The Thicket at State Legislatures

Lessons in Modern Communication from C-SPAN

By Jane Carroll Andrade

Jeremy Art, digital and social media specialist for C-SPAN, was like someone out of central casting: crisp suit; articulate; very D.C. Art clearly loves his job, and he shared his knowledge and enthusiasm during a recent gathering of LINCS members in Washington, D.C.

LINCS—NCSL’s Legislative Information and Communications Staff Section—held its professional development seminar this month in the nation’s capital. The group enjoyed sessions on everything from creativity to managing negative media attention to a social media roundtable, as well as tours of the Newseum and C-SPAN. Thanks to outgoing chair Bladen Finch, who directs the page program in the Virginia Senate, for helping to organize a stimulating PDS. Morgan Blanchard, a communications specialist in the Louisiana Senate, was elected to chair LINCS for the current term through September 2014.

Before Art spoke, we were greeted by Peter Kiley, vice president of C-SPAN Networks, who informed us that contrary to popular belief, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network is not a government operation. It is a private, non-profit company created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. Then Ellen Schweiger, who directs the assignment desk, pointed out that C-SPAN is not just Washington-centric. She uses stringers from across the country to provide content from the state and local levels.

Jeremy Art of C-SPAN

The entire operation was impressive, including the fact that quite a few C-SPAN staff have worked at the network for decades–some since its inception. Not Art, however. He’s worked there five and a half years, about as long as organizations have realized they need professionals to handle their social media efforts. A lot of folks tend to think of C-SPAN as the staid but invaluable audio-visual keeper of government proceedings, but Art puts a social media shine on C-SPAN's coverage. He blogs. He Facebooks. He tweets. By “consistently engaging in the relevant issues” facing government, C-SPAN’s Facebook fans grew from 7,000 in late 2009 to nearly 220,000 today, and its Twitter followers increased from 18,000 to 422,000 in the same time period.

 Art is particularly proud of C-SPAN’s video library, which allows users quick and easy access to video clips dating back to 1987. The videos offer historical perspectives on the news of the day, but Art sometimes finds ways to highlight them in unexpected and fun ways. When the White House announced Jay Carney as its new press secretary in 2011, for example, it took him only minutes to find a 2006 clip in which Carney, then Washington’s bureau chief for Time magazine, said during an interview, “It’s a tricky job. I’m sure I wouldn’t be any good at it.” Then he quizzed us: “Who do you think uses this feature the most?” Since professional communicators are not known for being shy, hands shot up: “CNN!” “Fox News!” Wrong. “Jon Stewart’s Daily Show,” Art answered.

Art also pointed out that the while this extensive record can hold those in the public eye accountable in not-so-serious ways, the clips offer plenty of evidence that public officials are hard-working and professional. The library even holds a video of NCSL members meeting the press following a meeting with President Obama. Art is proud that C-SPAN videos are used by anyone who wants them, including the media, teachers and the general public, offering a truly transparent view of our government in action.

Jane Andrade is Director of Public Affairs for NCSL.

Legislative Chaplains in the News

U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black. Credit: Drew Angerer, New York Times

By Karl Kurtz

Legislative chaplains seldom make news. Today's New York Times features not one, but two, stories about prayers in legislatures. The first is an engaging profile, "Give Us This Day, Our Daily Senate Scolding," about Barry C. Black, the chaplain of the U.S. Senate. A Seventh Day Adventist and former Navy rear admiral, Black recently prayed in the midst of the government shutdown:

Save us from the madness.... We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness and our pride. Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable.

Black, who has been the Senate chaplain for 10 years, comments about his role, "Remember, my prayer is the first thing they hear every day. I have the opportunity, really, to frame the day in a special way."

The second story is about Town of Greece v. Galloway, the case of a small town New York board meeting that starts each session with a prayer by a chaplain that is before the new term of the U.S. Supreme Court. Some residents of Greece are offended that the "chaplain of the month" is almost always a Christian and say that the practice violates the Constitution's prohibition against establishment of religion by government. The precedent in this case involves a 1983 decision, Marsh v. Chambers, in which the Court, overruling several lower court decisions, ruled that the Nebraska Legislature had the right to hire a chaplain and open legislative sessions with a prayer because such ceremonies were "deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country."

Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers

Ernie Chambers, the legendary and long-sitting (1971-2009) member of the Nebraska Senate who originally brought the case challenging the Senate's prayers, returned to the Senate in 2013 after sitting out for four years in accordance with Nebraska's legislative term limit requirement.

