Embattled Walker Aide Enjoying Public Service Benefits Years In The Making

You couldn't miss in this Journal Sentinel story the details about accumulated, banked and transferable sick leave benefits being used by Cynthia Archer. (Or how she and other Walker political appointees have gotten big raises in "broke" Wisconsin.)

...Archer was using banked sick time and some vacation time to cover her paycheck while she was off. Archer asked that 120 hours of her banked sick time be used to pay her during her medical leave, which would cover three of the four weeks she's had on leave.

Archer had accumulated 344 hours of sick leave before cashing in a portion of it. She worked for the state earlier in her career, from 1987 to 2003, according to her résumé. She started as an analyst with the Legislative Audit Bureau and worked as a budget analyst and division administrator for the state Department of Corrections.

After leaving the state government employment in 2003, Archer worked as an administrator for Blackhawk Technical College, Brown County and Milwaukee County.

"When a state employee is hired by another state agency, the employee's leave time transfers to the new department," said Stephanie Hayden, spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families. "Employees may use earned leave time at the discretion of their supervisor."

Greg Gracz, state employment relations director, said state employees who quit their jobs can resume using banked sick leave if they return to a state position within five years.

For top state officials, the rules are even more generous.

Under state law, Gracz said, state workers appointed to "career executive positions" have their accumulated sick time restored if they later return to another career executive post, regardless of how long they were away.

I do not begrudge her the benefits, but it was my experience in both local and state government that benefits enjoyed by management-level employees originated at some level with benefits negotiated by unions and then made available to management more or less routinely after contracts with workers were ratified.

If I am wrong in this case, I will post the correction.

My point here is that while public employees have become the Walker administration's leading scapegoat, managers there, from the Governor on down - - and in the Legislature as well - - have with their dependents the benefits of pension, sick leave, vacation and other perks and privileges and that were won for all state employees by unions, negotiators, leaders and voting rank-and-file.

I'd love to see some gratitude in the collective attitude emanating from the Walker and Fitzgeralds' crews.