Tides of change (continued)

DEMOCRATS AT THE State House have their share of gripes with the governor these days, some more waggish than serious. An example of the former is one observer’s grouse that "his diversity policy is either Old Stone or Cookson" — a reference to Carcieri’s innate institutional comfort with colleagues, like Department of Administration director Beverly Najarian, from his lengthy tenure in the private sector. On a different note, another State House source says, "This is probably the first time I have seen a governor come in and wait two years before changing [personnel]. To me, it’s a little strange if you run for office, and you say state government is so screwed up you need a CEO to fix it, and then the CEO comes in and leaves all of the people who have been running things in place. Tell me it didn’t take you two years to figure out what was going on."

Asked if his lack of previous government experience has proved a disadvantage, Carcieri — who unequivocally told the Phoenix that he plans to run for reelection — says, "Like anything else, when you come in a new situation, you assess it as you’re going forward. I held over a lot of people from the last administration, partly for that reason. Until you actually get in, you see how departments are functioning, until you see what the priorities are — and as you get in, you see the needs — then you stand back and make some different judgments. So I think when you come from the outside, you don’t know exactly how places are working, whether they’re working well inside, what the issues are. So it’s a little bit of that, yes."

In a subsequent interview, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal asserted the governor "has been implementing serious changes in state government for the past two years." Certainly, the governor threw his weight behind the separation of powers issue — the more even balance of power between the state’s three branches of government, and he trumped the legislature last year by effectively knocking a casino question off the state ballot. Among other accomplishments, Carcieri, who offered stalwart leadership after the Station fire disaster in February 2003, has championed such causes as adult literacy, economic development, and increased government efficiency.

Some Democrats at the State House, though — in a likely preview of the message that Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty or former attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse might wield as the party’s gubernatorial challenger in 2006 — question just how much the governor has accomplished.

When it comes to the timing of Carcieri’s spate of recent personnel changes, different observers attribute different explanations.

Senator Elizabeth Roberts says, "Coming from the Senate side, where we do ‘advice and consent,’ I think some of it is practicality — that they were waiting for the legislature to be back in session. Some of these changes, clearly, you don’t find someone for positions as prominent in a one-week period; These have probably been on the administrative side brewing for some time, and are being made now that we are back in session."

Brown University political science professor Darrell West notes it’s not unusual for some department directors to be retained even with a new governor because, "There’s a sense that they’re professional appointments that exist outside the political process."

Maureen Moakley, chairwoman of the political science department at the University of Rhode Island, theorizes that the volume of moves reflects a changing paradigm between Carcieri and the legislature with the implementation of separation of powers. "While he is likely to get more authority over some aspects of administrative and executive duties, he is also now going to be held accountable in a way that governors have not traditionally been," she says. While the mainstream media has long perceived the legislature as the culprit when things go wrong, because of its previous ability to wield influence on powerful boards and functions, Moakley says, "The person where the buck stops now is Carcieri."

Asked whether the personnel moves are influenced by separation of powers, the governor says, "No, no, no, not at all. These are changes that in my judgment, as I look at the first two years of where we need to go and the next two years — and the kind of input I want, the team I want to build around me — we need to make some of those changes."

WHEN IT COMES to reinventing government in Rhode Island — an effort prominently touted by Carcieri, first during the 2002 campaign with his "big audit" and then Fiscal Fitness — one of the largest efforts is the remaking of five human service agencies under a "secretariat" headed by Jane Hayward. Considering how the five agencies in question — the departments of Health; Elderly Affairs; Human Services; Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals; and Children, Youth and Families — represent close to half of state spending, it’s a massive undertaking.

While the relative success of the effort won’t be clear for some time, it figures as a backdrop in the departure from state government of Peter S. Corr Jr., the respected head of the state purchasing office, who left rather than taking a new role recommended by Department of Administration director Beverly Najarian to link the budgets of the state’s new human service network. Corr’s decision to leave state employment was particularly noteworthy since he had raised questions about the state’s decision to award to UnitedHealthcare, rather than incumbent insurer Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, a new three-year contract for the health insurance of state employees.

Corr, who was away from work for a large part of the bidding process, and raised his concerns with Najarian after returning, says, "It was like I was the messenger, and I was being shot." Referring to his removal from a related committee, he adds, "Obviously, it was a mistake, because it looked like they were setting up the committee to get what they wanted." Corr says he believes Najarian attempted to force him to retire because of how he pointed out deficiencies in the UnitedHealthcare contract. In December, Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel found the bidding process was "so infected with error" that she stopped the state from going ahead with the UnitedHealthcare contract.

Najarian sharply disputes Corr’s account, saying of his view that he was forced out because of his candor, "That is not true, that is absolutely not true," Although she told Corr that remaining in his purchasing job, rather than taking the new post in coordinating human service budgets, wasn’t an option, she says, "It was a question of being asked to take on an assignment," in a similar way that many others were asked. "Mr. Corr’s attitude was that he chose not to take it," she says. "It was an issue of him, in effect, refusing to take the assignment." Noting that the state Supreme Court was scheduled this week to review Vogel’s decision, Najarian defended the process leading to the bid, adding, "We’ll see what happens in terms of the court case."

The story of Corr’s departure hit the Providence Journal on January 10 — the same day that it detailed Najarian’s ouster of Thomas B. Collins, who was hired to overhaul the state’s computer system and technology plans, after 18 months on the job. Although some question removing such a person at this point in the process, Najarian cites the need for someone with a more tactical, short-term-focused management style.

These latter two changes have gotten little attention compared with the governor’s nominees for directors of departments and similarly prominent roles. They may have more to do with the institutional politics of state government than anything else. Rest assured, though, that by the 2006 campaign season, the outcome of the governor’s Fiscal Fitness effort will be grist for the political mill.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.