Massachusetts' Anne Ziaja Wins 2013 Harrington Award

By Karl Kurtz

Anne Ziaja, director of the Massachusetts Senate legislative education office, received the Kevin B. Harrington Award for Excellence in Democracy Education at NCSL's 2013 Summit last month in Atlanta. Anne has worked in this office for 35 years and has done an outstanding job of providing civic education for countless young people, high school and college interns and adults. She has consistently achieved 100 percent participation by Massachusetts senators in NCSL’s America’s Legislators Back to School program.

Sponsored by NCSL’s Trust for Representative Democracy, the national award recognizes an individual or organization for advancing the public’s understanding of state and local representative democracy.

Harrington, the founding president of NCSL, was dedicated to improving citizens’ understanding of American democracy. Anne received the honor bearing his name for exemplifying the same passionate commitment to excellence in democracy education.

Here is a video of the award presentation to Anne by NCSL past president Sen. Richard Moore, Massachusetts:

After receiving the award, Ziaja said,“To receive the Harrington Award and be honored on a national level is a highlight of my career. Advancing the understanding of representative democracy, and the rights and responsibilities we enjoy, assures that we will have an informed citizenry. I have been fortunate to work with many senators, representatives and legislative staff to educate Massachusetts residents about our state legislature, and give them the tools they need to engage.”

For more information about Anne Ziaja's excellent work as a civic educator, see this release. Congratulations to Anne Ziaja!

Legislative Summit Tackles an Array of Lawmakers' Pressing Issues

ATLANTA —The span of issues facing the nation’s state lawmakers will take center stage all week during NCSL’s annual Legislative Summit, which begins Monday at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Before the Summit’s official opening, a pre-conference Health Summit beginning Sunday will focus on the thorny issues around navigating the Affordable Care Act.  Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, will address the Summit at 11:15 a.m. Monday.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor opens the Summit’s first General  Session, “Our Constitutional Legacy,” at 1:30 p.m.  Justice O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the court, spent 25 years on the bench, much of it as the swing vote, before retiring in 2005.

The Summit, which runs through Aug. 15 and is expected to draw about 5,000 attendees, will also include an energy policy pre-conference, general sessions on America’s retirement crisis, economic recovery and politics (featuring CNN senior political analyst and former presidential advisor David Gergen) as well as sessions devoted to helping military veterans find jobs, transportation issues, campaign finance disclosure, a listening session with the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, a review of the impacts on states of recent Supreme Court decisions, immigration, online gambling, social media and drones.

Although online registration is closed, attendees may register in person at the World Congress Center.

 

Alan Rosenthal, 1932-2013

By Karl Kurtz

"The field of state politics lost a giant." So said University of Illinois Springfield Prof. Chris Mooney upon learning of the death last night of Rutgers University Prof. Alan Rosenthal. Here's an excerpt from a lengthy and informative article about Rosenthal in The Star Ledger today:

Alan Rosenthal, a Rutgers University political science professor whose quiet demeanor masked his far-reaching influence on government in New Jersey and beyond, has died.

Rosenthal, 81, succumbed to cancer Tuesday at his Princeton home.

Although most recently known for casting the deciding vote two years ago on a map that will help decide the state’s Senate and Assembly elections for the next decade, Rosenthal’s most enduring legacy is helping to build state Legislatures – including New Jersey’s — into more powerful branches of government that rival the governor and judiciary.

“He had more influence nationally over state legislatures and their operations in the last 40 or 45 years than anybody else in the country," said William Pound, executive director of the National Conference of State Legislatures. "There’s no question about it."

But that influence did not feed into ego, according to Raymond Bateman, a former senate president who knew Rosenthal since the 1960s.

"He was a self-effacing guy. He never worked to get in the spotlight, but he always did his work well," Bateman said. "Alan was in the vanguard of people who were really trying to make the Legislature better... When Alan talked about legislatures, legislators listened."

Look for a full-length tribute to Alan Rosenthal in the July-August issue of State Legislatures magazine. The articles in that tribute touch not only on Rosenthal's extraordinary contributions to the study of state politics but also his far-reaching impact on strengthening the legislative branch of government across the nation, his leadership of efforts to improve public understanding of representative democracy and his commitment and support to NCSL and other national organizations.

