Louisiana Environment Chief Aurelia S. Giacometo has once again faced scathing criticism of her leadership from the latest employees to leave the agency since her appointment by Governor Jeff Landry.
In a seven-page letter sent to almost every Environmental Quality Office employee on Friday, the agency’s longtime HR lawyer and ethical liaison Roger Ward accused Giacomet of “single-destructing workplace culture” and accusing him of vindictic humiliating behaviour.
He argued that she had degraded efficiency with her initiative and micromanagement, contrary to her public declaration on the rationalization of the institution.
“She presents a friendly public persona with a saccharin smile, but in reality she is a behind-the-scenes vindictive individual who appears to be harassing and harassing bullying, harassment,” Ward wrote in a letter she shares with her supporters and other media organizations. “She has no respect for anyone but her, she is manipulative and totally dishonest.”
This letter is just the latest criticism of Giacometto’s leadership and toxicity. Some say she was raised in DEQ, but it is one of the few broadcasts with the employee’s name.
Over 15 months at her job, she has seen other executives leave. Many of them are her own appointees. Some share criticism of her leadership style, while others say she simply moves to a different job in the Laundry administration or federal posts.
Giacometto and Landry have previously defended her leadership, arguing that change is necessary at the institution to streamline operations and make them more business-friendly.
In a statement sent Friday evening, Giacomet said it filed a similar lawsuit, rebutting “all of these unfounded accusations by this disgruntled employee.”
“I have not been appointed to follow the easy or popular path. I am inspired every day by the dedication of the hardworking employees at LDEQ and will not allow some people to undermine their great work and the success of this agency.
“In my 15 months, we’re building an internal infrastructure that helps technology make our work better and provide transparency to applicants and the public. We’ve successfully implemented cost-cutting measures and make LDEQ more accessible.”
She also wrote that she focused on her early tenure on tours around the state, visiting 40 parishes and over 110 visits throughout Louisiana to see the public being offered “effectively and efficiently.”
“Governor’s warning”
In an interview Friday, Ward confirmed that the letter was him and said he personally witnessed Giacometto’s abusive behavior before his one-on-one contact in May reached him one-on-one from the executive office from his 10th floor.
Ward, a classified employee in the department for nearly 30 years and not one of the Giaccomet appointees, said he was a Republican who voted for Laundry.
Ward said he wanted his letter to convince the governor to reconsider the appointment of Giacomet.
“I hope that will ultimately attract the governor’s attention, and he’ll remove her because he’s not worthy of leading the organization,” he said.
Louisiana DEQ Executive Director Aurelia Giacometto, a plant of the Denka Performance Elastomer plant in Laplace on Monday, July 1, 2024, and on the right, Governor Jeff Landry said the state was trying to ignore the “attack” on the EPA’s factory. (Photo: Chris Granger, Times Picaune)
As an agency ombudsman, Ward’s role included hearing employee complaints about the department and sitting at a meeting with Jacomet in the first few months of his tenure, often writing articles for Jacometto, claiming that he was flawed in employee criticism.
In a letter and interview, Ward said initially he was ready to support Giacomet and help him give the DEQ the improvements he needs, but he became increasingly uneasy as he began targeting employees, particularly employees from previous administrations.
He believes her reasoning doesn’t revolve around violations of rules or policies, but he says it’s because employees rubbed her wrong way and said, “She doesn’t want to be challenged by anything.”
“There was really no basis for writing people down or threatening to punish people,” he said in an interview. “They had done nothing wrong.”
He cited the example of Yolunda Righteous, head of DEQ’s Waste License Division and agency employee since 2011.
Ward said that Giacomet chased her “bad” for her involvement with the group, but that the righteous person also remains the waste that allowed the administrator. Ward said the group was an education organization that helped DEQ help discoveries and helps not violate the institutional policies, but Giacometto argues that she wrote for her involvement.
The righteous man did not state why she was retired and refused to discuss it in a recent interview.
Ward also argued that Giacomet is considering assigning division managers to Monroe’s DEQ office.
He said that Giacomet found the employee “annoyed.” Ward said employees are adding “urgent” and “urgent” to the briefings on the memo. This is a document that Giacometto had requested employees in the early months of management.
Ward said that Giacomet never moved the employees, but instead wrote her.
Ward’s letter comes weeks after the state’s workplace audit and employee survey was published on February 28th, featuring a mixed view of the agency and its top leadership. Also, Giacomet’s second executive counsel recently, Noah Hogut, has been defeated within a year and a half.
In Ward’s letter, he attacked ten executives. He was all her appointees and left after a brief tenure.
Many of them did not air criticism, but said they would leave for other occasions. Tanner Maggie, a former lawmaker and temporary interim assistant secretary until January, described her professional relationship with Giacometto as a great expert in an interview earlier this year.
But another wrote about witnessing “cruelty” and accused DEQ leader of harassing employees and trying to turn her into a “hatcher” who kicked her out of the agency.
Ward’s letter also raised questions about Jacomet’s travel expenses and contractual decisions, and in an interview he accused him of creating a new employee and a “shadow” HR department because he disliked the existing department.
He claimed that she had requested people to meet with her even if they didn’t have their cell phone. Ward said the basket where people place their phones can be seen outside the meeting room on the 10th floor of the department.
Others have previously confirmed with supporters that it happened, not as a secretary’s criticism. In an interview earlier this year, R-Hornbeck’s MP Rodney Schamerhorn said he was asked to do it at a meeting at the DEQ with Giacometto. He said he followed, but he didn’t think much about it.
“Awkward Feedback”
The majority of employees who responded to the audit survey said they liked their direct managers and work, but near the majority there were far fewer positive views on executive leadership.
Over three-quarters report low morale, and about a third also report working in toxic environments. A small percentage has been reportedly asked to do what they believed to be procedurally or legally inappropriate.
The audit was driven by workplace concerns that arose during Giacometto’s tenure, but did not show that employees were individually asked directly about her leadership in the investigation.
Ward said it’s troublesome when legislators and governors don’t exercise what is appropriately monitored. He said the enquiries by the Legislative Audit Bureau and another investigation he said were “no helpful.”
In an interview and letter, Ward said that Giacamat’s “increasingly unstable and surprisingly vicious behaviour” made him unable to remain at his agency, which was his only job in nearly 30 years, rather than his only job in nearly 30 years.
“LDEQ was once a fun place to work. Nowadays, employees are leaving the agency in large numbers just for her,” Ward wrote.
Ward also claims that other mid-level and rank and file employees are leaving to escape the Jacomet, noting that some top positions are open. This letter lists several examples without identifying employees.
In response to a request for public records filed several months ago, the agency provided on Friday in early February presented four openings to the secretary’s office, with at least three other departures following that period.
Despite this year’s openings and ward claims, civil servant data shows that agency turnover rates were below the 2024 state average.
The average voluntary turnover rate for the state is 14.3%. According to the annual report, DEQ’s voluntary fee was 10.2%.
In an interview, Ward said he sent a letter to the department after being told by an HR employee that DEQ had not used the long-standing exit interview form following “funny feedback” about Giacometto’s leadership.
In an interview with his expulsion, Ward confirmed that he had received amazing feedback from the departure employee who called Giacometto “cruel”, “evil” and “vindictive.”
