Former State Rep. Joe Carr this week said State of Tennessee agencies and departments are driven and “absolutely consumed by political correctness,” spurred on by staff at the Tennessee Department of Human Resources (DOHR).
“Political correctness drives their bus,” Carr said.
Carr is currently running for Rutherford County mayor. He disclosed Wednesday that certain people accused him of harassment while he worked at a state agency, but he described the allegations as “a big nothingburger.”
“The commissioners for the most part are appointed by the governor, but the people who really run the show are the mid-level managers, and they are there regardless of administration. That’s where a bunch of this is,” Carr said.
Carr told The Tennessee Star this week that certain state employees have had their careers tarnished due to allegations of wrongdoing leveled against them — allegations that he said had no merit.
DOHR officials did not return requests for comment before Thursday’s stated deadline.
Carr had plenty more to say about the DOHR.
“It [the culture of political correctness] is systemic, and a lot of the state agencies live in fear of DOHR, absolutely. Someone can file a complaint. The complaint, because of the way things are structured, goes in your file and whether it’s true, proven, or factual makes no difference. It doesn’t even have to be corroborated. The complaint is filed anonymously, just like these complaints filed against me. I don’t have any idea who they are. You never get to face your accuser. Ever. In the real world you are innocent until proven guilty, and in state government you are guilty without the ability to prove your innocence,” Carr said.
“All you get to prove is that the story was not corroborated. Look up the word ‘corroborated’ because that’s the word the DOHR uses. They don’t use the word ‘truth’ or ‘facts.’ They don’t use the word ‘provable.’ If you do admit to saying something then we’re not interested in your intent. We’re not interested in context. All we are interested in is can we corroborate the claim the victim is making concerning the allegation? And what ‘corroboration’ means is one other person saying he or she heard or saw the allegation. That is all that’s required. Once corroboration is made they shut down the investigation. I might also add that when they get a complaint the DOHR goes on a fishing expedition. They go around asking other people ‘Have you seen similar behavior by this individual in other regards?’”
State legislators this month called out DOHR officials for promoting political correctness.
Without informing anybody, at least not in a straightforward manner, DOHR leadership this year snuck in a diversity and equity council program they want state agencies to enforce. Gov. Bill Lee, according to the DOHR’s 2020 Annual Report, told Commissioner Juan Williams in June of last year “to build a framework for strengthening efforts around the employee experience in our workplace.” But Williams took Lee’s original mandate and apparently distorted it into something else entirely — indoctrinating the DOHR and all other state agencies into woke politics and left-wing Diversity and Equity propaganda.
The Star asked Carr if he could advise new state employees or anyone considering a job as a state employee.
“Don’t take your private business workplace experience and worldview and presume it’s applicable to the state government. It is not,” Carr said.
“They are two entirely different working environments.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
So what Carr is saying is what we already know about the “jobs” in state government: the people doing the actual work are already there, and the big-salary political appointees put into place with the big-boss titles are superfluous.
Yeah. Private business doesn’t hire washed up Republican politicians solely based on their credentials as washed up Republican politicians.