Senate Judiciary C Chair Jay Morris sponsored a constitutional amendment during the last regular session that would have given the Louisiana Legislature the ability to move state jobs out of the civil service system, among other legal elements, which would have in turn made it easier to terminate the employment of public sector workers. The proposed amendment, which had Gov. Jeff Landry’s support, failed on the House floor by a 68-30 margin, two votes short of passage. The instrument was far-reaching and would have allowed the governor to reshape the Civil Service Commission this year and created a state-level framework for greater control over New Orleans city employees. The leadership of the Louisiana Civil Service League cheered the downfall and penned letters to the editor claiming the amendment “would have decimated and politicized one of the most successful reforms in the history of our state.” The 2025 regular session, however, could be different for civil service champions. Morris, who has long advocated for the retirement of the entire civil service system, says he had at least two more votes from representatives who weren’t in the lower chamber when his amendment was parked. In an interview for this column, Morris argued that the current system promotes inefficiency. Plus, in an environment where the governor and many legislators would like to shrink the footprint of government, making it easier to fire underperforming workers or those from bloated departments and agencies is appealing.  Removing guardrails meant to shield public employees from political pressure could be a tough sell for the House, where a greater percentage of members voted in opposition. Additionally, the tens of thousands of state workers who feel their current protections are fair and warranted are unlikely to be helpful.  Morris wants to see Louisiana follow the lead of states like Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, where hiring and firing government workers is more akin to the private sector.  “I’m not going to name names, but I’ve had several agency heads over the last four or five years tell me that Civil Service runs their department,” Morris says.  State government has about 39,000 classified workers with civil service protections, most of whom work in the executive branch, and a little more than 31,000 unclassified employees. A majority of the latter, or more than 25,000, work in higher education.  Senate Health and Welfare Chair Patrick McMath, who formerly chaired the transportation committee, says there’s a unique challenge at the Department of Transportation and Development. Of the more than 4,000 employees at DITD, only a couple dozen or so are unclassified, he says, leaving top officials “with their hands tied behind their back.” Moreover, states that have at-will employment rather than civil service protection tend to have a lower ratio of public employees to taxpayers, he adds. In order to have a more responsive and effective state government, “you have got to start with untangling and removing the barriers to acknowledging when you’ve got a good worker versus someone that’s been there a long time,” McMath says. Anyone who has worked in or around state government knows well what McMath is communicating. According to the familiar stereotype, state government is full of people who push papers around a desk but aren’t in a hurry to accomplish anything, yet they remain entrenched in their positions and can’t be fired. State Civil Service Director Byron Decoteau, however, says that’s far from the case, though there is a due process that has to be followed; you can’t just fire people on a whim. If a worker impairs an agency, and the agency follows the rules, “you can get rid of a state employee fairly quickly,” Decoteau says. Nonetheless, civil service leaders are eager to improve the system and have proposed changes internally that could make it easier for hiring authorities to see who isn’t pulling their weight.  The state Civil Service Commission is expected to take up the internal proposal at its next meeting, Oct. 2. You can read more about it here.  Under the plan, Civil Service transitions from a paper-based performance method system to a cloud-based electronic system. Along with that shift, the system would move from a three-tiered to a five-tiered evaluation system, with “needs improvement” and “unsuccessful” as separate assessments at the bottom of the scale. “Unsuccessful” employees would not be eligible for raises or promotions, and they would be reported to their appointing authority.  “Not to say it makes it easier to lay people off necessarily, but it makes it easier to identify the people who may be warranting scrutiny,” Decoteau says.  House and Governmental Affairs will conduct an oversight hearing of the Department of State Civil Service this week as part of the department’s reauthorization process. Chair Beau Beaullieu expects the hearing to be part of an ongoing discussion about how state government handles its civil service employees.  Decoteau says he’s looking forward to the chance to hear lawmakers’ concerns and explain how civil service works, particularly to those who may be newly elected. While the governor’s top policymakers and their assistants and deputies should be unclassified, he says, civil service is meant to protect the rank-and-file workers from being replaced for political reasons.  Decoteau also notes that classified positions have salary caps, which he describes as a taxpayer protection.  “Our number one [priority] is our taxpayers, and second is our agencies,”  he says. “If there’s anything that we can do to improve, we are certainly open to that.” For civil service critics, internal tweaks amount to little more than window dressing. The only path to reform, they argue, is through the Louisiana Constitution.  “They’re on the defensive,” Morris says. “They’re trying to get in front of this, to try to beat it back.” Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or Facebook. He can be reached at [email protected].