Big names may not be best picks for Cabinet

In two weeks, a group of Utah citizens Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman Jr., has put together to advise him on who should hold the top state government jobs will present him a report on their findings, likely with some recommended names to head state departments.

Like President Bush, Huntsman is deciding who will sit in his Cabinet.

And, as in Washington, D.C., there will be a lot of speculation by political insiders about who will serve where.

While it is important who runs the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Utah Department of Transportation, the fact is most Americans and Utahns don't know or care.

Who is the U.S. transportation secretary? Can you name the executive director of UDOT?

You see my point.

I was covering politics in 1991 and 1992 and recall all the rumors, intrigue and anticipation as then-Gov.-elect Mike Leavitt went through a similar process — big committees to review departmental operations and personnel. Newspapers and TV stations blasted the new state appointees' names loudly. And then the people's names were rarely seen in headlines again.

When the departmental or agency chiefs left their posts years later (few actually made it through all 12 years of the Leavitt/Olene Walker administrations), their resignations made the back pages of newspapers, if they made it at all, and weren't mentioned on TV news.

The exceptions are when a department or agency director really does something wrong. There's a scandal, there are firings and maybe even charges filed.

If they are doing their jobs well, state bosses usually sail under the public and media radar.

Yes, there are exceptions for huge projects — like when UDOT was rebuilding I-15 in Salt Lake County. A lot of people were paying attention to who was running that operation because they were stuck in traffic day in and day out waiting for different freeway sections to be completed.

But can you name the current head of the Utah State Tax Commission or the Department of Corrections?

Like Leavitt before him, Huntsman will build his Cabinet with people he likes and trusts. Many will undoubtedly be new, although sometimes an incoming governor keeps those already in office because he needs their expertise or they actually serve a term.

Tax commissioners, for example, serve four-year terms and a new chief executive can replace one only at the end of the term, unless the commissioner resigns.