SHADY BIDDING PROCESS TARNISHES CAPITOL SECURITY PROJECT
They are getting ready to install a $6.8 million security fence around the state capitol. Last December, non-union contractors found out that if you aren’t a union-shoppe, you cannot even bid on the work. Is this because of a state policy? No. Was there a law passed? No. Was there a directive signed by the Governor? No. Today’s FlashReport features a an eye-opening exclusive column from Kevin Dayton of the Pacific Research Institute, who explores more about how this major state works project is being guided by legislators — promoting a narrow, ideological agenda.
* FR Analysis on the Gov’s pick of Carol Corrigan for the State Supreme Court is here and here.
TOOKIE WILLIAMS
At 12:01 tomorrow morning, Tookie Williams is scheduled to pay the ultimate price for committing multiple brutal murders, for which he was convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced to die. Unless the Governor thinks that Williams is innocent of those charges, he should not grant clemency. Simply put, there is no amount of good-deed-doing that can bring back those murdered people. If you don’t like the death penalty, change the law. But otherwise, do the right thing…which in this case is to do…nothing.
MUSICAL CHAIRS IN THE GOV’S OFFICE
On Friday, the Governor’s Office announced that they were making some changes in the senior staff. Understanding that the vast majority of FR readers do not work in government, and are out in the 58 counties — I am going to try and explain this in English (even though jargon is so much easier). The two-cent tour on how the Governor’s office is structured goes like this: The Governor appoints a bunch of Cabinet Secretaries. These folks are
the administrative heads of different agencies, who in-turn oversee departments. This is the senior level of the administration of the vast state bureaucracy. Then we have the Governor’s ‘personal’ staff – these folks work in the State Capitol building, and help the Governor to be effective in doing his job. The single most pivotal job on the Governor’s staff is, in fact, his Chief of Staff. The person in this job works closely with the Governor in every aspect of his position. In general, no matter what agency or department is involved, or which policies or staff are engaged — if something raises to the level of personal involvement by the Governor – the Chief of Staff is engaged. From there, you have a number of folks who report to the Chief of Staff — these are, for the most part, Deputy Chiefs of Staff. They cover areas as diverse as legislative affairs, policy issues, appointments, communications, external affairs, and more. The Press Secretary would also be a part of this group. Also, there is a position called the Cabinet Secretary. This person is the liaison between the Governor and the various Agency Secretaries. There are many, many staff people who work for the Governor both in the Capitol and in buildings nearby — all of whom ultimately report to someone who, in turn, directly reports to the Chief of Staff. This is the quick overview to bring you up to speed, so that some of the rest of this has context.
Slightly less than two weeks ago, the Governor has started to ‘shake up’ his staff, starting with replacing Republican Pat Clarey with Democrat Susan Kennedy. This move was very controversial because of Kennedy’s long, storied background as one of recalled Governor Gray Davis’ Deputy Chiefs of Staff, as well as having served as Executive Director of the California Democrat Party and the California Abortion Rights Action League (for real). I spoke with the Governor, who told me that he reached out to Kennedy because he has been very impressed with her over the last two years in her capacity as a member of the Public Utilities Commission. I will be writing more about Susan Kennedy, so for now I will just draw your attention back to the influential role of the Chief of Staff I described above, and you can draw your own conclusions about what it means to have someone of Kennedy’s background in that spot.
Fast forward to last Friday. The Governor made three changes on his personal staff, all seeming to 
try to offset/mitigate the Kennedy appointment. He moved Fred Aguiar (pictured left), a former GOP Assemblyman, from being an Agency Secretary and brought him in to be the Cabinet Secretary (remember, his liaison to the Agency Secretaries). This is considered to be a key role in the administration. In doing so, he moved the controversial Terry Tamminen out of that spot, and created a new policy advisor role for Tamminen, which keeps him involved. Tamminen is very
much a liberal environmentalist who recently caused some embarrassment for the Governor by bashing President Bush while speaking at a function. Finally, the third move is that a new position was created, a Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, and the quite conservative Dan Dunmoyer (pictured right) was appointed to the role.
* Lots of additional thoughts and analysis on this and other topics are on the FR blog.
