by Bruce Feustel
Many state legislative staff directors are hitting retirement age and legislative leaders are making tough decisions about how to replace them. Paula Tackett in New Mexico and Phil Leone in Virginia are two examples of long-time directors who are retiring from the legislature, leaving large shoes to fill. Yesterday, in a public hearing of Colorado's Joint Committee on Legal Services, Charley Pike announced his retirement as legislative legal services director, and the committee sat down to plot a path to choose a new director.
After expressing their deep respect for Charley and making several lighthearted attempts to see if he could be persuaded to stay on for another session, they debated the benefits of conducting national vs. internal searches or using something in between. Colorado Senior Staff Attorney Debbie Haskins recounted the process for the previous director search and highlighted the legal requirements. I reported on recent history of staff director searches from other states: roughly half have searched nationally, although most have ended up choosing internal candidates.
On a 4-3 vote, the Joint Committee on Legal Services chose to search internally first, because they have some strong internal candidates, are relatively happy with the direction of the office and want to focus their efforts on reviewing candidates that they know are viable.
What I found most interesting was the role that the committee wanted Charley to play in the hiring process. While offering to help the committee as they saw fit, Charley mentioned that he would be uncomfortable providing opinions on the half dozen or so candidates that would come from his office. He didn't want to favor one at the expense of the others or interfere with the committee's decision. Representative Claire Levy sympathized that she understood his reluctance, but noted that Charley was in the best position, as director and supervisor of the staff, to educate the committee on the strengths, weaknesses and potential of the candidates. Charley, ever the good staffer, noted that he would always be responsive to the committee and find a way to provide helpful information and advice. How this will play out in practice was left to another day.
All of the discussion played out in a responsible and bi-partisan manner. Even in election season, committee members set aside the extra meeting time it will take to sift through resumes and interview candidates. Most of all, it was reassuring to watch the committee members show a strong interest in the legislative institution, pay close attention to others' comments and volunteer for extra hours of work for an issue that has no meaning to constituents.
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