STATE OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; LABOR UNIONS;

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES - STATE;

Connecticut laws/regulations;

You asked why state employee personnel rules required the attorney general’s office to hire Kristine D. Ragaglia, former Department of Children and Families (DCF) commissioner, as an assistant attorney general.

SUMMARY

Former DCF Commissioner Ragaglia was entitled to go back to a classified state position, assistant attorney general, after she was no longer employed at DCF because she previously held the job of assistant attorney general from 1993 to 1996. The state personnel act allows employees who are laid off to be placed on a “reemployment list” for classified positions the employee previously held. While on the list, the employee must be offered her old classified job back as long as she is still qualified and a vacancy occurs. Employees are ranked on such reemployment lists by their seniority in the position. Ragaglia was the only person on the assistant attorney general reemployment list when she was rehired.

REEMPLOYMENT RIGHTS

Under CGS § 5-241(b), the administrative services commissioner must place a laid-off state employee on a reemployment list for “the appropriate class for which he has attained permanent status or has the ability to qualify, as determined by the commissioner. ” Once on the reemployment list the laid-off employee “shall be rehired in the classification from which he was laid off or for which he is qualified, as vacancies occur…. ” This statute was last modified in 1996.

An employee attains permanent status for a classified position once the employee successfully holds the position for the six-month trial working period. Ragaglia was an assistant attorney general from 1993 to 1996 working in the child protection department. Assistant attorney general is a classified state position.

When an employee takes a position exempt from classified service, she does not lose permanent classified status attained in the earlier state service. Therefore, Ragaglia’s time in the exempt positions of state child advocate and DCF commissioner did not invalidate her permanent status.

Ragaglia’s term as DCF commissioner expired March 1 this year after she decided not to seek renomination. She was then hired back at DCF as a transitional manager to assist with the transition to a new commissioner. She was laid off from the transitional manager position in April.

The state personnel act requires that those on the reemployment list for a position be hired ahead of those seeking the job who are on the qualified candidate list (CGS § 5-196(24)). This enabled Ragaglia to be rehired at the attorney general’s office ahead of anyone on the candidate list. She was also the only person on the reemployment list for assistant attorney general.

The attorney general’s office has 226 assistant attorneys general in 17 departments. Ragaglia was assigned to the workers’ compensation department.

JM: ts