Tuesday, February 02, 1999
Taft's inner circle ready to take reins
Top five have wide experience
BY SANDY THEIS
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Bill Klatt is the governor's new lawyer, but he has good reason not to want to become a household name.
“When nobody knows who your lawyer is, your lawyer is generally doing a good job,” he said.
Despite the 42-year-old's quest for relative anonymity, his profile as chief counsel is destined to rise. He is among a select group that Republican Gov. Bob Taft has tapped to serve as the inner circle of his new administration.
Each is 30- or 40-something. All are white. Each has the potential to have enormous power over how Ohio spends about $20 billion each year, who the governor appoints to hundreds of state jobs and what information the Taft administration communicates to the public.
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TAFT CONFIDANTS
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Brian Hicks
Age: 34
Title: Chief of Staff
Salary: $107,000
Reports to: The governor
Duties: Oversees the bulk of the office's political work, including personnel, legal matters, and appointments to hundreds of state boards and commissions. Scott Borgemenke
Age: 33
Title: Director of Cabinet Affairs & Senior Policy Adviser
Salary: $105,000
Reports to: The governor
Duties: Directs policy development, supervises the executive assistants for the cabinet agencies, coordinates cabinet meetings and oversees state legislative affairs and the Washington, D.C., office.
Tom Johnson
Age: 49
Title: Director of the Office of Budget & Management
Salary: $101,000
Reports to: The governor
Duties: Spearheads the administration's budget proposals and advises the governor on budget policy matters. William Klatt
Age: 42
Title: Legal Counsel to the Governor
Salary: $101,000
Reports to: The governor and chief of staff
Duties: Advises the governor on all legal matters including clemency, personnel matters and government ethics. Mary Anne Sharkey
Age: 48
Title: Communications Director
Salary: $93,000
Reports to: The governor and chief of staff.
Duties: Oversees the speech writing and press office, coordinates media events and works with newspaper editorial writers to promote the governor's programs.
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In addition to Mr. Klatt, the inner circle includes:
• Brian Hicks, 34, chief of staff. He was Mr. Taft's campaign manager in the 1998 campaign.
• Scott Borgemenke, 33, director of Cabinet affairs and chief policy adviser. He is formerly executive director of the Cincinnati Business Committee.
• Tom Johnson, 49, director of the office of budget and management. He is a former Republican state representative from New Concord.
• Mary Anne Sharkey, 48, director of communications and a former reporter.
Attorney General Betty Montgomery, who has worked with them all, called the group “one of the best I've ever seen.”
As chief of staff, Mr. Hicks is the governor's top aide.
Loyal, organized and serious, Mr. Hicks is considered Mr. Taft's closest confidant.
His duties include overseeing the bulk of the office's political work, including personnel, legal matters and appointments to hundreds of state boards and commissions.
“I have a very candid relationship with the governor,” Mr. Hicks said. “I know how he operates. I know how his decision-making process works. The chief of staff is the filter for an awful lot of information.”
He described Mr. Taft as “a very hands-on governor who gets very involved in the details. He likes information and because I know his style so well ... I am the final gate-keeper, to the extent that there is one.”
“Brian is Mr. Efficient,” said Ms. Sharkey.
A recent senior staff meeting he conducted was “quick but thorough,” she said, covering everything from overtime policies to Cabinet appointments.
Mr. Hicks also is the man whose job it is to say, “no.”
After just one week on the job, Ms. Sharkey said she has seen him say “no” to a lot of people who want Mr. Taft's time and those who want to spend money.
Not always large sums, either. When she asked for more than three cellular phones for the press office, he told her that three was the limit. (She has plans to go back and ask for more.)
Mr. Hicks shares some of the traditional chief of staff duties with Mr. Borgemenke. Both report directly to the governor, an arrangement worked out before Mr. Borgemenke agreed to take the new post.
Although political observers are closely watching to see which one really has the governor's ear, Mr. Borgemenke pointed out that the governor — like most people — has two ears.
“Brian knows the governor better than anybody,” said Mr. Borgemenke, a native of Anderson Township. “What he does and what I do are different. But they're sort of related.”
While Mr. Hicks runs the office and oversees political appointments, Mr. Borgemenke helps shape policy, pick the Cabinet and shepherd the governor's agenda through the General Assembly. He sits in on all the budget meetings; Mr. Hicks doesn't attend them.
Ms. Montgomery described Mr. Borgemenke as person with a facility for building a consensus and disagreeing with people without hurting anyone's feelings.
He also has the rare ability to understand politics, policy and the messages that go with both, she said.
In March, the Taft administration will unveil its two-year state spending plan. As a former chief of staff to the Senate president, Mr. Borgemenke has worked on five state budgets and is expected to be a key liaison to the General Assembly, especially in the Senate.
Don't expect all to be rosy, said lobbyist Neil Clark, who used to employ Mr. Borgemenke.
“Scott's going to find that the General Assembly isn't going to be the same General Assembly he witnessed during the Voinovich administration. They're going to have opinions and not be shy about expressing them.”
Former Gov. George Voinovich tried too often to impose his will on the lawmakers, straining relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, he said.
Assisting Mr. Borgemenke's efforts on budget matters will be Mr. Johnson. The ex-chairman of the House Finance Committee understands the complex budget process as well as the place where the budget is most likely to encounter problems: the Ohio House. He ushered two tough budgets through the chamber over the past four years.
“The budget is clearly the key to any administration's success,” said Jim Tilling, a former Senate chief of staff who is now chief of staff for the attorney general. “If you don't have the financial resources to implement your programs, you're going nowhere fast, and Tom Johnson knows better than just about anybody how to do the budget.”
Rounding out the senior team is Ms. Sharkey.
Accustomed to being one of the few women in a man's world, she was the first female Columbus bureau chief for both the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Dayton Newspapers.
Blunt and sometimes acerbic, she brings knowledge of the working press and the often peculiar rules that govern the relationship between reporters and officeholders.
She also brings some potential baggage.
“I've been around her for 18 years and watched her rise to the top of her field. Along the way, she probably has made as many enemies as I have,” said Mr. Clark, a lobbyist with a hard-nosed reputation.
“She clearly has a lot of talent and good political instincts, but will she have the temperament to weather the inevitable storm?”
Mr. Borgemenke thinks her tem perament is one of her greatest strengths.
“She knows what the reporters are looking for,” he said, “and she isn't afraid to say what's on her mind.”
Such knowledge helps Mr. Taft not only communicate his point of view, but also helps him identify possible weaknesses in his arguments, he said. During the campaign, Mr. Taft often found himself at odds with reporters who complained about access and honesty.
Ms. Sharkey acknowledged the past problems but said she considers both Mr. Borgemenke and Mr. Klatt her allies on behalf of the press.
Mr. Borgemenke enjoys a good rapport with the press.
And before joining the governor's staff, Mr. Klatt served as the top lawyer in the attorney general's office, and was in private practice where media law was among his areas of expertise.
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