Almost 600 Wyo state government jobs remain unfilled under hiring freeze

by Phil Noble, Cowboy State Free Press Bureau Chief

CHEYENNE–Near the close of it’s four weeks of deliberation on the state’s 2011-12 two year budget in December and January, the legislature’s Joint Interim Appropriations Committee received a report which detailed 595 state “positions,” or job vacancies, which have been left unfilled by over a year of a state government hiring freeze.

The JAC voted to “cut” 50 of those positions, which have been vacant longer than two years. Many other positions are not being “actively recruited” for, meaning the state is not advertising those jobs to be filled in the near future. The Governor’s Chief of Staff, Chris Boswell, later pegged that number at “somewhat less than 500.”

JAC Co-chairman Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Albany County, said, “Let’s say there are 300 positions we’re talking about (which are not being actively recruited to fill)—if the governor can freeze them, why are they necessary?”

The director of the state Department of Administration and Information, Mike McVay, said he has worked with Boswell on establishing the total number of positions available for a given state agency. Previously, the pair had reviewed each request by state agencies to fill a position under the hiring freeze. In an attempt to give agency heads some flexibility, the two set up “caps” for the number of positions which could be hired by an agency.

As Boswell explained, “The cap is determined to be the number of filled positions as of January 22nd, plus any positions that had been authorized to be filled as of that date. Directors can then fill positions as they see fit when vacancies occur, as long as the agency stays under the cap. As an example, if an administrator retires, but the agency’s priority is to fill a vacant fiscal position, the agency is free to make that determination without seeking approval from Mike McVay and I–as long as it does not exceed the cap.”

The legislature will review the vacant positions during its session which starts next week and has the option of approving the JAC’s cuts or going deeper into the vacancies. Nicholas noted at last week’s hearing that “there might be some positions that are being held (vacant) because the workload is down right now and it might come back up.”