Barnes pushing diversity

ATLANTA -- In some ways, Marjorie Harris Young looked like dozens of bureaucrats before her as she was sworn in at the Capitol last week to head Georgia's massive personnel agency.

But the company she kept was special.

The state's leading black politicians proudly stood by to watch the 25-year state employee receive the oath of office and Gov. Roy Barnes take another step toward keeping his campaign promise to diversify state government.

In the past few months, he's appointed an Asian Atlanta bank president to the state industry board, an Hispanic consultant to head the juvenile justice system, and a black former health care executive to run the $2.2 billion-a-year human resources agency.

He's been careful to balance task forces and governing bodies with minority executives, educators and politicians, and he's expected to follow the same course on judicial appointments.

It's good politics for Mr. Barnes, who courted black support during last year's campaign like no other white gubernatorial candidate and was rewarded with heavy minority backing at the polls.

But his job has been made easier by the fact that minority Georgians have been rising through the public and private-sector ranks for years and, like Ms. Young, have been poised for such leadership roles.

"We have a good base of experience, and the governor is drawing on that," said Eugene Walker, a former state juvenile justice director who was recently appointed to help make up the first black majority on the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles.

"Roy is committed to the doctrine of fairness, and I think he will make sure state government is reflective of our society," remarked Sen. Charles Walker, D-Augusta, no relation to Eugene Walker and the state's first black Senate majority leader.

"His first priority will be to get qualified individuals, and I support that. Then, after making sure everyone is equally qualified, then I think he will make a concerted effort to make sure all segments of our society are included.

"To do that is good for our economy, good for our state. He can do that without discriminating against any segment of our population."

Black lawmakers and activists have complained about employment and contracting practices for years, at the same time minority voters have shown devout loyalty to the Democrats who run the state.

Still, there have been a growing number of "firsts" in state government during the past decade, from the first black Georgia Supreme Court justice, Robert Benham, appointed by Gov. Joe Frank Harris in 1989, to the first black attorney general, Thurbert Baker, chosen by Gov. Zell Miller in 1997.

Both Justice Benham and Mr. Baker went on to win statewide elections to retain their posts.

So did black Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, whom Mr. Miller appointed to run Georgia's welfare department during the mid-1990s.

In only a few months in office, Mr. Barnes has gone about matching, if not in some ways surpassing, his predecessors' records.

LAST WEEK, HE ANNOUNCED

veteran health care administrator Audrey Horne, a one-time division director in Georgia's Medicaid agency, would head the 22,000-employee Department of Human Resources. She will be the first black Georgian to head the department.

Ms. Horne was just the latest minority appointment.

Earlier, Mr. Barnes picked Mr. Young to lead the Merit System, Orlando Martinez to run the Department of Juvenile Justice and Kim Jones to head the Office of Highway Safety. He named David Burgess to the utility-regulating Public Service Commission and moved Eugene Walker from the juvenile justice agency to the parole board.

On the 11-member state Board of Education, which sets policy for Georgia's 1.3-million-student public school system, the governor retained two black members -- Palmira Braswell of Macon and Barbara Archibald of Athens -- and added two more, former Atlanta City Councilwoman Gloria Bromell-Tinubu and Paine College administrator Roscoe Williams.

His appointments to the Board of Industry, Trade and Tourism were even more diverse.

The panel is now headed by R.K. Sehgal, who was born in India but has been a longtime Atlanta business force and political donor. The lineup of new members includes Pin Pin Chau, a Hong Kong native and president of an Atlanta bank, Salvador Diaz-Verson, a Cuban native who heads a major investment company in Columbus, and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor and the chairman of a securities firm.

Ms. Horne said she initially didn't think about the fact that she would be the first black DHR commissioner.

"I JUST WANTED TO DO

the best job I could," she said. "What I hoped is that the governor was looking for the best people."

Still, she said, Mr. Barnes has a "sensitivity for minority concerns," in part because he has a huge number of longtime friends from diverse backgrounds.

Before becoming governor, Mr. Barnes served for more than two decades in the General Assembly -- where he once voted against the Martin Luther King holiday -- ran an unsuccessful statewide race, and was considered one of the Atlanta area's top lawyers.

"He knows a lot of people from a lot of different areas, so his team can be broader," Ms. Horne said. "I'm not sure it's just related to ethnicity. People tend to group themselves among people they feel comfortable with. You want a team you feel comfortable with; you want a team you can trust."

That showed during last year's campaign. While Mr. Barnes' staff was a mix of black and white professionals, volunteers and activists, his Republican opponent, Guy Millner, paid homeless black people to show up at one of his south Atlanta rallies.

The governor said a job candidate's race or ethnic background is not a "determining consideration."

But he argued that the pool of minority applicants has gotten stronger because of increased leadership experience and the fact that he's made it clear that race will not be a barrier to any position in state government.

"What's happened is they (minority applicants) now have the experience and the background, so there is no excuse not to appoint them," he said.

WHILE OPPOSING QUOTAS

or set-asides in contracting, he also wants to provide more access for small and minority businesses.

"There is a difference in saying we're not in favor of quotas and set-asides and saying, `We'll open doors for you, give you access,"' he said.

Traditionally, Mr. Barnes said, big companies have been the ones with the resources to bid on major state contracts. He wants those projects broken into multiple contracts to allow more, smaller firms to compete.

"What's going to happen is small businesses, whether it be minority or otherwise, will benefit," he said.

Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, the leading General Assembly critic of affirmative action, called Mr. Barnes' position "perfectly appropriate.

"I characterize that as good affirmative action," Mr. Ehrhart said. "That's the way you ought to break it up. You are spending the taxpayers' money. You ought to spend it on a broad cross-section of the state."

Mr. Ehrhart also was complimentary of Mr. Barnes' appointments.

"He's going to get people who know what they are doing. I am extremely pleased with his appointments," he said.

However, Mr. Ehrhart quickly added, "I'd like to see some Republicans appointed to some of these boards."

James Salzer is based in Atlanta and can be reached at (404) 589-8424 or mnews@mindspring.com.