Government Service Will Be Cool Again

Break out the Ray-Bans — Barack Obama says he wants to “make government cool again.”

But it’s going to take more than shades to turn around an image of government framed by such memorable occasions as President Bush standing on an aircraft carrier before a “Mission Accomplished” banner while the war in Iraq roared on.

Or Bush proclaiming “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” about Michael D. Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during Hurricane Katrina’s deadly assault on New Orleans.

Or the dreadful breakdown in leadership by the White House and Congress before they finally approved a financial rescue package.

“The image of government needs a tune-up, for sure,” said Patricia McGinnis, president of the Council for Excellence in Government.

Speaking of leadership, that’s the main thing Obama can provide to make government service more attractive. If he announces a call to action, people, particularly young people, will respond.

That’s what President Kennedy did, and people like Carol Bonosaro stepped up.
She started as an intern in 1961, Kennedy’s first year in the White House, at the Bureau of the Budget, which is now the Office of Management and Budget.

“The reason we all thought it was cool in the early .’60s is because President Kennedy said it was cool,” recalled Bonosaro, now president of the Senior Executive Association, which represents career federal executives.

That’s leadership, or as Valerie Jarrett calls it “tone.”

“Tone starts at the top,” Jarrett, a co-chair of Obama’s transition team, told a meeting of the Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists.

Obama wants to set a tone of public service in the true sense of the word, Jarrett added. “That will be a catalyst for drawing people into government and also for rejuvenating people who are there,” she said.

There is a serious need to attract large numbers of federal workers over the next few years. The Partnership for Public Service, which focuses on talent in the federal sector, said that by 2012, “federal agencies will lose nearly 530,000 employees, many of whom hold leadership and critical skills positions.” Many jobs, of course, need to be filled much sooner than that.

Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released the Plum Book -- a list of more than 7,200 upper level jobs that will be available for Obama to fill as early as in January.

Some of the gigs sound like real gems — the Pentagon’s president of defense acquisition university, or the Transportation Department’s director of impaired driving and occupant protection, or the Transportation Department’s always popular director of radionavigation and positioning staff.

If the fancy titles in the Plum Book don’t impress you, but you are drawn to really tough jobs, check out the Council for Excellence in Government’s Prune Book. When the Council releases it tomorrow, it will list the 100 toughest gigs in government, including chief acquisition officer, chief financial officer, chief human capital officer and chief information officer in all departments.

The folks who fill these roles and many others often are derided, generally indirectly, by politicians who love to dump on Washington even as they beg voters to send them to here.

“I think the first rule that would make it cool is to stop ..... bureaucrat bashing,” Bonosaro said.

Much of the bashing started with President Reagan, said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) who represents many federal workers.
“In fact, beginning with Ronald Reagan, people beat up on government so bad that it was enough to even chase people away from government,” she said at the Trotter meeting.

Jarrett believes an Obama administration can change that.
“I think a lot of people in government get a bad rap. And it’s not their fault, it’s the leadership at the top,” she said without directly mentioning Bush. “That’s who sets the tone, that’s who charts the course, that’s who develops the job descriptions. So I think that will change under his leadership.”

Contact Joe Davidson at federaldiary@washpost.com.

By Eric Pianin  |  November 13, 2008; 10:20 AM ET
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