The last time Elizabeth Bankowski served as a member of a gubernatorial transition team was in 1984 - the year Madeleine Kunin became governor. Bankowski was Kunin's campaign manager and became her chief of staff. Back then her liaison to Gov. Richard Snelling's office was Tim Hayward.
As she works to help Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin establish his footing for his ascent to the Fifth Floor of the Pavilion Office Building on Jan. 6, Bankowski is working with Hayward again. This time, he is Gov. Jim Douglas' chief of staff, while Bankowski is representing Shumlin's transition team.
“It's quite a bookend, and it's very poignant for me,” Bankowski said in an interview.
The seasoned political operative who worked for the Clinton administration in the early 1990s said she identifies with Alex MacLean, Shumlin's campaign manager, and now his director of civil and military affairs. “I was older than Alex when I did this, but I was still someone of that generation.”
Twenty-six years ago, Bankowski said Kunin's election was also “determined the next day with 50.2 percent of the vote.”
“I have just felt a real sisterhood with Alex and what she was doing,” Bankowski said. “And to stand there with her and the governor-elect, I thought, where did those years go? When I did become the older wise one. When did that happen? I have to remind them not to worry about what they didn't know, because I didn't know those things either when I started.”
Shumlin named Bankowski and former Gov. Howard Dean as the co-chairs of his transition team on Nov. 4. Bankowski has taken the lead on the transition duties, managing the “launch,” as she calls it, from the second floor of the Dewey building at 128 State St. in Montpelier.
The transition has three main objectives, she said: Hiring members of the cabinet, planning the inaugural and reaching out to Vermonters who didn't support Shumlin's candidacy.
At the moment, the most immediate exigency is combing through resumes.
From her vantage point in the recently renovated Queen Anne- style Victorian home (which features shiny copper roof flashing) - on loan to Shumlin and the transition staff of a half-dozen paid and volunteer staffers - Bankowski tries to stay ahead of the resume curve. So far, the team has received “hundreds” of inquiries from job seekers. She starts her day at 6 a.m. (waiting outside the Capitol Grounds coffee shop until it opens) with a large coffee and a small.
“I come here and I put the lights on and I say good morning house,” Bankowski said. “I try to list the five things I'm going to get done before everything else that takes me away from those things. And then I try to work through those things during the day, and the day flies.”
The next thing she knows, it is 8 p.m., and Bankowski, who lives in Brattleboro, retires to her daughter's house in Montpelier.
Bankowski is not only helping Shumlin find a transition team, she's also been instrumental in helping the governor-elect himself transition from his “transactional” role as the president pro tem of the Senate to his strategic role of chief executive.
Her biggest task in that department? Trying to get Shumlin to stop using his cell phone. Bankowski jokes that she's introduced the governor-elect to a 12-step program to address his separation-anxiety issues. The first step? Awareness. Success, so far has been elusive. Shumlin is in constant communication via cell.
“Everyone in Vermont has the number,” Bankowski said. “The issue with that phone - I'm just being Zen about it - who doesn't have his phone number? It's never far from his body.”
Bankowski said Shumlin and his team are carefully selecting candidates for the 50 or so key positions in state government because they know they will have an impact on policy for years to come.
“What change are we really trying to bring about, and how do we affect that now?” Bankowski asks rhetorically. “It's not just what's happening under the dome this week, it's got broader implications. He's well aware of that. Both he and Alex, they're both aware of that; they're beginning to understand that the dimensions of this are very different (from the campaign).”
Bankowski said at first she was determined to use Shumlin's title, but she soon relented.
“These are offices that deserve respect, and my intent was to address him as the governor-elect … but I just can't do it, he's Peter,” Bankowski said. “And then I thought I really like that about him. He is in your space as Peter, he's also the governor-elect, and I have realized myself that those aren't contradictory. And that's the whole issue of the phone and everything. He just is Peter. He doesn't want to give that (his identity) up, and hopefully - and again in Vermont because government is so accessible and the governor is so accessible - unlike many of his colleagues, he won't have to give that up.”
Shumlin doesn't vacillate between moods, and he brings a steady equanimity to the potential frustrations of the job, she said. For example, his return trip from a recent National Governors Association meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo., looked like it would be delayed. Bankowski said he wasn't dismayed by the schedule change, and that's typical of his generally positive, calm attitude.
“This is what I'm enjoying about his presence,” Bankowski said. “It's just a great trait. I think he has confidence and optimism, and that's exactly where we want him to start.”
Building Shumlin's team is her first priority. Bankowski said the objective is to find good people to fill “slots, not silos.” Shumlin has said he wants creative thinkers who can work across departments.
“The governor is really entrepreneurial, and that's the approach he brings,” Bankowski said. “He wants people to push through walls.”
Bankowski said a number of the applicants are well known to the transition team. “I have somewhat observed that if there are three different people recommending the same person, and they're not people who talk to each other regularly, that person gets on my list,” Bankowski said. “And that's been happening. Lawrence Miller (the new secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development) – in our first conversation - said I couldn't possibly. His second response was, 'well, maybe.'”
Appointees often take a pay cut, Bankowski said. Douglas administration officials who are hoping to stay on are submitting resumes for review, she said, and they have been asked what they hope to accomplish under the new administration.
“I'm very grateful about people's openness, given that there can be no illusions about the challenges that we'll face, and they know that,” Bankowski said. “Hopefully, the enthusiasm people feel going in is going to translate to people and organizations. These have been tough times for them, and I'm hoping that it is a fresh start.”
Priority No. 2 is translating campaign promises regarding broadband, health care, corrections reform and energy into policies. “It's our job to get those things teed up and ready, which is what we are doing,” Bankowski said.
Douglas administration officials “have gone out of their way” to be helpful, she said.
“Everyone has been more than helpful, and I don't know what we'd do without their support because we have virtually no resources,” Bankowski said.
She is especially delighted with the office arrangements - typically transition teams are squeezed into whatever space is available, and in this instance the Shumlin team has the run of a whole house.
“I have been so grateful for the way this was set up for us. It's just the best about government especially in Vermont it doesn't matter what party or differences (there might be), there's just such a commitment to getting it done right. The people who are leaving state services are very invested in doing well for Vermonters, and they know doing well for us is doing well for Vermonters.”