Shake-up in governor's office — wow!

The current chief of staff, Neil Ashdown, will no longer have to share access and power with Mower. Known as a "nice guy" policy wonk, many feared that Ashdown did not possess the ability to survive in a cutthroat arena. He has more than survived; Ashdown has flourished — which is good news to the state. Key legislators and Cabinet officials respect Ashdown's intelligence and guileless nature. He may not possess Mower's wit, but he does breed powerful friends.

Ashdown also enjoys a formidable academic portfolio, which complements his experience in state government. With Mower as a wing man, Ashdown is expected to move the Huntsman administration toward deeper engagement in state issues.

Stay tuned.

Webb: It's always fun to gossip about changes in key staff roles in high-profile places like the governor's office. In this case, however, it would be a mistake to read the Mower reappointment as a demotion.

The way the Huntsman administration is structuring the planning coordinator position, it will be highly substantive and important. Mower will work closely with Cabinet members and every state agency, executing a plan to make state government more efficient and effective.

Mower is a good PR guy. But this administration has never had or needed a massive PR machine. The office doesn't churn out a half-dozen press releases a day like some politicians do, or undertake an "initiative of the week." They do take advantage of the PR

opportunities that come naturally from being a very active governor who makes many appearances and speeches and has the good fortune to preside over the best economy in the state's history.

Just by doing his job and not making amateurish mistakes, Huntsman gets plenty of good PR.

So Mower is now moving into something more substantive than PR. Since Huntsman first took office, the administration has been executing a quiet, but very significant, initiative to make state government more effective, efficient and accountable.

It's called the Balanced Scorecard and is designed to create performance measures aligning the operations of state government with the governor's strategic mission and objectives. It is a performance management system that has been widely and successfully used in the private sector for many years, and Huntsman is applying it to state government.

Mower will head up the initiative, working with Cabinet members and giving the initiative the visibility, credibility and prestige that it deserves to become a powerful force for effective state government.

State leaders for too long have not had effective means to measure and monitor how successful their agencies are. Mower's initiative will give them, and ultimately the governor, relevant data and information so that, at a glance, they can measure performance and identify weakness and strengths. With the initiative fully implemented, the governor may soon have the specific data and measurements he needs to determine just how well the big enterprise he governs is performing. That would be real progress.

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Republican LaVarr Webb was policy deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Deseret News managing editor. He now is a political consultant and lobbyist. E-mail: lwebb@exoro.com. Democrat Frank Pignanelli is Salt Lake attorney, lobbyist and political adviser. A former candidate for Salt Lake mayor, he served 10 years in the Utah House of Representatives, six years as House minority leader. Pignanelli's spouse, D'Arcy Dixon Pignanelli, is a Utah state tax commissioner appointed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. E-mail: frankp@xmission.com.