Civil rights leader weighs in on state’s human resources chief

This week’s State Worker column explained how Gov. Jerry Brown veered away from convention by picking career tech and finance expert Richard Gillihan to head the California Department of Human Resources. The piece prompted Neptaly Taty Aguilera, state president of CAFE de California, to send the following email. With his permission, we’re reprinting it here, unedited:

Dear Jon Ortiz -

Missing in your commentary regarding Mr. Gillihan, new Director of the Department of Human Resources (CalHR) is his legislatively mandated responsibility as the State's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Officer to implement the many & various EEO laws, polices and regulations. Our hope is that he will apply his bold and innovative talents in his new CalHR leadership role to making State government reflect California's diversity in it's workforce from the top level management positions to the entry level classifications in civil service and not from the bottom up which is the typical bureaucratic tradition. We look forward to working with him and his management team to ensure EEO & HR compliance in all State agencies, boards, commissions, and departments. Thank you.

Neptaly Taty Aguilera

State President

CAFE de California

Chicano Latino State Employees Association

Member, Coalition of State Civil Rights Associations & Organizations

This story was originally published December 4, 2014 at 3:00 PM.