On Monday, I told you that NorCo County Executive-elect Lamont McClure had chosen a transition team. This led to a few derisive comments, which is to be expected on a blog about local government. But yesterday, a GOP friend was talking to me and derided the idea as completely unnecessary. I told him it's too bad he's unable to speak to Ulysses S. Grant.
When John Brown took over as Executive, most of his first year was a comedy of errors. He appointed as a Public Defender the husband of a sitting judge. He named a voice-over artist as his Director of Community and Economic Development. He failed to fill several slots. His first choice for Administrator, Cathy Allen, had no real government experience or education. He went six months before filling three of his most important cabinet posts. He had no transition team. He had one meeting in he backroom of Michael Snover's law office attended by people who themselves had no understanding of county government and just wanted to divide the spoils. Brown thought he knew better because he comes from the business world.
Ulysses S Grant thought he knew better, too. He refused to run his cabinet choices by people who understood how federal government works. He even refused to share his inaugural speech. The result was a disaster. He appointed a Secretary of State who lasted all of five days. He selected a wealthy business magnate as his Treasury Secretary, completely overlooking a federal statute that barred the Treasury Secretary from engaging in trade or commerce. He had to withdraw the nomination.
"I entered the White House without any previous experience in either civil or political life," he would later admit in his memoirs. "I thought I could run the government of the United States, as I did the staff of my army. It was my mistake, and it led me into other mistakes."
A transition team will assist McClure in making quality cabinet level picks before he assumes office. While I am sure there will still be mistakes, a group of advisers should keep them at a minimum.
Grant was so revered at the time that people overlooked these errors. But neither Brown nor McClure were successful generals who ended the Civil War.
24 comments:
To bad it is filled with job seekers.
It’s the mostly unemployed party in exile. Lots of jobs to be gifted. That’s politics. You won’t read a negative thing about any of them for at least four years.
So does it mean that the people on the Transition Team will not be part of his cabinet or will they?
Your on point BOH. But I think there are a few ways to go about it then the McClure way. His is too large; future job seekers should be excluded; failed executives should not be invited; and political hacks should be sent back to their hobbits. Otherwise, a smooth transition team will help!
6:50 AM.....very interesting
What is a failed Executive and/or a political hack? Are you talking about someone who lost an election or someone who did something you don't like.
Bring back Michael Solomon we need that New York City connection.
We all know how desperately desperate you are to return to the open filtered Stoffa years when you had access to every drawer, cabinet, closet, office, wastebasket, employee, and bathing in the can, and actually pushed the ink on many of Stoffa's deals...sort of like holding office without having to win. Those were fun years for you, with the gasbag in District 4 seated to help do your bidding, and his own, with all your help.
As you sit in slumber behind your keyboard singing McClure's praises , and crafting a 'can do no wrong' song of blogs...like your recent flip flop with Barron (the enemy of my enemy is now my friend) , I assume you are getting all giddy, mouth watering and all, thinking that McClure will bow at your feet daily, saying "Your wish is my command" like Stoffa did.
When we see the blogs start to change, getting tarred with rank odor, fecal matter, and the usual hate filled rage, ( as is the case with hundreds of others who dared whistle by without saying "Hi") we will know McClure has snubbed you too, like Brown did, when you had to get in line like everyone else.
The lack of a transition team, and the outcome, is nearly identical to the current WH administration - the top level of government. The current administration had nearly no transition team for a good amount of time. One might be able to correlate some aspects of failure to this lack of a transition team, but I think it shows more of the mentality of "I know everything, I need no one to investigate how departments work and their actual roles in federal government. I know all".
At the very least, a transition team can determine what agenda items the new administration will: 1) continue, 2) alter, 3) completely drop.
A sad mentality, which we citizens will pay for one way or another.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/usda-food-stamps-school-lunch-trump-administration
You've spent the past four years decimating John Brown and all people who surrounded him because he changed the media policy, and disallowed employees from speaking to the press, which included bloggers.
Without free access to the courthouse gossip hounds, you waddled (tail between legs) to the same union members you regularly bashed with frequency, for a hint or scrap of gossip, and got some from the disgruntled brigade of soon to be fired has-beens.
