Informational Plan on State Employee Buyout Closed to Public and Press

State officials made reporters leave an informational meeting about the “voluntary buyout plan” for state employees today in Nashville. State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz claimed he was protecting the privacy of employees, whom the administration is trying to buyout.

“Because people are going to be talking about their personal situations and you have no need to know that.”

In May, Goetz said the state would hold a series of “town hall meetings”.

But the finance commissioner said informational meetings held in Memphis and Jackson yesterday and Columbia this morning were also closed to the public and media.

Human Resources Commissioner Deborah Story said officials are trying to counter

some misconceptions.

“That if they accept the buyout, that they forfeit their retirement, which is totally false, people concerned that if they don’t get the buyout, don’t take it, they’ll be fired, which is totally false. So these information sessions, I think, are helping to relieve a lot of stress and anxiety of our employees, who are not getting accurate information via rumors.”

After the two informational meetings in Nashville today, state employees seemed generally optimistic.

57-year-old Cheryle Davila of the Department of Revenue asked about her future in the job market.

“If I took this buyout package or was forced to take it, how would I get employment? Because, nowadays, there’s not too many places that will hire someone my age. And so I asked them, ‘would it be hard in the job market for me?’ They said, ‘No, it wouldn’t.’ Like, Okay…”

Davila said the administration did not offer out-placement service to help find a job.

Information sessions for state employees continue todayin Cookevile and Nashville and in East Tennessee Thursday and Friday.

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Goetz doesn’t claim that personal questions were brought up in the private “Town Hall” meetings this week in Memphis, Jackson or Columbia.

“There’s a lot of curiosity, a lot of questions, some of the questions deal with specific agency plans and how they have approached the voluntary buyouts. Some of them more general, a lot of them dealing with retirement issues. I think the reaction has generally been positive.”

Goetz said the administration is trying to counter information being spread by state employee representatives.

“I think there’s been, I think there’s frankly been, on the part of some of the organized groups, some less-than-helpful information spread around, and so this gives us a chance to directly answer those questions.”

Human Resources Commissioner Deborah Story repeated the official line about personal issues requiring a closed meeting.

“There may be employees here who might want to talk about personal issues, as it relates to their retirement, or their salary, and we don’t want them to have to do that on camera.”