“Governor Sarah Palin [on February 4, 2009] delivered the names of 99 Alaskans she has appointed to various state offices, boards and commissions to the Alaska State Legislature for confirmation” (Appointments, 2009, ¶1).
“Under the Alaska Constitution (Article III, Sections 25 and 26) and state law (AS 39.05) the governor must present to the Legislature for confirmation, within the first 15 days of regular legislative session, the names of those people she has appointed since the last regular legislative session, to terms starting on or before March 1″ (Appointments, 2009, ¶3).
Commentary
Office, board, and commission appointments are considered “routine” and “mundane,” and do not generally receive media coverage. Most bloggers, myself included do not even bother with them. But, I view Sarah’s gubernatorial website daily — sometimes three or four times a day — and I see the appointments. Just because I don’t blog about them doesn’t mean I don’t know about them. Appointments are an important executive function, and since Sarah mentioned them in aggregate, I think it is time to honor her achievements in this area.
When appointing someone to state offices, boards, and commissions, the executive must carefully vet each person to ensure that he or she is aligned with the leader’s mission, vision, strategies, and tactics; that the person is of good character; and that the person does not done something which could bring disgrace to the executive. As we have seen with Obama, failure to do this can bring the executive no end of problems. A leader is only as good as the people who report to him or her. Sound hiring decisions are the hallmark of an effective leader.
A governor does everything POTUS does, except it’s at the state level. A governor is essentially president of the state, thus everything a governor does in some way mirrors what POTUS does. Governor Palin has at least 16 years of executive experience. As a transformational leader, she has a history of hiring people to carry forth her mission and vision and firing those who could undermine her.
Governor Palin has in the course of one year, as seen in the foregoing appointed 99 people to various offices, a major task in its own right, in addition to all the other work she gets done. Some of these appointments were made while she was campaigning for VP — her gubernatorial duties did not stop during the 2008 campaign.
To the best of my knowledge, Governor Palin has not made a hiring decision that she regrets. This is a track record to stand in awe of. She does not have an MBA from Harvard or Yale. But she does have an MBA — from the School of Hard Knocks. Ironically, the Governor knows more about business administration than many people who hold MBAs. Those who criticize Governor Palin for “inexperience” do not know what they’re talking about, and could not do 1/10,000th of what she does.
References
Palin delivers appointments to legislature, 99 Alaskans appointed. (2004, February 4). State of Alaska, Governor. http://www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php?id=1626
Follow Ron Devito on Twitter
Friend Ron Devito on Facebook
Comments on this entry are closed.