Apparently there is some micro-managing at LA DEQ

Federal grants come with strings like DEI requirements.

Best to not even apply for them.

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Top employees at Louisiana environmental agency resign

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Not sure how this could be viewed as a negative.

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Newsflash, every time I have a new manager, the expectation was to cc them on correspondence outside of certain business as they were learning what I did or for their knowledge of how our system worked. Never to micromanage.

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Except she's not a manager, she's the CEO.

Most in the industry and consultants already hate dealing with DEQ because of how long it takes to get permits or decisions issued. Slow down that process even more and the industry gets pissed.

There is a lot of paperwork involved in sharing data between organizations.

You can’t just call up Natural Resources, ask for non-public data they have, and immediately get it as another agency even if both are the State of Louisiana.



With DEQ in particular, there is likely a lot of paranoia and for good reason, given that the EPA is notorious for consent decrees to force changes without going through normal policy channels.

The new DEQ CEO comes from a federal agency which has a long and strong culture of trying to control communication. "Whistle blowing" is a minor concern. The day-to-day problem is preventing the flow of sender bad information or receiver misunderstanding of good information.'=

That said, such control is hard unless the agency has little to do and little need to communicate... not La DEQ.

Monitoring correspondence between fed employees and the outside world used to be an important practice to avoid legally troubling misunderstandings. Often the outside people have no idea who in an agency has actual commitment authority. Now, blanket pre-approval, however, is just a control trip and a sign of admin incompetence.

Forty years ago (!!!) correspondence was hardcopy prepared by a clerk typist who routinely collected necessary approvals before mailing. Today, most correspondence is digital. Clerk typists have vanished, and most employees have a word processor and internet access. Control of correspondence is very difficult.

Rumor I heard is that Landry originally wanted Giacometto for Secretary of LDWF. But somebody called in a favor to get Landry to appoint the young woman who's now the LDWF Secretary despite her complete lack of experience and credentials.

Good