WORKERS: Penalties hurt taxpayers, too

Idaho taxpayers need to be aware of how much waste of tax dollars is occurring with the knowledge of the current administration. When the governor and his staff were made aware of an illegal work environment within the Department of Health & Welfare those individuals were told by the governor's staff "we don't care, don't look for us to help" and "we think that conditions are fine, we don't need to investigate" and suggested that the people reporting the issue were the problem.

By the time state employees exhausted all other avenues and contacted the governor's office regarding the poor treatment of women and the illegal working conditions within the Department of Health & Welfare, nearly 40 women had been fired/pressured to leave/harassed or bullied under this current management. The result of this lack of action has caused the loss of "THOUSANDS" of taxpayer dollars in wrongful termination/harassment settlements.

Can the taxpayers really afford this ineffective, unresponsive, unprofessional administration? In this economy and with budgets as tight as they are, how can this administration justify paying out thousands of dollars in settlements, legal fees, staff wages, man-hours, etc., it has taken to resolve these cases but no action has been taken to correct the problem.

Governor, you and your administration are bad for the families of Idaho.

S.L. BANDUCCI

Coeur d'Alene