As part of the tribute, I solicited testimonials from 66 current and former legislators, staff, governors, lobbyists, students and political scientists who have known Alan well. Remarkably, 37 of these highly placed and busy people responded with  comments about his effect on their lives. For example, former Wyoming U.S. Senator Alan Simpson said:

Alan Rosenthal shaped my legislative life. We first met when I was a young Wyoming state legislator. Here was this amazing, creative, inspiring, warm, wise and witty man. He became my mentor as to how to make legislating work. He was a game changer for me. My life is richer for having shared a portion of it with him. I consider him to be one of the greatest influences in my life as a legislator. There have been many other influential people in other areas of my life, but he won the prize in that field. He was “The Wizard” in my mind.

Simpson's comments, along with 36 others, can be found in an online supplement to the July-August issue of State Legislatures magazine.

I have known Alan for more than 40 years as mentor, collaborator and good friend. Our once a month or so hour-long phone conversations--lively dialogues ranging across American state politics, civic education and life in general--have been a highlight and staple of my life for many years. I have missed his energy and ideas over the last several months as he has been in decline with his terrible cancer. He is irreplaceable. 

7/12/03 addendum: See the New York Times and NPR obituaries.

Longtime Florida House Sergeant at Arms Earnie Sumner Receives Emotional Farewell Upon His Retirement

By Morgan Cullen

 

Earnie Sumner, right, with Deputy House Sergeant at Arms Marty McDonald in the House chamber on Earnie’s last day of session.

Longtime Florida House Sergeant at Arms and NCSL Officer, Earnest “Earnie” Sumner will be retiring next month after 42 years of legislative service.  Earnie began his distinguished career with the Florida Legislature in 1971 as an OPS (part time) employee and was named House Sergeant at Arms by Speaker Daniel Webster in 1998.  Over the course of his career, Earnie served the Florida House of Representatives for 138 legislative sessions in a variety of capacities.

Maintaining chamber security and decorum, keeping up capitol properties and facilities, coordinating office moves and travel logistics, overseeing emergency planning and meeting the daily needs of the chamber’s 120 members are just some of the responsibilities that Earnie consistently managed on a daily basis.  Last week, the House honored Earnie’s career with an official House resolution and no fewer than four standing ovations from the members he has served for so many years.  Speaker Will Weatherford also announced that a House Meeting Room would be named “Sumner Hall” in Earnie’s honor.    

In addition to his storied career in the Florida House, Earnie was also very active at NCSL for many years.  In 1978, Earnie became a member of the National Legislative Services and Security Association (NLSSA), one of NCSL’s 10 staff sections committed to the professional development of security and services personnel throughout the country.  Over his 34 years with NLSSA, Earnie served on the organization’s executive board in a number of capacities, including two terms as NLSSA president (2006-2008).    

As a member of NLSSA, Earnie maintained a strong commitment to the legislative institution and was dedicated to the professional development of new staff members both in Florida and around the country.  Earnie understood the importance of developing new talent and viewed NCSL as an opportunity to pass on the professional expertise he had acquired over his career.  It was through this commitment that Earnie was awarded all three of the organization’s service awards, the Legislative Staff Achievement Award (2002), The John Everhardt “Trooper” Award (2003) and the Tony Beard Memorial Award (2008). 

 

Earnie Sumner

Earnie also served NCSL on the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee (LSCC) and the Executive Committee where he made the continued development of legislative staff a top priority.  NCSL Executive Director, Bill Pound was sad to hear that NCSL would be losing such a valued asset.  “Earnie Sumner’s well deserved retirement is a loss not only to the Florida House, but to NLSSA and NCSL. Earnie has been a leader of NLSSA for many years and represented the staff section and Florida well on the NCSL Executive Committee. It is gratifying to see the recognition accorded him by the Florida House on his retirement.”

 

Trying to transform mental health treatment

By Ed Smith

"I'm here representing the largest mental health institutions in the United States--local jails and state prisons."

That was how Sheriff Grayson Robinson, of Arapahoe County in Colorado, opened his remarks Thursday at NCSL's Spring Forum session "Revisiting Mental Health Needs and Services."

"There's one sadder comment," Robinson added. "We are ill-prepared to do that service that is expected of us."

The remarks were poignant in a state that has experienced its share of tragedies, from the Columbine High School attack in 1999 to last summer's mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, that later were shown to have links to mental illness. The session also came as the Colorado legislature is considering a package of mental health bills in the wake of the movie theater shooting.

Robinson said he was hopeful that the legislation now under consideration--the $19 million package includes an expansion of crisis response, community treatment and treatment in jails--would reduce recidivism.

"If you look at the recidivism rate, it has to do with addiction and mental health. That should be a signal to all of us that we're not doing something right," Robinson said. "If we gave them more treatment in the jail, when they leave maybe there will be less chance of them coming back."

