Gov. Kate Brown's transition not typical

Typically, when Oregon gets a new governor, everyone sees it coming or at least sees the possibility of it.

If the governor in office has finished two terms and cannot run again, it's particularly easy to see coming. His staff will start looking for new jobs as Election Day nears, and some may even leave before he is actually gone. The campaign staff for the winner will often come work for him in the Governor's Office, so there will be some feeling of continuity.

There will be two months between Election Day and Inauguration Day, where the old staff will leave for new jobs and the new staff will settle into new roles. They will hire policy advisers, research agency heads, figure out positions on policies.

Maybe there will be some overlap between who worked for Old Governor and who works for New Governor. Mostly, however, the transition is a fresh start.

Not so for Gov. Kate Brown.

She had five days to go from being secretary of state to being governor, and she left most of her former staff back in her old office. She has hired a few key staff members, but for the most part, she kept Gov. John Kitzhaber's staff.

This is not a normal situation. Kitzhaber's staffers were hired to work for him. They believed in him. They supported and helped create his policies. At most jobs, you work for a company, but in this case, they were working for a particular man.

Yes, Brown is a Democrat, but that does not mean she is interchangeable with Kitzhaber.

(Were John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter interchangeable? Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan? No, they were not.)

Enter Kristen Leonard, transition coordinator for the Brown administration.

Leonard is the public affairs director for the Port of Portland, and she said she is "on loan" to the governor for 90 days. Her job is to make the merging of two staffs, old and new, as seamless as possible.

How does one do that?

There is a lot of listening, Leonard said. She has only been on the job for a few days, but so far she has spent a lot of time listening to people about what they need from their new boss, questions about their role in the new administration, and what worked and did not work under Kitzhaber's leadership.

A lot of it entails helping people understand Brown's policy goals or leadership approach, Leonard said. It has been less about making sure people have new business cards and adequate work space than about making sure they understand what their job is under Brown, she said.

Kristen Grainger, communications director for Brown, said in an email that Leonard will do some recruitment to fill holes in the staff.

Brown has said that so far, she has no plans to replace most of her staff or agency heads, but she has also said she is going to evaluate the people who work for her on an individual basis. That means there is no guarantee anyone will stay.

Ultimately, Leonard said, a successful transition will not mean replacing people and shaking things up. It will mean creating a team out of individuals who possibly have competing goals and were thrust together under difficult circumstances.

She didn't mention any plans to lock them in the Capitol and make them do trust falls, but she did say there was a genuine need to get them to bond.

"It's easy to roll my eyes at team building exercises," Leonard said, "but some of that is needed."

hhoffman@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6719 or follow at twitter.com/HannahKHoffman