Surely, you sit in wait with clenched fists, like a child on Christmas Eve, anticipating what Santa is going to leave in your stocking. Can't wait to see the vitrol start spewing when you realize its nothing but coal.
Very well written. Too bad you are clueless.
"To bad it is filled with job seekers."
It's too, not to. You apparently need a transition team to write in English.
"So does it mean that the people on the Transition Team will not be part of his cabinet or will they?"
My guess is that it is a mix of people and that most will NOT be members of McClure's cabinet. People like Jerry and Frank really care about the county.
8:31, John Stoffa is my friend. The notion that I had special access under John Stoffa is, as you know, a lie. I had no privilege that any member of the public lacked. In fact, quite the reverse. Nor will I seek or receive any kind of special treatment from Lamont McClure.
9:02, John Brown had no transparency. He tried to act as though he was in the business world when he was in fact part of a government. There is a difference. A transparent Exec responses to emails and telephone inquiries. A transparent Exec talks to the media himself instead of through a taxpayer-subsidized PR firm. A transparent Exec reveals the locations of prison sites he considered. A transparent Exec makes people who are knowledgeable about a situation available instead of telling them not to talk to the press, which they eventually do anyway. A transparent Exec does not instruct people not to attend Council meetings.
I think this can be a lesson to those who say government should be run "like a business". Many voted for Brown because they thought that is what he would do. It is what he attempted to do, and failed. He failed not necessarily because he was a bad person or even a bad administrator. He failed because his assumption was wrong. Government cannot be run "like a business" because government - especially in a representative democracy - is a fundamentally different endeavor from private business. Each has different goals and different rules. Neither is better or worse than the other. Each sector should stick to its own domain, and everyone would be better off.
I believe that 1:38 is partially right but many aspects of good government can be run like a business. I have always believed that the best businesses treat valuable employees well and compensate them at an appropriate rate of wages and benefits. In turn valuable employees often appreciate that loyalty and function at a higher rate of productivity. Be it in the business or government side of it's operations, Brown's administration treated its employees poorly and paid the price. I do not live or work in Northampton County but I know a number of very good and capable people who do work there. Most are longer term professionals who are anything but political hacks. Their opinion of their treatment under the Brawn Administration was unanimously negative. Treating good people poorly is not a best practice of either good government or good business.
You're suggesting successful business people fail at government because they approach government from a "business perspective". Key is what makes someone "successful". Individuals who are successful generally approach leadership and problem solving through data and not ego be it in the private sector or the public one. Perhaps that was John Brown's problem too much ego and not enough fact and data driven leadership. Sounds similar to #45 doesn't it? John Brown's an intelligent person but if the methods don't match the intellect the outcome will probably be less than ideal.
It will be so sad to see the carnival circus lady take her traveling popcorn machine and purchase a monkey to stand on the corners around the courthouse grinder in hand!
I had tried to tell of this transiant transplant specialist from its departure.
The most bi-partisan administration in terms of Republicans appointed/hired (more Republican lawyers appointed than under Brackbill or Brown) by a Democrat occured under Reibman who had a transition team of 3 including Reibman. Government by committee is an excercise designed either for 1)to make key supporters feel good 2)secure good pr 3)hide the fact there are no clear goals, specific agenda nor strategic policy initiatives worth implementing. I pray 1 and 2 is the executive-elect's rationale.
If you want to claim this as fact, you need to ID yourself.
Bernie did you read the DA's Drug task Force newsletter?
Just got it. He sends it out this time every year. Your comment is off topic.
While we sit and ponder the changing of the guard with McClure and his new appointees....let me say this. NOT all of Brown's appointees were bad choices. The DHS Director Allison Frantz has been the most positive, intelligent effective DHS Director we have had in a few administrations. She understands the divisions and the issues at hand, she has answers to the questions that County Council has asked through the years, ahs managed issues at Gracedale and she has RESPECT from the employees under her. McClure, if he has any logical sense at all will evaluate this appointment and retain her.
Couldn’t agree more. Allison has been an excellent human services director. She supports her staff, encourages new ideas to support consumers, and also helped unite the divisions to work together to best serve the citizens of the County. It has been a welcome change to feel respected and valued by an employer.
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