Good cabinet, curious transition
Deval Patrick’s cabinet seems like an impressive assembly of talent that includes a good mix of insiders and fresh faces. We are eager to see how they perform when the new administration takes over next week.
But we see a lost opportunity for Patrick, who could have used these appointments to publicly define his agenda.
The public and even the media tend to think of the “government” as a monolithic whole, not the sum of many very different parts that perform many very different functions. The naming of each cabinet member could have been a “teachable moment,” an opportunity to suggest or to show how things might be different in a Patrick administration.
But rather than holding press conferences to talk about each office’s new agenda and direction, Patrick announced most of the appointments in bunches, on weekends, with little or no comment. One of the most anticipated appointments in the aftermath of the Big Dig fiasco — head of the Department of Transportation — was made over the Christmas-holiday weekend, while Patrick was overseas in South Africa.
It’s not that we think there are no fresh ideas brewing — quite the opposite. Patrick seems to be rejiggering government functions in some interesting ways, with some cabinet members given control of more than one. Dan O’Connell will run both housing and economic development, for example, and Ian Bowles will oversee both energy and environment.
In addition, Patrick is creating an intriguing “development cabinet,” with the secretaries of labor, transportation, and housing all reporting to Dan Bosley, Patrick’s economic-development advisor.
Given Patrick’s professed desire for inclusion, transparency, and citizen involvement in his government, it would have been great to hear him talk about each of these decisions. Perhaps he will do so in his inauguration speech or soon after. We are all ears.
