Doyle criticized for overturning old appointments
11:24 PM 1/07/03
Phil Brinkman and Karen Rivedal Wisconsin State Journal

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle should allow citizens appointed to state boards and commissions but never confirmed to serve out their terms, the Republican leader of the state Senate said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, R-West Bend, said rescinding those appointments, as Doyle did Monday, only rewards the obstructionist tactics of former Democratic majority leader Chuck Chvala.

During five years as majority leader, Chvala held up scores of appointments made by Republican governors. That paved the way for any future Democratic governor to replace them.

Hours after being sworn in Monday, Doyle announced he was withdrawing the names of 127 people appointed to various boards and commissions by the past two administrations but never confirmed. They included four members of the UW Board of Regents and three members of the Natural Resources Board.

"It really isn't complicated. It's just getting things back to where they should be," Panzer said in asking that Doyle leave the appointments alone. "But you can't just pretend the abuses didn't happen and benefit from it and then say everything's better."

Doyle, who a day earlier had proclaimed a "new day" in Wisconsin politics, dismissed any suggestion he was accepting ill-gotten political gains from Chvala. As the state's former attorney general, Doyle helped oversee the corruption investigation into Chvala last year. He said he would consider re-appointing many of those whose names he requested be withdrawn.

"But if they were made late in the year, we withdrew the appointment," Doyle said. "And in major boards, where I want to make sure I have people who are in tune with what I want to get to done, I'm the governor and it's my prerogative as governor to appoint people to those positions."

Doyle staffers noted earlier the governor was recommending 73 unconfirmed appointees be retained.

In a letter to Doyle, Panzer said the citizen boards were created decades ago to oversee the state bureaucracy and keep partisanship in check. Members' terms often are staggered to extend beyond one administration.

Yet, at the end of the last legislative session, the Senate - then under Chvala's leadership - hadn't confirmed 202 appointments, according to the Wisconsin Legislative Council.

That compares to just 10 the last time the governor's office changed parties, Panzer said, from Democrat Tony Earl to Republican Tommy Thompson in 1987.

"We must not allow Sen. Chvala's abuses to circumvent Wisconsin's tradition of citizen government," Panzer wrote. "The only way his plan can succeed is with your active participation."

Panzer would not say whether the current Republican-controlled Senate might retaliate by bottling up future citizen appointments by Doyle, although she said the Senate would act quickly to confirm cabinet appointees.

Doyle used three main criteria in deciding which appointees to replace: those appointed after the Senate recessed last spring, those whose terms were due to expire this year, and those in sensitive positions who are not likely to share the governor's political views.

Doyle said he would not reappoint regents James Klauser, Lolita Schneiders, Phyllis Krutsch and Gerard Randall, all nominated by Thompson in 2000 and 2001.

The board could see as many as six new members soon. In addition to the four unconfirmed regents, Doyle also can replace two regents - Jay Smith and Alfred De Simone - whose confirmed terms ended in May 2002. Neither was replaced nor reappointed by former Gov. Scott McCallum.

Three more regents will see their terms end in May, putting as many as nine new faces on the board by that time. Normal turnover on the board is just two to three per year.

"It's extraordinary and unprecedented and I think it will be unsettling to the work of the System," said Randall, who was one of only two black regents on the board and a strong advocate of affirmative action and other diversity-related issues. "I just think it was bad politics that was played. The state deserves better than what's being played out now."

Randall and some other regents said they worry that the board will be unprepared to handle critical issues including the large budget cut that soon may be necessary to help balance the state's bloated budget. A pending Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and possible federal changes to higher education funding also will make difficult work for regents in the coming months.

But board vice president Toby Marcovich, whose own term ends in 2004, said he was not worried about having new members on the board.

"I don't think that it will have a deleterious effect on the board," Marcovich said. "We have 17 regents. We have a lot of experience on the board. Every single one of these regents was brand new at one point, and all of them have been very quick learners and have learned to participate in the work of the board."