The State Worker: The parks investigation: Employee's leave buyback processed in one day

The State Worker

Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

September 11, 2012

The parks investigation: Employee's leave buyback processed in one day

Person interviewed: Kevin Smith
Job:
Interviewed by: Corrine Murphy, Justice Department deputy attorney general, and Angela Nowicki, Superintendent II, State Parks Law Enforcement Emergency Services
Date of interview: Mar. 9, 2012
Notable quote: "The next day." -- The amount of time it took for Smith to get a leave buyout check of about $2,400 once he provided proof of financial hardship to Paris Jackson, his manager in the parks administrative division. (See transcript page 12.)

The California Natural Resources Agency recently released more than 1,000 pages of interviews, adverse action notices and reports that detail a covert employee leave buyback program at the Department of Parks and Recreation during the summer of 2011.

Natural resources issued the documents online in response to media requests after The Bee broke the story of the leave cash-out program, which spurred the revelation that parks squirreled away millions of dollars while also threatening to close facilities due to extreme budget pressure.

This post is the next in a series intended to make the documents readily accessible to the public.
Smith Interview 2012-3-9

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