Governor orders agencies to pony up $75K for intern

By The Standard Staff - 08/04/2007

HELENA — Eight state agencies were asked to pitch in a total of nearly $75,000 annually for two years to hire an intern for an unadvertised job to help Gov. Brian Schweitzer and First Lady Nancy Schweitzer with their math and science initiative.

The intern’s salary will be $28,000 a year; the rest will go to administrative costs.

The Schweitzer administration did not seek authorization for the new job, formally known as an education policy assistant, from the 2007 Legislature, or ask for money to fund it.

Instead, Schweitzer asked the departments of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Public Health and Human Services, Environmental Quality, Natural Resources and Conservation, Labor and Industry, Military Affairs, Commerce and the Office of Economic Development to each kick in assigned amounts to fund the $74,999-a-year program. The annual amounts were outlined in a June 29 memo to Schweitzer’s Cabinet.

Schweitzer hired Anna Green of Helena, a 2007 honors graduate in international relations from Colby College in Maine, for the $28,000-a-year job. She began work in June.

Green serves in an exempt job at the governor’s pleasure so the job didn’t need to be advertised. She previously worked as an intern in the governor’s budget office.

Here’s how the nearly $75,000-a-year budget roughly breaks down after her salary: benefits, $9,000; office expense, $5,000; publications, $5,000; public service announcements, $6,000; travel by the intern, education adviser or first lady to schools, universities, businesses, conferences and board meetings, $9,000; mailings to school, $1,000; applying for grants, $4,000; college and workforce readiness projects, $5,000; attendance at national conference with first lady, $3,000.

Both Brian and Nancy Schweitzer are scientists. He’s a soil scientist and she’s a botanist.

As her main initiative as first lady, Nancy Schweitzer launched a program to encourage Montana’s youths to learn about science and math in schools and colleges. Through the initiative, the Schweitzers want to make science and math “cool’’ to study, give teachers tools to focus on hands-on learning, challenge high school students, highlight successful science and math opportunities and increase the number of potential workers with backgrounds in those fields.

In nearly every state, the governor’s spouse is assigned two or three aides to work on that person’s initiatives and has a budget, the governor said.

“We have nothing,’’ Schweitzer said. “She has a science and math initiative. It’s been on her own dime.’’

He defended asking the departments to contribute to fund this program, saying nearly every agency is looking for more employees with good science backgrounds.

Schweitzer said he didn’t seek the money from the split Legislature, noting that it already cut his proposed economic-development budget considerably. Green is the lowest paid staffer in his office, he said.

Jan Lombardi, the governor’s education policy advisor, said the governor’s office didn’t submit the request because the budgeting process starts so early and it took awhile for Nancy Schweitzer to determine what her initiative would be.

“I don’t think any one of us anticipated the public response,’’ Lombardi said. “The public response has been absolutely wonderful. We’re really hit a nerve, with teachers, the students and the business community and their interest.’’

State Republican Chairman Erik Iverson questioned the Democratic governor’s handling of the matter, saying that “$75,000 seems like a lot of money to set aside for an intern.’’

“I think what this points to is a larger problem that this governor likes to operate outside of public view,’’ Iverson said. “If this is an important position and I take the governor’s position that it is, there’s no reason it couldn’t have been included in his budget and give legislators of both parties the opportunity to provide input and determine whether or not they agreed the money should be transferred from other departments to pay for the position.’’

Lombardi said the governor’s office has already launched this Web site: www.mathscience.mt.gov.