Just Ask Your Boss To Get A Waiver From One-Year Cooling Off Period

Both the Star and the Journal-Gazette have stories today reminding us how useless Indiana's one-year cooling off period is for former state employees accepting jobs related to their former employment. Just ask the boss at your former agency and all is well. The Star investigation found that 102 such waivers had been granted since 2005 compared to 73 waivers sought by a binding opinion after the employee sought permission from the state ethics commission. As an example, the Journal-Gazette observes that an audit manager for FSSA, Aaron Shapiro, was granted a waiver to accept employment with Aging and In-Home Services of Indiana. Shapiro's job at FSSA included auditing his new employer's contracts with FSSA. I was a little disappointed at the examples cited in both stories. I'm aware of far more egregious examples that could have and should have been cited.