Gov. Mitch Daniels announced a reshuffling of leadership at four of his top agencies. BMV Commissioner Joe Silverman is out and Ron Stiver, commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development, is taking his place. Stiver's chief deputy, Andrew Penca, will take his place as commissioner. Mickey Maurer is leaving his post as Commerce Secretary by year's end. His chief deputy, Nate Feltman, will step into his shoes. Miguel Rivera leaves the Department of Labor as commissioner to make room for Lori Torres, a Greenwood attorney. And finally, his Chief of Staff Harry Gonso, will head back to Ice Miller before the year's end to make room for Earl Goode, his deputy chief of staff and former head of the Department of Administration.
If you're looking for a person to clean up the problems at the BMV, Stiver would not seem to be the choice. His short-sighted reorganization efforts at Workforce Development made quite a mess of things, causing unemployment beneficiaries to wait an unnecessarily long time to receive their benefits. The Department of Commerce has definitely had some successes, although I think they give away the store sometimes. Feltman makes sense if you're satisfied with the results. It would have been preferable for Daniels to have chosen a person with a background in labor to run the Department of Labor; she is, however, the only new face in the bunch. According to the Governor's press release, "her areas of expertise include real estate law, criminal law, bankruptcy practice, commercial law and litigation, probate and corporate law, as well as being a certified mediator." Penca worked previously as "an investment advisor for AG Edwards & Sons in Indianapolis and served in several product planning and market analysis positions for Honda R&D Americas, Inc., in Torrance, California" according to the press release. Again, he doesn't really have the appropriate background to do the job, but it's politics. Nobody ever seems to get hired in politics because they're the best candidate for the job.
3 comments:
I can't believe he put Feltman in charge. He shits all over everybody who works for him.
Moving Stiver to BMV is not a brilliant move. At least he won't be screwing everything up at Workforce Development anymore.
Every gubernatorial administration has its black sheep.
With Evan Bayh, it was Jack Crawford, for hiring his mistress as his well-paid executive assistant when he was the first Hoosier Lottery director. Everyone in Lake County politics knew she was just that; how the Governor's state police background check passed it over is a mystery to this day.
With Gov. O'Bannon, it was the Teachers' Retirement Fund nonsense.
Kernan didn't hang around long enough, and to be fair, he replaced no one when he was thrust into the limelight.
But, regarding BMV--sometimes things are so broken you just have to scrap it and start over.
I still haven't gotten my plate renewal and the deadline is Sat. They cashed my check July 2.
At this point I don't care who they hire. It couldn't be much worse.
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