Lisa Clements, director of Colorado's Office of Behavioral Health, said Governor John Hickenlooper's commitment will make a difference.

 "Now we're looking at how to get crisis response out to every Coloradan" regardless of where that person lives, their income or other circumstances.

Don Mares, CEO and president of Mental Health America of Colorado, said he believed those backing the mental health legislation in the state were committed to long term pursuit of the issue. And appropriately so, he added, since mental health issues affect one-quarter of people in the country.

"I think that it impacts us all," said Mares, a former state legislator. "It's part of being a human being. It's part of who we are."

Despite the challenge today in passing legislation addressing behavioral health issues, Mares said it's a transformation from 20 years ago when he was promoting a mental health-related legislation.

Two decades ago, for many people such legislation was "a complete waste of money." Now, he added,  we're at point where "people think it's real."

To Manage or not to Manage...

By Brian Weberg

Should you accept a management position when offered? There often isn't much choice about this, whether you work in the legislature, elsewhere in government or the private sector.  Management jobs typically are the ones at the top of the compensation food chain and to say no to a directorship or similar title can mean saying no to earning the best salary available in your workplace.

Too bad this is so often true. Some people just aren't cut out for the managing role or aren't really interested, or at least aren't adequately prepared for it.  It should be OK to decline these jobs and just keep on being the best bill drafter or researcher or computer programmer or budget analyst that you can be.  But the culture and pay plans in many legislatures make saying "no" to managing a very tough choice.

An interesting article on this topic titled "Maybe Management Isn't Your Style" appeared recently in the New York Times business section.  Author Peggy Klaus  comments, "...a bad boss is born each time someone goes into management without knowing whether he or she is truly suited for the role."  And, as she points out, bad bosses are one of the leading reasons good people quit and productivity suffers.

Managing is a professional specialty just like the other staff specialties found in state legislatures.  Yet most legislatures, and maybe most workplaces, push people to the top of their organizations and into supervisory and management roles without much attention to developing the knowledge and experience they need to take on these roles.  Years ago I had a good friend who worked in a large accounting firm.  It was no different there.  The best CPA talent moved up the ladder quickly and into "senior manager" positions where many of them failed miserably at their new management responsibities.  Great accountants, poor managers.

Klaus offers a list of things to think about before moving into management and recommends that "If you decide to take the plunge, accept that being a great manager, or even a good one, is a learned skill.  Like many professionals, whether N.B.A. players of opera divas, you will become successful by honing the right skills with huge amounts of practice."  Great advice, to be sure.  But maybe legislative staff organizations also need to do more to help.  Some, like in Connecticut and Nevada, are offering in-house leadership and management training opportunities.  Legislatures also could do more to reward and find nitches for their super-talented, high-productivity employees who don't want to manage but who rather desire to keep on doing what they do so well. 

Full- or Part-Time Legislature: Which is Better?

By Karl Kurtz

That's a question I get all the time when I speak to groups, both inside and outside of state capitols, about American legislatures. A recent magazine article featuring my categorization of legislatures as "professionalized," "hybrid" and "citizen" has generated several recent inquiries about which type of legislature is better.

I have an answer to this question, but first a few words about terminology. "Full-" and "part-time" are the common phrases that most people use to differentiate the operations of state legislatures. Political scientists have a fancier term, "professionalization," which measures not only the amount of time that legislators spend on the job but also the compensation of legislators and the number of staff working for the legislature. Professionalization is the concept that I have used to create the categories of legislatures.

The concept of legislative professionalization is designed to measure the capacity of legislatures and legislators to make policy decisions. Capacity, though, does not necessarily mean performance. A legislature with high capacity can perform poorly (Congress being an example), while legislatures with low capacity can perform at high levels.

It's also important to note that the policy-making capacity of a legislature (professionalization) is only one value among others that legislators and voters may set store by when they make decisions about the resources that they provide to their state legislature. One value that might conflict with increasing the capacity of legislatures might be public views about the appropriate scale and cost of state government. A second might be a desire to be governed by citizen legislators who spend most of their lives living and working in their local communities. Like the legendary Roman leader Cincinnatus, who left his farm to fight a war but returned to the plow when the war was over, citizen legislators go to the capitol to legislate for a few months but then return to their home towns.

All of this leads to my answer to the question: Neither one is necessarily better. I believe that the principal goal should be to have a legislature that is an independent and coequal branch of government, able effectively to represent the views of constituents, pass laws, and balance the power of the executive. Different legislatures with different levels of professionalization can accomplish these goals. Each state needs to choose the level of resources (compensation, time and staff) that allows them to meet these goals, within the context of their state's culture, size, complexity and values about government.

