Madison, Wis.] – In case you missed it, Platform Communications President & CEO Keith Gilkes recently provided expertise on what he called the “very complex experiment” of successfully navigating a transition from one governor to another. As Gov.-elect Tony Evers makes his transition, Gilkes drew on his experience as Governor Scott Walker’s first chief of staff to describe human resources, key decisions, and other challenges.
You can read more here or find excerpts below:
Gov.-elect Evers launches transition website
By Laurel White
Wisconsin Public Radio
Gov.-elect Tony Evers launched a transition website on Thursday aiming to connect with Wisconsinites as he prepares to take over the governor’s office. …
Hiring a staff for the governor’s office and tapping a number of individuals for high-level cabinet positions is a key task for transition teams.
“It’s a very complex (human resources) experiment,” said Keith Gilkes, who was Gov. Scott Walker’s first chief of staff and served on his transition team in 2010. “You’re trying to fill a lot of roles in a short amount of time, everything from front-line employees all the way up to top-level senior cabinet officials.”
Gilkes joked transition team members can become “everyone’s best friend” as applications come in for high-level jobs.
“All the people you haven’t heard from in five, six years all of a sudden start to come out of the woodwork to tell about how they would be the best person to run a department or take a certain position in the administration,” he said.
Evers announced some members of his administration earlier this week, including his future chief of staff, Maggie Gau. Gau served as his 2018 campaign manager.
Gilkes said personnel should be the first priority for a transition team, but noted they also need to focus on developing policy and communicating those policy goals to the public.
“There’s just so much to do and so little amount of time,” he said. “I suspect that right now the Evers team is just trying to manage to get through their day and feel like they’re moving the ball forward every day.”
… Earlier this week, state lawmakers approved $94,600 in state funds for Evers to finance the transition.
The governor-elect is scheduled to be inaugurated at the state Capitol on Monday, Jan. 7.
