baton Rouge with reasons they are needed. While they may not be critical today, they could affect patient care in the near future.
"We're trying to get an exception for critical areas, like nursing," Dorsey said.
While the hospital is not short on nurses at this time, it would need the authority to hire at will if the need arose. The hospital, like many others in the state, frequently deals with turnover and relies on agencies to fill nursing staff needs. Competition is fierce with private hospitals able to offer bonuses that state facilities can't offer. The hospital is trying to decrease its reliance on agencies and as a new graduating class of nurses will complete courses in May, timing is everything.
Unless exemptions are granted to fill vacancies caused by retirements and resignations, the hiring freeze could affect state highway construction, Bill Fontenot, district engineer administrator, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, said.
Routinely in District 3, the Acadiana area that includes Lafayette Parish, there are about six vacancies, some of them critical to operation of the department, Fontenot said. The department is working short-handed now and has been in recent years, he said.
Department officials are asking Davis to grant exemptions to allow the filling of some critical positions needed to keep the department running effectively and efficiently, Fontenot said.
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