I will say, though, that the larger population states that are more socially complex and have necessarily large executive branches are more likely to need greater capacity in order for their legislature to be an independent and coequal branch of government. In other words, to represent its fairly homogenous population of half a million people effectively, Wyoming may not need California's full-time legislators, who are paid close to $100,000 a year and have a staff of more than 2,000 to help govern a state of 38 million people. But Wyoming's citizen legislature, which meets two months of the year, pays its members $12,000 and has a staff of about 40, would find it hard effectively to balance the power of the executive in a state as large and complex as California.

And indeed, that is the path that most states have taken in building the capacity of their legislatures. With only a very few exceptions the states that have the most professionalized legislatures have the largest populations, and the citizen legislatures are in the smallest population states. The hybrid legislatures are in-between, mostly in the medium population states.

Building on a table that appears in Peverill Squire and Gary Moncrief, State Legislatures Today: Politics Under the Domes, here is a summary of the implications of the two extreme levels of professionalization, incorporating some values other than policymaking capacity. The middle column of this table is adapted from Squire and Moncrief's book; the right column is my summary of qualities associated with citizen legislatures (click to enlarge).

Setting Staff Pay Levels: Complicated Stuff

By Brian Weberg

Art credit: Investor Watchdog

Setting and maintaining effective compensation levels is an important task and goal in any professional organization.  More and more, state legislatures are creating formal compensation and classification plans that set out pay ranges for specific jobs.  NCSL has played a role in this effort, assisting numerous legislatures with the detailed work required to develop effective pay systems. 

NCSL also receives at least one call a week from state legislatures that want data about what other legislatures pay their staff.  Presumably, they want these data so they can be sure that their compensation levels are appropriate and competitive. Unfortunately, salary survey data from other legislatures often are not very relevant for this kind analysis.  In fact, NCSL discontinued collecting 50-state staff salary data many years ago because: 1) it is extremely difficult to know if a "research analyst" in one state has equivalent duties to a research analyst in another legislature, and 2) capital city job markets are very different from one another and the data has limited value as an analytical tool.  For example, a legislative research analyst in Jefferson City is hired from and works in very different economic and job market conditions from a legislative research analyst in Des Moines or Denver or Santa Fe.  

NCSL has been encourging state legislatures, therefore, to discount the value of interstate legislative salary data as a comparative benchmark for most positions and instead focus more on salary data collected in relevant "pay markets."  These relevant pay markets may be different for different kinds of legislative jobs, but for most state legislatures, local salary data is best. This usually means looking closely at pay rates at state and local government jobs in and near your capital city. 

In their book, Compensation, authors George Milkovich and Jerry Newman provide the following guidance for identifying good sources of comparative salary data: "The three factors usually used to determine the relevant labor markets are the occupation (skill/knowledge required), geography (willingness to relocate, commute, or become virtual employees), and competitors (other employers in the same product/service and labor markets)."

Our experience is that geography is a dominant factor when analyzing most legislative labor markets.  We have seen very limited evidence that legislatures engage in out-of-state recruiting for new positions and also very few examples of employee movement from one legislature to another.  The most significant employment competitor for most state legislatures is the executive branch of government in the same state.  The "occupation" factor can also be an important key for selecting relevant comparable data.  For example, clerical positions probably can be compared to clerical roles in many different kinds of organizations in the same geographic area.  And computer specialists are sought out by a diverse range of employers.  For these jobs, it's sometimes useful (but expensive) to go to third party sources of salary data like the Economic Research Institute which offers city-specific salary benchmarks for common job titles.  On the other hand, jobs like chief of staff, bill drafting attorney or policy analyst are more specialized to government and sometimes to certain kinds of non-profits or public affairs organizations. In these cases, it's probably best to do original salary survey work to find relevant comparable data.  

All of this is to say that setting legislative pay levels is complicated stuff.  And here we're just talking about establishing "external" equity with the job market.  Good pay plans also have "internal" equity--offering equal pay for equal job value within the workplace.  But that's another blog post.  Also, legislatures need to consider the total pay package when comparing compensation.  Traditionally, but maybe not as much these days, strong benefit packages for legislative employees have somewhat offset the need to maintain strong salary competitiveness.  Finally, not all rewards are monetary, a point described in a previous Thicket post on employee motivation.  State legislative employment offers a range of powerful intrinsic rewards that may substitute, at some level, for the incentive to make more money.