This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter at nashvillebanner.com/newsletters.
Staff of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission were informed they would be laid off ahead of the dissolution of the commission, despite being told their jobs would transfer to a new department.
The premise of House Bill 910/ Senate Bill 860 was relatively simple before its passage: The appointed board tasked with investigating discrimination in housing and workplaces for the past 60 years would cease to exist, the office of the attorney general would take over its responsibilities and assume the 30 staff members — with two other staffers responsible for federal Title VI reporting going to the state’s Department of Human Resources.
However, after Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law last week, staff were told they would lose their jobs before the commission’s official June 30 end date.
According to emails obtained by the Nashville Banner, staffers were informed by the state’s HR department last week they would all be terminated from their positions, and offices in other parts of the state would be closed with the potential but no certain path to being rehired under the AG.
“Because the duties are being transferred to the AG’s Office and DOHR, respectively, all employees in preferred service positions will be subject to a reduction in force. Non-preferred service employees will be receiving expirations of their appointments,” Karl Houston, a spokesperson for the HR department, said late Thursday.
Minutes after HR answered questions from the Banner, a representative from the attorney general’s office sent a brief email to commission staff, giving them a week to pitch themselves to the office.
“The functions of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission are being transferred to the Civil Rights Enforcement Division of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office,” the email from Pete Sullivan, human resources director for the AG’s office, reads. “The Division will begin operating on July 1, 2025. If you are interested in being considered for a position in the Division, please email a statement of interest and resume to me by May 23, 2025.”
Meanwhile, HR offered to help staffers find other state jobs and edit their resumes, leading some to believe they were misled into believing that their jobs would be secure.
During deliberations over the bill, the maneuver was characterized by sponsors Rep. Johnny Garrett, R-Goodlettsville, and Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon, as a change of authority to make investigating discrimination complaints more efficient. However, a pattern of anti-inclusion bills and the apparent influence of a contentious former commission member raised doubts about the bill’s intent.
In an April meeting of the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee, Rep. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, asked Garrett whether the current commissioners would still have a job. Garrett primarily spoke of the number of positions. He hedged on questions about pay, but seemed to say there would be no layoffs of paid employees, noting that appointed commissioners would be permanently cut.
“How about employees and all that? Are we going to be laying off employees? Or will we keep everybody? We just transfer them under that umbrella?” Shaw asked.
“Your latter statement is correct,” Garrett replied. “Every employee will transfer over. That’s why there’s no increase in cost. There’s no decrease in cost. The same amount of employees will transfer over.”
Later in the exchange, Shaw asked whether current employees would face pay cuts, and again, Garrett suggested employees were safe.
“Those people who make X amount of money right now, will they remain making that X amount of money, or will salaries change since the titles and all that’s changing?” Shaw asked.
“There’s no anticipation that anyone that’s getting paid now — when they remain and get transferred to the AG’s office — that that’s going to change at all,” Garrett said.
Asked about his framing of the bill during the session and the layoffs announced last week, Garrett did not address any discrepancy.
“I have not had any discussions about any personnel decisions within the Human Rights Commission or the AG’s office,” Garrett wrote in an emailed statement Friday. “My only expectation with House Bill 910 was that all positions would transfer. Oversight of personnel matters is left to each department and agency of state government.”
The departments absorbing these positions also had limited understanding of the fate of the staffers when asked.
“The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office notified current employees of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission that if they wish to be considered for a position in the Civil Rights Enforcement Division, they may contact the AG’s office to schedule an interview,” Chad Kubis, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office wrote in an email Friday. “We hope to engage with many of them throughout the transition. The Office of the Attorney General looks forward to helping Tennesseans who have experienced discrimination in violation of the Tennessee Human Rights Act.”
The office did not answer specific questions about what the roles would be used for, including when asked if all 30 positions would be used for roles related to human rights enforcement.
Of the positions being absorbed by Human Resources, Houston said the department is “still discussing our plans for the transferred positions.”
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.