What do all of these changes mean? I don’t know. It is hard for someone like me, who is in southern California, who has never worked in a Governor’s office, to really know how to handicap all of this. So I will make a couple of observations about Fred Aguiar and Dan Dunmoyer, and add a closing thoughts on Susan Kennedy and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fred Aguiar is a solid guy – very likable, very approachable, quite respected. That said, Fred is a pretty moderate guy. And when I say that, I am referring less to his Republican ideology and more to his temperament. While his appointment will bring strong organizational skills to an important post (skills that supposedly were not the strong-suit of his predecessor), he is certainly not going to be a GOP ‘offset’ in political skill and drive to Democrat Kennedy, his boss (I’m not sure if the Chief of Staff is technically the Cabinet Secretary’s boss on paper – probably – but if not, no matter. Like I said, the Chief of Staff drives everything).
I will tell FlashReport readers that I was very pleased with the appointment of Dan Dunmoyer. Dan is in fact a very conservative fellow, and a very strategic thinker. Dan’s role inside of the Governor’s office will not be one of table-pounding when there are discussions of tacking left on a policy issue – rather, Dan will make cogent arguments, and will very quickly build up the kind of relationships in the office to where he will influence many aspects of the administration. Perhaps equally as valuable is Dan’s long-standing relationships with conservatives inside of the Capitol. This will provide a needed avenue for exchange of information both from the Governor’s office and to the Governor’s office from an important constituency. Perhaps if Dan had been in place, he could have foretold the Governor that the Senate and Assembly Republican leaders would be vocally critical in the news media of his decision to hire a Democrat Chief of Staff. Dan is a good hire, and hopefully he will be able to have influence in what is looking to be the most important area – public policy. Rumors run rampant that there is going to be massive borrowing, entitlement growing and other expansion of state government proposed. The Governor knows that this is the wrong direction for California – after all, one of the major messages of the special election was that California needs to "Live Within Its Means." Dunmoyer will be the conservative point-man to stop all of this! (Good luck, Buddy.)
This all really ties back to the role of Susan Kennedy (pictured to the right with Governor Schwarzenneger), which I can only assume is as I described above (hint: I spoke with a few people that work on the Governor’s staff to piece together than mini-sketch above). If that is the case, there is no doubt that while Aguiar and Dunmoyer (along with fellow GOPers Mindy Fletcher, Richard Costigan, Rob Stutzman, Cynthia Bryant, Margita Thompson – there are more) will continue to have a important role in this office (assuming they all stay – rumors surround potential departures by Communications Director Stutzman and legislative guru Costigan) – it will be a tough battle with the liberal Tamminen still up there, and with the Governor’s wife, well known Democrat Maria Shriver, supposedly playing an increased role. Shriver brought on board as her Chief of Staff David Zingale, who, like Susan Kennedy, was a Deputy Chief of Staff to recalled Governor Gray Davis (I’m not making this up). As of January 1st, officially presiding over this oddly shaped group of senior staff members is, in fact, Susan Kennedy. She is in charge of everything on the staff end. As a matter of fact, it is said that one of the conditions of her coming on board was the complete authority over the hiring and firing of the entire staff.
Now, all of this focus on the staff is not meant to minimize the role of the Chief Executive himself, Governor Schwarzenegger. Let me be clear, as someone who has seen this Governor at work, he clearly is the ultimate decision-maker. He has a strong personality, and certainly has strong opinions. One of the strengths of the Governor is that he seeks input from those around him. But one of the inherent challenges of being Governor is to surround yourself with good people that will keep your interests at heart, which takes me back to my conversation with the Governor on the day that he announced the hiring of Kennedy. He told me that he was very comfortable that Kennedy would be working to implement his agenda, not the other way around. You know what, from what I have heard from people who know Susan Kennedy, I buy that. But the real issue isn’t Kennedy’s implementation of the Governor’s agenda — it is her role and position as his top advisor as he determines that agenda. As Chief-of-Staff, she will have more one-on-one time with the Governor than anyone else in the administration.
Perhaps I will finish off this off-the-cuff analysis by pointing out that even after exhausting you (and me) with this much typing, there are a ton of other factors out there that didn’t get into my mix – the role of the Agency Secretaries, the impact of legislative leaders, the influence of various interest groups, the non-government employees who are close advisors to the Governor – and more.
If all of this seems convoluted – and hard to absorb – that’s because it is convoluted and hard to absorb.
Your comments, insights and input are welcome via e-mail or anonymously as I try to sort this out for many thousands of FlashReport readers.
Jon
P.S. Tomorrow the Governor will pay visits to the legislative caucuses… FR readers stay tuned for some pre-meeting thoughts, as well as post-meeting reports from our FlashReport-friendly legislators!
* Jim Brulte: A law he passed made a difference…
* New changes coming to the FlashReport.