This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter at nashvillebanner.com/newsletters.
The Tennessee Human Rights Commission will cease to exist at the end of the month under a law passed this spring that targeted the independent agency that oversees discrimination complaints. As the Attorney General’s Office prepares to absorb the commission’s 30 full-time employees, only three have been hired to continue their work.
Last month, employees of the commission were told they would be laid off when the commission sunsets at the end of June, despite the original expectation that they would transfer, in most cases, to the Attorney General’s Office, as was described during committee deliberations on the bill. After the Nashville Banner inquired about the layoffs, employees were told they could interview for new positions in the AG’s office.
Those interviews have come and gone, with a fraction of the commission employees applying for or receiving positions in the new office. According to the Attorney General’s Office, only eight of the 30 current employees applied for their jobs, four went through interviews and three were hired.
An employee of the commission told the Banner last week that many employees didn’t bother to apply because of discrepancies in job descriptions. Employees have also reported feeling targeted by the legislation since earlier this spring and have faced uncertainty in their employment since the General Assembly passed the changes in April.
The Attorney General’s Office repeatedly has refused to answer when asked how many positions will be used for the same purpose or classified under the Civil Rights Enforcement Division. The Banner has asked this question of the AG’s Office on at least five occasions, with no direct answer, even as the agency answered other related questions.
The most detailed information provided in separate emails from spokesperson Chad Kubis is that the office “intends to keep the 30 positions allocated by statute” and that all three of those retained from the commission will be in the Civil Rights Enforcement Division. The other 27 positions have not been accounted for.
A spokesperson for the Department of Human Resources also said the office had not decided what will come of the three positions it will absorb, telling the Banner the department “is still discussing (its) plans for the transferred positions, and no determination has been made on the transferred positions or job descriptions at this time,” with only two weeks left before the employees are laid off.
As of Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office listed five open civil rights division positions on its website, including a deputy attorney general and director, and an investigator.
Democratic lawmakers also asked the attorney general for answers about the number of hires when the layoffs were first reported in May. They continued to express concerns when presented with the new numbers.
Rep. Jesse Chism, D-Memphis, said Thursday that the low number of commission employees hired by the Attorney General’s Office is cause for concern, after writing a letter to the attorney general in May noting his “distress” about the layoffs.
“While I understand that transitions in government departments can bring about structural changes, it is nonetheless concerning that only three members of the now-dissolved Human Rights Commission have been retained within the Attorney General’s office,” Chism said in an emailed statement Thursday, calling for “open dialogue” with the AG.
The ambiguity not only impacts the employees of the commission, but also raises questions about how and whether the anti-discrimination work will be carried on when the commission disappears, according to Chism.
“There remains uncertainty about the future of the remaining 30 positions – particularly regarding how many will continue to focus on addressing issues of discrimination based on race, gender, disability or sexual orientation, and how many may be reassigned to other areas of state government,” he wrote.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.