Two months into Gov. Peter Shumlin’s second term, his administration higher-ups continue to rejigger staff in lower echelon positions.
The latest round of musical chairs is benefitting three political appointees with ties to the Douglas administration, the Vermont Democratic Party, the Shumlin campaign and the Vermont State Employees Association. The positions are appointed and are exempt from the usual rules that govern rank and file state employees. There is no requirement for a competitive hiring process, for example, and exempt employees are subject to the will of the administration.
Ryan McLaren, a former field organizer for the Vermont Democratic Party, will be a principal assistant for Rob Ide, commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles. McLaren started his new job on Jan. 14 and he will earn $58,000 a year, according to Ide.
Erika Wolffing, a 26-year-old former finance chair for Shumlin’s campaign and VSEA legislative assistant for former executive director Annie Noonan (who is now commissioner of the Department of Labor), will be the new deputy commissioner for the Vermont Department of Labor. Noonan has been commissioner since January 2011, and Wolffing was appointed as Noonan’s principal assistant shortly afterward and took a four and a half month hiatus during the 2012 campaign season. The deputy commissioner post had been left vacant since November 2011. Wolffing now makes $63,000 at the Department of Labor; Noonan said she is working with the Department of Human Resources to determine how much Wolffing will earn as deputy commissioner. In her new role, Wolffing will be supervising staff.
Meanwhile, ConnectVT is undergoing a change of venue. The temporary office will be transferred from the governor’s office to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
Kiersten Bourgeois, an executive assistant for the agency and former appointee of Gov. Jim Douglas, will be the new broadband chief. Bourgeois, who is an economic development professional with no direct experience in the field of telecommunications, is charged with fulfilling Shumlin’s campaign pledge to extend universal broadband access to “every last mile” by 2013.
Bourgeois takes the place of Karen Marshall, the former head of ConnectVT, who took a job with VTel earlier this month. VTel has received more than $116 million in federal funding to expand broadband to underserved rural areas of the state. Marshall, a member of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority, was tapped by VTel two weeks after the Springfield-based company received $5 million from the VTA.
Bourgeois will continue to work directly under Lawrence Miller, the secretary of the agency, and she will be the administration’s designee for the Vermont Telecommunications Authority.
In her role as special projects manager for Miller, Bourgeois has run the Brownfield revolving loan fund and she has been involved in business recruitment projects, including the Mylan Laboratories and Commonwealth Dairy projects.
Since Marshall put the state on a “clear path to success,” Miller said, ConnectVT will monitor the projects now under way. He described the shift to his agency as a “natural migration of the work Karen was doing.” The administration is looking at long-term strategies, now that “the finish line is in view.”
“As you know the broadband and cellular projects are among the Governor’s top priorities,” Miller wrote in an email. “When we were asked to take on the responsibilities of ConnectVT I took that personally. Having my top project manager working the issue is the best way to assure that we meet the Governor’s goals. We will be working with our colleagues at the Public Service Department, and at VTEL, and at BGS, ANR, and VTRANS. Not to mention the carriers who are actually getting the work done.”
Miller couldn’t say how much Bourgeois will earn in her new role; she currently makes about $75,000 a year. Marshall was paid $115,000 a year as chief of ConnectVT.
Clarification: Miller says Bourgeois’ salary won’t change.
