| History of the Cabinet Form of Government |
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History of the Cabinet Form of Government
On the morning of December 12, 2007, Governor Beshear and his team will have to deal with getting their hands around the beast of state government. Even for this group of experienced pros, tackling state government operations this will be a major test of their skills and endurance.
There have been two other times since 1972 when a new governor has reorganized the operations, missions, and functions of the state bureaucracy in radically new theory of structure. The first event took place with Governor Wendell Ford, the second under Governor John Y. Brown.
Democratic Governor Wendell Ford came to power on the heels of Republican Governor Louie Nunn. Ford merged over 200 boards, commissions, and state agencies into a new form of state government. On November 1, 1973, Governor Ford created a new cabinet structure of eight cabinets with a new Secretary of the Cabinet.
This new Office of Secretary of the Cabinet had seven major power centers of state government reporting to it. These included:
(1) Department of Revenue
(2) Department of Personnel
(3) Department of Military Affairs
(4) Department of Public Information
(5) Teachers Retirement System
(6) State Retirement System
(7) Human Rights Commission
Governor Ford’s approach to state government reorganization was important because it (1) put all power of the Executive Branch in the Governor’s office, (2) established the concept of budget program analysis and building the state budget from a professional team close to the governor, and (3) established a point within the Governor’s office for dealing with federal funds intergovernmental coordination to local governments.
Governor John Y. Brown
From 1980 through 1983, the Office of Program Administration within Governor Brown’s Office, performed a State Government Organizational Management Analysis. Their findings were:
(1) That Kentucky state government had 3,799 cost centers in the Executive Branch with 4,134 permanent full time employees classified as management;
(2) From 1980 through 1983 agency restructuring, state employees decreased
37,000 employees to 29,866 employees with no comparable reduction in management; and
(3) That the smallest division of state government had 3 employees while the largest division held 2,873 employees.
Governor Brown approach to government was to “run it like a business.” This approach saw some 10,000 employees forced out of the system over four years. The most enduring part of Governor Brown’s efforts to reform state government operations was the introduction of the cost center definitions for management pay scales for each level of state agency operations.
These were:
NEW UNDER BROWN.........OLD TERMS
Cabinet.................Secretary
Department..............Commissioner
Division................Director
Branch..................Manager
Section.................Supervisor
Unit....................Leader
Kentucky State Government is fundamentally a creation of both Governors’ Ford and Brown. These governors reacted to the challenges of state government dealing with the federal government as well as the needs of local governments of the 20th Century.
Governor Beshear will have the opportunity to take Kentucky into the 21st Century. After the last four years of missed opportunities, the problems confronting a modern Kentucky will not wait another four years of indecision at the top.
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