Experts Expound

Experts Expound

“Two of Brown’s key appointments are in – Diana Dooley to HHS and Ana Matosantos to Finance. Are there clues here as to how the rest of his administration will be set up? Any changes from Brown of 1975-83?”

It’s too early to tell. Both of these appointments appear to be good ones, but they were easy – Matosantos is in place already and Dooley is an old friend of his. The true test is when he has to fill all those powerful boards and commissions, and he has to start reaching out to people to persuade them to serve the public.

Count on a very slooooow transition. Brown is way behind the curve on appointments, behind even where Gray Davis was at this point in ’98.

The only thing it shows is that he has been slow in setting his cabinet.   

The only message that seems to resonate with these two appointments – especially Matosantos – is the notion that Brown will seek competency and talent regardless of where he finds it, including with the previous administration. Any changes from the previous Brown? This administration will not be your daddy’s Jerry Brown. Circumstances demand a different and more urgent approach, and Brown is, if anything, adaptable.

One change from 1975 – that’s the actual year Ana Matosantos was born. Which is appropriate, because so many of the people Brown wishes he could appoint are dead. But to actually answer the question, he seems to be keeping some of the best and most moderate of the Schwarzenegger people. What I’m hoping this means is that he is squarely focused on the budget problem, which he seems to be. If and when the budget crisis improves, look for him to put more of a personal stamp on some of these slots. Though it makes sense he’d put his own people in charge of things like HHS – since Schwarzenegger didn’t seem to want to even have HHS.

Expect to see a lot of old hands, steady hands held over from the Schwarzenegger administration, and a host of other hands that aren’t the usual suspects that have the ability to reach across the aisle.

People are so unhappy with government, Brown could appoint Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa, and people would still have questions about intelligence and ethics.
What ever happened to Dean Florez? Hear he’s supposed to get something, maybe high-speed rail.

Andrew Acosta, A.G. Block, Mark Bogetich, Barry Brokaw, J Dale Debber, Peter DeMarco, Mike Donovan, Jim Evans, Kathy Fairbanks, Jeff Fuller, Rex Frazier, Ken Gibson, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Sandy Harrison, Bob Hertzberg, Jason Kinney, Greg Lucas, Mike Madrid, Nicole Mahrt, Steve Maviglio,  Adam Mendelsohn, Barbara O’Connor, Bill Packer, Kassy Perry, Jack Pitney, Adam Probolsky, Tony Quinn, Matt Rexroad, Matt Ross, Roger Salazar, Dan Schnur, Will Shuck, Ralph Simoni, Sam Sorich, Ray Sotero, Garry South, Kevin Spillane, Robin Swanson, Angie Wei, Rich Zeiger

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