OLYMPIA, Nov. 25.—What might have been a quiet ouster for two top Senate employees has become a public imbroglio, as minority Democrats complain that the other team violated normal employment procedures in seeking their resignations. But the decision by Democrats to go public with the matter raises the specter of new rancor in the Senate as Sharon Nelson takes over as leader of the minority caucus.

Members of the Senate Majority Coalition say they are infuriated – they say they were trying to handle things discreetly, and the Dems have created unwarranted public embarrassment for the two workers for reasons of political gain. And while Nelson maintains the largely Republican majority coalition might be trying to place political appointees in non-partisan positions, Senate procedures make that impossible — the Democrats would have to agree.

Normally the flap wouldn’t wouldn’t be worth a whit of attention ten feet beyond the Capitol building. Neither staffer is in the public eye, and typically a cone of silence falls over personnel matters. But Nelson went public Friday by issuing a press release and naming names. Two longtime staff members were “relieved of their jobs” sometime late Thursday evening, she said – they are Richard Rodger, the director of Senate Committee Services, a non-partisan position, and Sherry McNamara, his deputy. In her statement, Nelson says she is shocked by what appears to her to be a violation of procedure. “I really find this action by [Majority Leader Rodney] Tom to be stunning,” she said.

No one has been fired, though. The two continue in their jobs, at least for now. And while an internal legislative employment matter might not seem an issue of public importance, it is the first indication of Nelson’s leadership style, and it appears to be a combative one. Nelson was named Senate Democratic leader last week, replacing Sen. Ed Murray of Seattle, who is resigning to become mayor of that city.

An internal memo obtained by Washington State Wire casts the matter in a rather different light than the press release. It appears that Senate majority coalition leaders were trying to handle the ouster of the two top non-partisan staffers in a way that might have spared them public embarrassment, by telling them it was time to dust off their resumes and begin looking for new jobs. What is at the bottom of it is not clear, and maybe never will be. But it just goes to show that political jobs are political jobs, and continued employment always depends on the favor of the party in power.

If there is anything shocking here, Tom tells Washington State Wire, it is that the Dems have decided to make it a public to-do of it. “It has been a tradition of the Senate not to discuss personnel matters, and we are trying to keep to that tradition, which we think is the right thing to do, and the right way to treat employees,” he says. “So I guess we were a little shocked when names showed up on memos.”  

Told to Start Looking

The Legislature, it should be noted, has two classes of employees. There is the partisan staff, which serves at the pleasure of the Legislature’s four political-party caucuses. But the political control of the non-partisan staff is a little less direct. In the Senate, the non-partisan jobs are overseen by a five-member Employment Committee, with three members from the majority caucus and two members from the minority caucus. The committee names the staff director, and the staff director oversees the remainder of the non-partisan Senate staff.

The thing worth knowing about the committee is that it takes a supermajority to hire a staff director – four out of five members. But only a simple majority is required for a dismissal.

In this case, it wasn’t a termination. A termination would require a vote of the committee, but no meeting took place. According to an email letter to Democratic senators from Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Olympia, who sits with Nelson on the committee, Senate Majority Leader Tom called a meeting of the committee Thursday night, but then canceled it. Instead he met personally with the two top Senate staffers and told them it was time to start looking. According to Fraser’s account, Tom said the caucus had decided “that they should leave Senate employment by early January. [They] were told at that meeting that there were enough votes on the Employment Committee to formalize this action.”

From there the affair became a matter of partisan political fingerpointing. Nelson told the Seattle Times that the largely Republican majority caucus wanted to “hire some political-type individuals into the non-partisan staff. …I’m very concerned that may be the underlying cause.”

But there is a big problem with Nelson’s argument. In order for the majority coalition to stack non-partisan staff positions with Republicans, the Democrats would have to go along with it. And that is unlikely indeed.

Violates Standard of Discretion

An internal memo obtained by Washington State Wire indicates that the Majority Coalition is furious at the charge, and at the fact that Nelson and Fraser decided to go public. The memo is addressed to the two Democrats, and it is signed by three top leaders of the Majority Coalition Caucus – Tom, D-Medina, Caucus Chair Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, and Floor Leader Joe Fain, R-Covington.

“Any discussions that individual senators had with staff about job performance would be inappropriate to publicly discuss,” it says. But it goes on:

“What we find unfortunate is that your letter and your press release use the names of employees to achieve political goals. It is highly inappropriate to send out press releases about personnel matters. It has never been the practice of the Senate to discuss personnel matters outside of the Senate. To do otherwise can allow the well-being of the individuals involved to be subsumed by political agendas.”

Sen. Tom, contacted by Washington State Wire, declined comment on the specific situation. But insiders tell Washington State Wire say there were no complaints about the performance of Rodger and McNamara — Senate majority caucus leaders simply wanted a change. By giving the two staffers time to look for new jobs, they say they hoped to give them a discreet out that would not tarnish their reputations.

Tom says he is bothered by the fact that the other team decided to go public with the matter. But he notes that something similar happened earlier this year when confidential staff complaints about Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, were aired publicly by Democrats, causing embarrassment for all parties involved. “It is unfortunate than when people are in the middle of it, that politics would trump [discretion]. That is really what I see as unfortunate in this case.”

But now that the cat is out of the bag, he says he hopes the matter can be kept “as low-key as possible.”