How to make a dead skunk stop smelling
November 10th, 2006
By
New administration personnel changes or how to make a dead skunk stop smelling
Do not miss an article in today’s Gazette article by Staff Writers Kevin J. Shay, Steve Monroe, Douglas Tallman, Chris Yakaitis and David J. Silverman of the Capital News Service: “Bracing for a post-election shakeup.”
It is a definitive piece on the upcoming personnel shake-up that occurs when a new governor and administration takes office in
In days gone by, this transition was relatively unreported upon; however, the
Nowadays, even the most uninitiated citizen knows about staffing changes that accompanying administration changes.
I had a particularly candid conversation with a friendly liberal elected official in July 2005, just after “an inquiry into the personnel polices of the Ehrlich administration,” was announced.
According to Tom Stuckey of the Associated Press, on July 8, 20006:
“House Speaker Michael Busch today appointed a committee of four Democrats and two Republicans to join six state senators in an inquiry into the personnel polices of the Ehrlich administration. Democratic legislative leaders agreed last month to create a special committee to probe allegations that the rights of career civil servants were violated when they were summarily fired after Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was elected in 2002... While aides to Ehrlich and Republican lawmakers said they fear the investigation will turn into a witch hunt...”
The inquiry turned into a witch-hunt. See my Tentacle columns of July 25th, 2005: “A Skunk by Any Other Name Still Stinks.”
I began the column by saying:
If there was ever proof that evolution can go in reverse, it is the news that House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr., have actually (for real, I’m not making this up) appointed a committee of inquiry to look “into the personnel polices of the Ehrlich administration.”
I read in an Associated Press article the other day, that Speaker Busch has named a Un-Maryland Activities Committee “of four Democrats and two Republicans to join six state senators…” Ya Da Ya Da Ya Da.
Good grief.
Memo to Speaker Busch: “The more you run over a dead skunk, the flatter it gets and the more it stinks.”
The elected official, with whom I spoke, prophetically observed that Maryland Democrats should think past their noses about making so much fuss about staffing changes. That it was that elected official’s desire to have a Democrat elected to the Maryland State House - - in the election that how now transpired.
That once that occurs, the new Democratic governor will want to replace many folks and the residual hyper-scrutiny will be unwanted.
That said, it will interesting, to say the least, to see how much scrutiny the
Many folks are doubting that there will be that much scrutiny. Thoughts are that the Baltimore Sun will give Gov.-elect O’Malley a pass.
As much as I agree with that analysis, the Gazette already seems to be on the story. And one can only imagine that the Gazette, or the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post, the Hagerstown Herald Mail, the Annapolis Capital Gazette, the Washington Times will not give the Gov.-elect a pass. And certainly the
The blatantly partisan personnel inquiry certainly poisoned the waters between the Dems and republicans in
In the Gazette article, Gov.-elect “O’Malley said there will be no wholesale firing of political appointees from the Ehrlich administration. Ehrlich drew criticism for allegedly (my emphasis) seeking to identify and fire Democrats.
‘‘I am going to go after professionalism, and we’re going to recruit the most professional people we can find,” O’Malley said.
The operative word in the proceeding was “allegedly.”
Memo to the Gov.-elect; the election is over. You won.
Enough with the implied slights on
They are, for the most part, quite professional, talented and committed to doing a good job, whether it be for you or the previous administration. They are actually flesh and bones people and not political rhetoric concepts. They have feelings and families and the rule of thumb is that the classier practitioner of politics does not politicize subordinates, kick folks when they are down and certainly does not malign them when they cannot defend themselves.
My ear to the ground indicates that many state employees are not taking too kindly to the unprofessional remarks. Even the ones who are looking forward to working, once again, with a Democrat are starting to feel some unease and dyspepsia.
The State workforce includes 80,000 employees. Approximately 7,000 of the employees are at-will. That is, they serve at the pleasure of the governor.
It will be interesting to see just how many employees get the pink-slip from Governor O’Malley.
As an elected former chief executive officer, there can be nothing more important than having folks on your team that are willing to roll up their sleeves and move heaven and earth for your agenda - - the agenda for which you were elected. In
Governor O’Malley has the right to put in place as many of his folks as he sees fit to move his agenda forward and having worked with many of them in my capacity as the former mayor of Westminster, I have first-hand knowledge that if he takes some of his team from the City of Baltimore, they are quite talented, knowledgeable and capable.
According to a Washington Times article on May 25th, 2005, by S. A. Miller; “Lawrence J. Hogan Jr., the governor's secretary of appointments, said the Ehrlich administration in three years has fired 280 of its 7,000 at-will workers.
Mr. Ehrlich's Democratic predecessor, Gov. Parris N. Glendening, fired 309 at-will workers in a single year from the Department of Transportation alone…”
Paul E. Schurick, the governor's communications director, said it better than I could in a June 3rd, 2005 Gazette article by Thomas Dennison: "The double standard is as gross and as egregious as I have ever seen. The fact of the matter is, dozens of legislators have made a career of trying to influence the hiring and firing of state employees."
I will withhold judgment, but I can only imagine that there will be little attention paid to how many leave – as the double-standard will arrive at no greater heights in the coming months.
I certainly look forward to the thoughtful and well-measured Mayor O’Malley coming back now that the election is over. In consideration of the challenges that the State of
Meanwhile that dead skunk still stinks. It would wise for the Gov.-elect to put some distance between himself and that dead skunk and working for the best interests of all Marylanders and taking care of the 80,000 state employees – including the 7,000 at-will employees that you will need to make it happen for you.
Just trying to help. Meanwhile, I guess we’ll be watching…
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