State Budget Director Paul Francis may need to trade in his green eye-shade for a bullwhip when he becomes director of state operations on Jan. 1 – but the switch could be a key first step in bringing coherence to an otherwise chaotic executive branch.
Gov. Spitzer announced Wednesday that Francis will replace Olivia Golden, who has been operations director almost since the gov took office. Francis’ chief deputy, Laura Anglin, will become budget director.
Francis will oversee the state’s 60-plus agencies, boards and commissions – all now mired in the dysfunction that has marked the Spitzer administration almost from the start.
He’s the right man for the job – being widely admired for his intelligence and competence, and for having the deep respect of the governor himself.
Francis hails from the business world, having served as chief financial officer at Priceline.com and for Ann Taylor stores, as a managing director at Merrill Lynch and as a private-practice lawyer.
He was also Spitzer’s policy advisor during his campaign. That, along with his service as budget director, should afford him great familiarity with Spitzer’s policy thinking (for better or worse).
In those roles, he was also likely able to forge good working relationships with the many agencies he’ll now be working with daily.
The Francis-for-Golden swap might also presage a broader Team Spitzer reshuffle.
That, too, would augur well for a crew that’s had trouble getting the rubber to meet the road (to put it kindly).
Whether Francis can effect a personality transplant for his principal is the broader question. Cantankerous on good days and corrosively combative the rest of the time, Eliot Spitzer has been his own worst enemy since Day One.
Given fiascos like his illegal-alien driver’s-license plan, his off-the-charts budget this year and his recent full-speed-ahead drive for a massive expansion of health-care spending, we’ll remain skeptical about the prospects for positive policy initiatives.
And, frankly, until the Spitzer “Dirty Tricks” scandal is resolved – until New Yorkers learn exactly what the governor knew and exactly when he knew it – the administration can’t hope to become fully functional.
But the appointment of Paul Francis is a substantial step in the right direction, and the governor is to be congratulated for taking it.
We wish them both luck.