Governor Asks Mo. Workers’ Comp Director to Resign

June 11, 2007

The director of the Missouri state Workers’ Compensation Division said Friday that she was forced to resign, though she believes she had “done a terrific job.”

Pat Secrest submitted her resignation on Thursday June 7, a spokeswoman for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said. Secrest personally delivered the letter Friday to the governor’s office.

But “it was not my idea” to leave, Secrest told The Associated Press on Friday, June 8.

Secrest, 52, of suburban St. Louis, declined to elaborate on her departure.

“I’m leaving simply because you serve at the pleasure of the governor; I’m just leaving,” she said.

Gov. Matt Blunt named Secrest as director in January 2005.

A source in the Blunt administration with knowledge of the situation, who asked not to be identified, said Secrest’s departure was related in part to the fact that she spent significant time away from the office and had difficulty managing the division.

Department spokeswoman Tammy Cavender declined to give a reason for Secrest’s departure. Cavender provided only a short statement from department Director Rod Chapel: ‘
“We appreciate her service and will continue to set very high standards for everyone in the department.”

Secrest served from 1991-2003 in the state House, where Blunt said at the time of her appointment that she had “become an authority” on workers’ compensation. Secrest lost the Republican primary for lieutenant governor in August 2004.

Shortly after she became division director, Blunt and the Republican-led Legislature enacted an overhaul of Missouri’s workers’ compensation laws that made it harder to prove injuries are work-related. For example, the law required work to be the “prevailing factor” to be compensated for an injury, instead of the previous standard of a “substantial factor.” Supporters hoped the new restrictions would help lower insurance premiums paid by businesses.

More recently, Blunt asked the Division of Workers’ Compensation to conduct its own review of a state fund that pays disabled workers who suffer further on-the-job injuries. The Republican governor cited his displeasure with the conclusions of a report by Democratic State Auditor Susan Montee, who said the fund would run out of money during 2008.

Montee asserted the 2005 law, which capped employer contributions to the fund, was partly to blame for the cash shortage. But Blunt directed the division to determine why payouts from the fund have increased in recent years, from $29 million in 2000 to $64 million in 2006.

Another big issue for the Workers’ Compensation Division was a decision in January by the state Supreme Court that dependents are entitled to receive the payments due a deceased worker who had been “permanently and totally disabled.” That reversed the long-held assumption that workers’ compensation payments end when an injured employee dies of an unrelated cause.

Blunt’s administration supported legislation that would have effectively reversed that decision. The bill passed the Senate but failed to come to a vote in the House.

Secrest said her displacement as director came as a surprise.

“I thought I was doing a terrific job, and I enjoyed it very much and I thought we were having lots of success,” she said.

Her departure also surprised some who had worked closely with her.

Gary Marble, president of Associated Industries of Missouri, said he had met with Secrest late Thursday morning to discuss the Second Injury Fund and had no indication her job was about to end. Marble is a former Republican lawmaker from Neosho who served with Secrest in the House and considers her a friend.

“I’m as shocked as anyone else,” Marble said Friday. “She is the most knowledgeable person in the state of Missouri on workers’ compensation issues. She is the most credible person, the most honest person, the most ethical and trustworthy person I have ever worked with.”

Secrest said her official departure is June 22, though her job effectively ended Thursday night.

By Friday, the department’s Internet site already had Secrest’s name removed as the division director. Lucas Boling, the division’s deputy director, was named acting director.

Topics Workers' Compensation Missouri

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