- George P. Bush trims more than 100 jobs from Texas land office.
At least 111 state workers have been fired, retired or have quit the Texas General Land Office — about 17 percent of the agency’s workforce — under the leadership of George P. Bush, whose so-called reboot has drawn criticism from his predecessor, who says the agency is suffering under “a purge.”
Bush, who was elected last November to his first public office, said this week that he’s fulfilling his campaign promise to make theGeneral Land Office more efficient.
“I campaigned as a fiscal conservative with proven experience in the private sector seeking to make government more efficient and responsive,” he told the American-Statesman, adding he’s taking a “surgical approach to reforming the agency.”
. . . But Dennis Ku, a former manager in the office’s disaster recovery unit, said many employees were shocked when they were told they no longer had jobs before being escorted out of the building by security.
. . . Ku said he’s worried the agency will languish because “they’ve gotten rid of the kind of institutional knowledge that’s been there a long time.” “If you look at who the leadership is at the GLO now, they’re mostly under 40,” Ku said. “They’re more enamored with Twitter and that stuff than actually doing a good job of running the agency.”
The San Antonio Express-News points out that the new hires are connected to the new commissioner's family and political supporters:
- Bush runs Land Office with campaigners, family friends.
Less than a year after being elected to lead the oldest state agency in Texas, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has dramatically remade the General Land Office by ousting a majority of its longtime leaders and replacing many of them with people with ties to his campaign and family.
Eleven of the top 18 officials on the agency’s organizational chart a year ago have been fired, forced out or quit, and more could leave soon under an ongoing overhaul that Bush has described as a “reboot.”
In their place, Bush has given top jobs to two of his law school classmates, two relatives of members of two Bush presidential administrations and at least three other people with ties to the family or other political leaders.
In all, Bush has hired at least 29 people who worked on his campaign or have political connections, according to a review of personnel records. The agency did not advertise any of the openings publicly.
State law requires all agencies considering external candidates for a job to post the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission. Newly elected statewide officials often ignore the requirement for some core positions — Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller already have been publicly criticized for it this year — but Bush’s hiring differs because of how far-reaching it has been, with the hires ranging from a temporary transition director to five campaign veterans hired permanently for the new position of “regional outreach coordinator.”
Houston Chronicle: Active role in father's campaign taking George P. Bush away from day job.
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has been out of the state or otherwise off of work nearly half of the time since his father entered the GOP race for president, records show, raising questions about whether the scion is fulfilling his pledge to remain focused on his first elected office.
Personal time - both related to the presidential race and for other reasons - took the commissioner away for the equivalent of 23 of the first 50 work days after father Jeb Bush announced his bid on June 15, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of records obtained under the Public Information Act. The total includes 15 full days off and dozens of smaller chunks of time off on other work days that add up to eight more days.
It is impossible to tell exactly how much of the time off was spent campaigning, because the commissioner's official calendar does not say what he did in those hours. Social media posts indicate he spent a significant amount of it on the trail, however, speaking at his father's announcement in Florida, publicly stumping for him in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, headlining a fundraiser in Texas and attending a campaign staff retreat in Maine.
The Texas Tribune: Bush: Time Spent on Father's Campaign "Nominal"
Land Commissioner George P. Bush on Sunday night rejected the suggestion that his involvement in his father's presidential campaign has significantly cut into his official duties, saying the amount of time he has spent stumping for his dad has been "nominal."
In an interview with the Texas Tribune, Bush echoed his office's aggressive pushback throughout the day on a Houston Chronicle story that concluded he "has been out of the state or otherwise off of work nearly half of the time since his father entered the GOP race for president." The newspaper reported that Bush was away for the equivalent of 23 of the first 50 workdays after his father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, launched his 2016 campaign.
"I'm extremely disappointed by the findings," Bush said. "The evidence will strongly show that I've put my heart and soul into this position."
