LETTER: Appoint based on familiarity

Editor,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate the administration for their timeliness in choosing a president. It is much more effective to utilize a tried and true member of an organization, rather than do an expensive and time-consuming search for a “golden child”.

I would hope that someday our national government, namely, our Presidents, would espouse such a practice. It would be interesting to compare the seamless transition that will take place for Mr. Albrecht to the chaos that erupted when President Bush “honored” Gov. Mike Leavitt with the appointment to head the EPA. Mr. Leavitt’s appointment created a gap in the government in the state of Utah. Even worse, it undoubtedly caused chaos in the EPA. Was the EPA in such dire straits that it required someone from Utah to go straighten it out, or is the head of the EPA just a masthead position that serves no real purpose. I am not sure which is correct. Either way it costs the American people. It reminds me of a recent Dilbert comic where a supervisory position needed to be filled. The logical person for the job did not qualify for the increase in pay raise that the position required. The solution was to hire a supervisor for the worker, and the worker would train the new person to be her supervisor. We think that is highly illogical, but in academia, government, and sports, it is the norm.

Every four years in Washington, the same scenario takes place in numerous agencies. Someone is picked to head an agency, chaos erupts as someone totally unfamiliar, usually one of the president’s cronies, takes the head of an organization they know nothing about. I suggest that government and academia choose people based on more on loyalty, continuity and familiarity with an organization, rather than the length of their resume, or their social and political connections.

Shane Porter