AG Office

I was critical of Attorney General Hector Balderas when he fired 40 AG employees upon taking office.  I thought it was a meat cleaver approach that would cause him problems, which it is doing in several ways.  First it made a lot of enemies and they won't forget.  Second the indiscriminate blood bath might have purged some good employees.  A more deliberate approach might have been a good idea.

But, Balderas had the right to do this because of the way the personnel system is set up.  The AGs and Governor's office is a little different that most agencies in that just about all of their  employees are exempt from job protection given other agency public employees.  For example, in the State Land Office there might be 150 employees, but only a dozen are exempt.  These would be policy level managers that any elected official should be able to choose to carry out his direction for his office.  The real trick is to pick the right people for those jobs.

So, these employees who Balderas let go are being disingenuous in their attempts to get their jobs back.  They knew that they were exempt and should spend their efforts at getting employed again.

And frankly, Balderas is doing a great job so far as AG.