INDReporter

Jindal's staff shuffle skirts pay freeze

by Heather Miller

Blogger and former counsel for the Louisiana Legislature C.B. Forgotston points out Jindal's hypocritical staff shuffle that skirts the governor's own pay freeze for executive branch employees. Gov. Bobby Jindal has instituted salary and hiring freezes for executive branch employees amid the state's ongoing budget crisis, but as blogger and former legislative attorney C.B. Forgotston points out in his latest post, there's one flaw, or "thaw," in Jindal's pay freeze policy.

A handful of Jindal's top staffers have been given new job titles in the governor's office - and almost all of them have received hefty salary increases to accommodate their new roles:
Recently, Jindal promoted Taylor Teepell ("Governor" Timmy Teepell's little brother) from Deputy Legislative Affairs Director to Deputy Chief of Staff. With the new job came a salary of $130,000 or a 44% increase in salary.

Also "Governor" Teepell's brother-in-law, Matt Parker, was promoted from Intergovernmental Affairs Director to Legislative Affairs Director. The new position pays $120,000; a 26% increase in pay.

Jindal then promoted Anthony Ramirez (relation to the Teepells unknown) from Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs to Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Ramirez will be paid $70,000; an increase of 59%.

Kristy Nichols (relation to the Teepells unknown) was just promoted from Bobby's Deputy Chief of Staff to Commissioner of Administration. Her new salary is $167,000; a mere 2% pay increase.
Forgotston also notes that Paul Rainwater, who recently was reassigned from his job as commissioner of the Division of Administration to serve as Jindal's chief of staff, was the only Jindalite to not receive a pay raise. Rainwater, however, is taking home the same salary he received as commissioner, and the $204,000 a year is almost $40,000 more than what the chief of staff job paid last week.

Read the full story here.