Law change needed to clarify state appointment process

Wisconsin’s state appointment process has become a joke and an insult to the will of the people.

Wisconsin must enact rules that provide for a timely review of gubernatorial appointments and absent action by the legislature, those appointments should automatically be approved.

Wisconsin law gives the governor many powers and responsibilities, among those is the duty to name members to dozens of state boards and commissions.

Members of these boards and commissions wield significant power in the state setting policy for agencies ranging from governance of the UW-System to setting rules over the regulation of socalled “forever chemicals.” These boards determine how administrative rules are implemented, are involved in the hiring and termination of staff and play important policy-setting roles.

As a check on the power of the governor, most positions require approval by the legislature. Historically this approval has been largely a rubber-stamp process with relatively few appointments meriting significant discussion or opposition. Those that have, were over hot-button political issues which merited public input and debate. Nowadays, delays in the system are not over lofty differences in viewpoints, but over not wanting to be seen giving the opposition any sort of actual or perceived win.

The legislature has gone from actually wanting to govern to doing little more than play got-you-last political games. Among these games has been to refuse to act on gubernatorial appointments in a timely manner.

Because of the vital work they do, Wisconsin law seeks to shield appointed positions from political gamesmanship as much as possible by assigning terms of office to specific seats to overlap administrations. At the end of those terms, it is the prerogative of the governor to reappoint an existing member or appoint someone new.

Now however, a peculiar legal argument is being made that regardless of having a defined term for the position, the incumbent appointee has the right to continue in that position until their replacement is approved by the legislature. Intentional inaction by the legislature has led to these lame duck board members continuing to be able to weigh in on decisions impacting the future of the state.

Rather than allowing the legislature to exceed its authority and actively prevent any future governor from carrying out their duties, Wisconsin law needs to be changed to set a 90 day deadline for the legislature to take action on any appointment at which time the appointment goes into effect. This step will restore legitimacy to the board appointment process.

Elections matter, or at least they used to. It is time to restore faith in state government and have leadership stop acting like children on a playground. Wisconsin needs to establish a pocket approval process so that the will of the people can proceed despite the legislature’s best efforts.