Governor: Cabinet members set tone for all of state

When Gov. Mike Rounds reorganized his Cabinet offices in 2003, he had a good idea. He combined the Department of Tourism, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the state-tribal relations office, the history and cultural affairs branches and the South Dakota Housing Authority under one new superagency.

Its new name became the state Department of Tourism and State Development. The goal was to bring together the overlapping interests and provide a coordinated approach.

Unfortunately, the good intentions didn’t work out. Three good people with proven capability and records of success — John Calvin, Jim Hagen and Rich Benda — have tried to run the big department during the Rounds administration. With such a broad portfolio of responsibilities, it probably would take all three, or three others like them, working at the same time to do justice to the job. It also would require a governor willing to be flexible in his schedule and willing to work much of each day hand in hand with them to make decisions, brainstorm, reach out to community and business leaders, and achieve the level of synergy needed for the department to reach its potential.

Each governor has his own style. We don’t know which of the six men running for governor this year will be elected. We agree with proposals by several of them to take different approaches regarding the Department of Tourism and State Development.

Both Senate Republican leader Dave Knudson and Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard have advocated breaking up the department and returning to stand-alone Cabinet offices for tourism, economic development and tribal affairs. Another of the Republican candidates, Scott Munsterman, would make greater use of his lieutenant governor as a daily manager so that the governor could spend more time working on these vital matters. These are worthwhile ideas.

But simply creating smaller, separate departments and agencies isn’t a solution in itself. One key will be the choices made by our next governor in recruiting and selecting the women and men to manage them. Another key will be the governor’s accessibility to those Cabinet members. Most of all, a governor sets the tone for South Dakota.

We think of ourselves as hardworking people with common sense, who prize where and how we live, people who are resilient and careful enough to withstand challenges so that we can enjoy life’s beauty and prosper. Those values need to be reflected by our next governor and his Cabinet members.

Aberdeen American News

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