We’ve pretty much ignored the Harris County District Attorney’s Office since Kim Ogg defeated Devon Anderson back in November. That was an intentional choice, we wanted to let a few months pass and let things settle down before commenting.
If you want daily gossip and criticism from people claiming to be Assistant District Attorneys still working at the office, head on over to Murray Newman’s Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center blog and get your fill. It amazes me that people with graduate degrees in law act like 6th graders but perhaps law school does that to a person.
It is still too early for us to comment on the political impact of the election. Clearly Ogg has kept her campaign promises for starting needed reforms in the office, as we’ve seen on her new drug policy and the fact that she joined the fray in the bail bond case. We’ll see if she can maintain that momentum over time but at least it is a good start.
I think that one of the reasons that she’s had a strong start is that she did a bit of much needed house cleaning. We briefly talked about that in this post. As expected, the wails and cries from the ADA’s have been loud and long. So loud and long that it is clear that Ogg has a bit more dirt to remove if she wants to continue moving forward.
I think that enough time as passed that we could take a look at the employees and see who has come and gone, the salaries Ogg has replaced and the “experience” that the office “lost”. So I filed a Public Information Act to find out.
First up, I asked for:
A list of all personnel employed by the office on November 9, 2016. I would like the name of the employee, the position of the employee, the hire date of the employee and the salary of the employee.
I received the following (click here to download the pdf):
[pdfviewer width=”800px” height=”600px” beta=”true/false”]https://bigjolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/hcdao_employee_list_11092016.pdf[/pdfviewer]
Next, I wanted to know which employees left the office between the day after the election and April 3, 2017.
A list of all personnel that left the employment of the HCDAO for any reason between November 10, 2016 and April 3, 2017. I would like the name of the employee, the termination date, whether or not it was a voluntary or forced separation and any financial compensation they received upon termination.
I received two sheets for this request (click here to download the first pdf):
[pdfviewer width=”800px” height=”600px” beta=”true/false”]https://bigjolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/hcdao_no-longer-employed_04032017.pdf[/pdfviewer]
(click here to download the second pdf):
[pdfviewer width=”800px” height=”600px” beta=”true/false”]https://bigjolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/hcdao_final-benefits-paid_04032017.pdf[/pdfviewer]
Last, I wanted to know who the office has hired to replace those departed employees.
A list of all personnel hired by the office between November 10, 2016 and April 3, 2017. I would like the name of the employee, the position of the employee, the hire date of the employee and the salary of the employee.
I received the following (click here to download the pdf):
[pdfviewer width=”800px” height=”600px” beta=”true/false”]https://bigjolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/hcdao_hired_11102016-04032017.pdf[/pdfviewer]
I took the information provided and added a column to look at the seniority of the employees that left the office.
(click here to download the pdf)
[pdfviewer width=”800px” height=”600px” beta=”true/false”]https://bigjolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/hcdao_employees_seniority_terminated_11102016-04032017.pdf[/pdfviewer]
Okay, that is a lot of data. A couple of quick observations.
First, that is in fact a lot of cumulative years of experience that left the office. But the question is something along the lines of ‘do cumulative years of experience hurt the office’? And the truth is that I don’t know. I’ve spent my working life running chemical and manufacturing plants. During those times that I’ve had to do a reduction in force, the biggest impact has come from the loss of institutional knowledge. I don’t know if that applies to a district attorney’s office or not.
Second, the severance pay doesn’t seem to be excessive.
Third, the total number of employees has been reduced. That is something a good Republican should like, right?
That’s enough for now. We’ll use this as a baseline for Ogg’s term in office. And for the record, the response to this PIA was efficient and timely. I have another one that the office objected to and sent to the AG’s office for an opinion on releasing the data. It has to do with rumors that a former ADA is under investigation by the office.