Opinion ID: 2301794
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Reorganization, Including Downsizing

Text: In the first place, Reinoso planned to reorganize ODME and downsize to three, or perhaps two, principal special assistant positions that would cover three of Reinoso's five proposed core functions: interagency relationships, partnership development, and education strategy. [30] Two of the older special assistants whose employments were eliminated along with Cain's at the end of 2007, Pinckney-Hackett and Julia Lara (a woman over age forty), were not qualified for any of the three positions. Reinoso had hired both of these other senior employees at about the time he hired Cain, but according to his deposition, Pinckney-Hackett's principal responsibility, responding to parent complaints, was to be shifted from ODME to the new Ombudsman's Office, and she was not qualified by education or professional experience for any other position at ODME. Nor was ODME to continue dealing with the issues that Julia Lara had been handling-issues to be transferred to OSSE. Cain does not dispute Reinoso's judgment, expressed at his deposition, that she was not qualified either for the interagency position or the partnership position relative to other staff. The issue before us, therefore, concerns her qualifications for one of the newly designed, education strategy positions at ODME.