Mary Beth Schneider has more on the BMV closings in an article entitled BMV methods under scrutiny. As you may recall, BMV chief Joel Silverman made Senate President Bob Garton angry when Silverman sandbagged the General Assembly by waiting until the General Assembly was out of session to announce the closing of a number of BMV branches. One of the branches was in Garton’s district. After some hearings, the branch in Garton’s district was pulled off the chopping block. In an admirable display of honesty, Silverman admitted that Garton’s political clout was the reason the Hope branch was removed from the list.
Now, the Legislative Council has decided to create a study commission to examine Silverman’s decision to close 9 branches immediately and up to 24 branches later this year. Pretty clearly, this commission is designed to apply what pressure the General Assembly can while it’s out of session. My mind could be changed, but I think I’m with Silverman on this one. If it’s true that we have more BMV branches than we need and/or can afford, then I think you just need an executive to pull the trigger. Relegating the decision to legislative committees would have resulted in needed branches in politically weak areas getting cut while (as we see in the case of the Hope district) unnecessary branches in politically powerful areas remain untouched.
Of more interest to me, however, is the Legislative Council’s decision to investigate Silverman’s hiring practice. Silverman was formerly a Galyans executive. He replaced state employees with 21 former Galyans employees. Silverman defends the cronyism, saying the new hires are “far superior in experience and ability than anybody we’ve had here before.” If these are all part of Silverman’s inner-BMV circle then, aside from saying his inner circle is way too big, I probably don’t have a big problem with it. But, if he’s just getting rid of rank and file BMV employees and replacing them with his own supporters, then Silverman needs a reminder that the spoils system favored by Andrew Jackson went out of vogue around the time of Teddy Roosevelt.
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