The House Management Committee met again last week to begin reviewing and revising policies of the House of Representatives. The committee approved the hiring of Nathan Wells as Policy Director for the Speaker, Andrew Ketchings as Clerk, and Ed Perry as an extra clerk on a temporary basis. Earlier post with video No important decisions after the hiring decisions but several important updates were provided.
JJ is covering this committee during the session to provide you with an in-depth look at what is truly a first in Mississippi history: the transition of the House from Democrat to Republican control. Most of this is inside baseball for the politicos and the lobbyists. Enjoy.
Clip 2: The committee reviews the travel policy. The House suspended all travel by members and employees in May 2010 due to budget shortfalls. The committee will likely return to the old policy. Several members said it was a good policy but had been ignored by previous leadership. The old policy was trips had to be approved by the Speaker or Pro-Tem and each member was limited to $1,200 in expenses per year. The committee did not vote on it at this meeting but the comments make it clear to see that is where it is going.
Part 3. I skipped over the office space discussion. That was over an hour long. Discussion of sexual harassment policies. Yup, The committee appointed a three-person subcommittee to review and update the House's sexual harassment policies. Needless to say, the subcommittee is probably going to recommend sexual harassment training for all members and employees (keep the jokes to yourself, please) as well as updating the policy. Speaker Pro-Tem Snowden said it was "overdue".
4:00. Discussion begins on employees. Funny part is when Representative Bennett mentions how they met employees who didn't even know who their supervisors were. He said he would then ask them "well, who do you call when you are sick? They would say 'I don't know'". Very interesting.
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