A front-page story in today's Indianapolis Star details the work awaiting the new governor and his transition team before the January 10, 2005 inauguration of Gov. Mitch Daniels and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman. The headline is: "State's new governor elects to dive right in: Daniels' staff, still celebrating Tuesday's win, must focus on filling 3 key positions quickly." Some quotes:
State law requires that the governor-elect's team be given a state government office, equipment and phone service, plus $40,000, and requires the outgoing government to provide reports to ease the transition. Bill Oesterle, Daniels' campaign manager and a member of his transition team, said there are three hiring priorities: budget director, legislative liaison and personnel director. * * *Updated 11/5/04] Today's Star includes this report:Daniels -- who served two years as President Bush's budget director -- will need someone to immediately begin crafting what are expected to be tough budget decisions, Oesterle said. Daniels also wants a legislative liaison in place to work with Skillman in pushing his agenda through the legislature. That's a job voters made a lot easier Tuesday when they gave Daniels a Republican legislature.
Heading the transition team -- which will be in charge of everything from recruiting to planning the inaugural ceremony and ball -- is Harry Gonso, an Indianapolis attorney and a star quarterback for Indiana University in 1967. * * * He's expecting to fill 20 to 40 top state positions between now and Jan. 10, with many more to be filled throughout 2005. Aides said Daniels could have more than 200 jobs to fill before his administration is fully in place. * * * Gonso said he scoured the library for books and articles on transitions and sought out Republicans who recalled the last transition in the party controlling the governor's office 16 years ago.
"I asked for all kinds of advice," he said. "What things to do and what things to avoid." Among that advice, he said, was to carefully check the background of everyone before hiring, to avoid political embarrassments and to make sure everyone who signs up is loyal to the new administration.
Bill Moreau was both transition director and the new chief of staff in 1988 when Evan Bayh became the first Democratic governor in 20 years. "It was certainly like trying to drink from the proverbial fire hose," he said. There was so much to do and so little time between election and inauguration, he added.
One of the hardest tasks of forming a new government isn't just hiring the right people -- it's firing the ones already there. Moreau said that when Bayh took over from the administration of Gov. Robert D. Orr, the last Republican governor, only one of the many department and agency heads and executive assistants sent in a letter of resignation, effective the date of Bayh's inaugural.
It came from his father, Donald W. Moreau Sr., who was Orr's commissioner of labor. The rest had to be told they could not stay in the new Democratic administration. * * *
Tom New, who was chief of staff when Gov. Frank O'Bannon took over from his fellow Democrat Bayh in 1996, said the dismissals can seem harsh, but they're a necessity. "My feeling is we didn't make enough changes in 1996," he said. "People get comfortable in their roles. People don't think they owe their position to the (new) governor."
After the 1996 election, he said, he and O'Bannon attended a National Governors Association training session for new administrations. The personnel advice he got from a veteran Republican chief of staff, New said, was blunt: "Fire them all." New said that before Tuesday's election, he'd already had people asking if he thought their jobs would be safe in a Republican administration. He told them no. "Not only will you lose your job, you should lose your job."
Wednesday, Kernan met with his agency heads. Laughter could be heard, but afterward, people were blinking away tears as they left. The days of patronage are gone, however, so most of the more than 35,000 state employees cannot simply be dismissed when a new administration takes over.
Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels delivered a letter to Gov. Joe Kernan Thursday regarding the upcoming transition of government that left some Democrats miffed.[More] See also this Lesley Stedman Weidenbener piece today in the Louisville Courier-Journal, and this story today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Posted by Marcia Oddi at November 4, 2004 07:59 PM
• Details: Daniels thanked Kernan for promising to work cooperatively during the transition. But he also asked Kernan not to take steps that would impede the new administration from having "maximum flexibility" when it assumes office in two months.
• Excerpts: "During this interim, we request that there be no additional political appointments, no transfers of personnel from non-merit to merit positions, no new executive orders, no final regulations issued, and no changes to compensation or benefits for any individuals or for any employee group contracts or agreements."
• Reaction: Kernan is committed to a smooth transition, chief of staff Mary Downes said. But Kernan, "is still the governor and he has the responsibility of running the office day-to-day," Downes said. "I don't think we'll unequivocally say, 'Yes, we'll do everything' (that Daniels requested). But we'll take it under consideration and we'll keep them informed."