It’s odd that so many of them come from the ranks of the poltical class. By my count 8 out of 15 of the inner circle could plausibly list “politician” as thier current or most recent job.
It’s not that politician is necessarily a bad career choice, but I don’ see how it prepares someone for the task of managing a city agency and agency administration involves much different skill sets and personality types than running for elected office. The latter requires public speaking, gladhanding, shameless money raising, deal cutting, and not wincing at seeing your name on campaign posters everywhere; the latter requires organization, managing people and focusing like a laser on efficiency.
If in New York, Mayor Bloomberg has had any success, it has been that he has appointed good managers to run city agencies. As best I can tell, only (coincidentally) NY head of Housing Preservation and Development Shaun Donovan fits that description.
So it will be interesting to see how this crew works out. My suspicion is that in the Obama management structure, agency heads act more as cheerleaders, selling his plans to the public–a job otherwise known as politicking–than actually running the agency.
Either that, or the promise of a new era managerial competence is a false one.
