December 27, 2011

MAX WILLIAMS RESIGNS

Max Williams, Director of the Department of Corrections, will be leaving his position at the end of this year to become the head of the Oregon Community Foundation.  Congratulations to Max, and we wish him much success as he oversees a billion dollars in assets and guides an organization that donates about $60 million a year.  During Director Williams' tenure at the Department of Corrections, new prisons have been constructed (Oregon now has 14 prisons and about 14,000 inmates) and successfully operated.  More than that, Max led an effort to rehabilitate offenders while in prison and create opportunities for them when they reenter society.  Preliminary data shows that pilot reentry programs significantly reduce recidivism.  Max should be proud of his accomplishments and the people he led that made it happen day in and day out.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATION

With a change in leadership comes the opportunity for a fresh look at how an organization runs and the generation of new ideas which may make an organization better.  With a Department of Corrections budget of $1.3 billion for the 2011-2013 biennium, Governor Kitzhaber should find a new Director who can surgically analyze this huge amount of money, determine if savings can be made, and then implement the savings knowing that change comes hard, particularly to large complex organizations.

THE RIGHT LEADER

There are lots of definitions of a leader.  The one that comes to mind for the new Director of the Department of Corrections is, "A leader is a person who influences the behavior of others, and they like it." The new Director will have to work with over 4300 Department of Corrections employees; a Governor who has written in Executive Order No. 11-06 that "Oregon faces the untenable choice of having to fund its prisons or educate our children" suggesting a hard look at the costs of incarceration and sentencing policy; a diverse law enforcement community including county sheriffs, county prosecutors, and city police; and independently elected legislators and judges.  Hopefully, the new Director of Corrections will create positive change that saves taxpayer dollars - this is a tall order, but the "right" person should be able to do it.