11-11-2006, 03:18 PM
Time ticking for Crist to build his team
Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
TALLAHASSEE -- Now comes the hard part.
After making Tuesday's gubernatorial win look almost easy, Attorney General Charlie Crist has about six weeks to choose more than two dozen department heads and put his stamp on a state budget that totals more than $70 billion.
But Crist and state Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, the Cape Coral legislator who was elected lieutenant governor, have the unprecedented luxury of running a one-party transition with a friendly Republican Legislature.
"Everybody thinks that you just pick the agency heads and on high noon on the first day, you hit the switch and everything goes. It's not that way," said Jim Krog, a former chief of staff for Gov. Lawton Chiles.
Krog said Crist can draw on Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's supportive staff, as well as his own inner circle from the attorney general's office, but that the new team needs to get out into the agencies and learn what's really happening -- particularly the bad news.
"I'm sure the agencies have all prepared briefing books for the transition, but, a lot of times, those give you kind of best-case, rosy scenarios," Krog said. "You want to know the good things they've done, but you need to know their shortcomings, where they've failed to meet their mission -- not in a punitive way, but because those areas will become your vulnerabilities."
Faced with a special legislative session on homeowner insurance and the need to keep campaign promises to hold down property taxes, Crist has the added challenge of striking a new balance of power with a Legislature dominated for eight years by Bush.
"My experience was that the most significant difficulties a public official encounters are in the early days of their service," said former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who was governor from 1979 to 1986.
Graham said that after coming off the success of a campaign, "it's important to surround yourself with a staff that will tell you what you don't want to hear."
He said Crist should hire "a mix of those who know state government and those who bring in new ideas from the outside" for the Executive Office of the Governor and the departments.
"My advice would be to pick out the five or six things that Governor Crist most wants to accomplish, and focus 90 percent of your attention on that short agenda."
Former Gov. Claude Kirk, who became Florida's first Republican chief executive 40 years ago, said he is impressed with Crist's background as a Tampa Bay-area state senator and two-time Cabinet officer.
"No one can hand him a briefing book and fool him. He's got the walk-in talent," Kirk said. "Crist has a grip from the attorney general's office. He has a grip from the education commissioner's office. He knows what's going on."
Former Gov. Bob Martinez said Crist's transition has the advantage of succeeding a popular, eight-year Republican administration, with a GOP-run Legislature. Martinez succeeded Graham, when Republicans held about one-third of the House and Senate.
"You have a number of years of Republican control of the Legislature, so you have a lot of staff there that you can also look at, and there's also Governor Bush's staff to look at, so that is helpful, I'm sure," he said.
Crist and Kottkamp will take office in January.
Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
TALLAHASSEE -- Now comes the hard part.
After making Tuesday's gubernatorial win look almost easy, Attorney General Charlie Crist has about six weeks to choose more than two dozen department heads and put his stamp on a state budget that totals more than $70 billion.
But Crist and state Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, the Cape Coral legislator who was elected lieutenant governor, have the unprecedented luxury of running a one-party transition with a friendly Republican Legislature.
"Everybody thinks that you just pick the agency heads and on high noon on the first day, you hit the switch and everything goes. It's not that way," said Jim Krog, a former chief of staff for Gov. Lawton Chiles.
Krog said Crist can draw on Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's supportive staff, as well as his own inner circle from the attorney general's office, but that the new team needs to get out into the agencies and learn what's really happening -- particularly the bad news.
"I'm sure the agencies have all prepared briefing books for the transition, but, a lot of times, those give you kind of best-case, rosy scenarios," Krog said. "You want to know the good things they've done, but you need to know their shortcomings, where they've failed to meet their mission -- not in a punitive way, but because those areas will become your vulnerabilities."
Faced with a special legislative session on homeowner insurance and the need to keep campaign promises to hold down property taxes, Crist has the added challenge of striking a new balance of power with a Legislature dominated for eight years by Bush.
"My experience was that the most significant difficulties a public official encounters are in the early days of their service," said former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who was governor from 1979 to 1986.
Graham said that after coming off the success of a campaign, "it's important to surround yourself with a staff that will tell you what you don't want to hear."
He said Crist should hire "a mix of those who know state government and those who bring in new ideas from the outside" for the Executive Office of the Governor and the departments.
"My advice would be to pick out the five or six things that Governor Crist most wants to accomplish, and focus 90 percent of your attention on that short agenda."
Former Gov. Claude Kirk, who became Florida's first Republican chief executive 40 years ago, said he is impressed with Crist's background as a Tampa Bay-area state senator and two-time Cabinet officer.
"No one can hand him a briefing book and fool him. He's got the walk-in talent," Kirk said. "Crist has a grip from the attorney general's office. He has a grip from the education commissioner's office. He knows what's going on."
Former Gov. Bob Martinez said Crist's transition has the advantage of succeeding a popular, eight-year Republican administration, with a GOP-run Legislature. Martinez succeeded Graham, when Republicans held about one-third of the House and Senate.
"You have a number of years of Republican control of the Legislature, so you have a lot of staff there that you can also look at, and there's also Governor Bush's staff to look at, so that is helpful, I'm sure," he said.
Crist and Kottkamp will take office in January.