Hawkins Hard Act To Follow

Gov. Phil Batt is looking for someone with a dynamic personality who is well-organized and respected by the business community to head the state Department of Commerce.

In other words, he’s looking for someone just like Jim Hawkins, who is retiring at the end of the month after more than nine years in the job.

It’s difficult to imagine anyone better suited than Hawkins was in late 1986 when Democratic Gov.-elect Cecil Andrus made the Republican businessman one of the first appointments of his new administration.

The appointment defused possible political opposition from the GOP-dominated Idaho Senate, which had to confirm Hawkins.

The new Commerce director’s background and personality seemed perfect for the job. He spent a dozen years in the banking and savings-and-loan industry, then became a Statewide Auto Supply executive. He eventually bought the company and later sold its seven Idaho stores and a distribution facility.

“Moving into a business, helping develop it and winding up owning all of it, that’s what it’s all about,” Hawkins said.

It surprised many that two men with personalities as strong as Hawkins and Andrus could get along. Indeed, Hawkins wasn’t used to having to answer to anybody when he joined the Andrus administration.

The secret, he said, was “total communication.”

“We respected each other’s opinions and backgrounds,” Hawkins said. “He left us alone.”

The Department of Commerce was underfunded and unloved by the Legislature before Hawkins took over. But under his leadership it became a state government success story.

He convinced lawmakers to put much more money into building the tourism industry, expanding rural economic development and, most of all, pursuing world markets for Idaho products.

Idaho’s growth in international trade of manufactured goods led the nation in 1994, and the 1995 growth of 22 percent was 50 percent higher than the national average.

Hawkins is an energetic salesman who admits to working seven days a week most of the time.

“On Saturday you do the things you couldn’t get accomplished during the week, and on Sunday you plan for the next week,” he said.

His successor won’t necessarily have to work seven days a week, but Hawkins says running the Commerce Department isn’t a Monday-through-Friday job, either.

Sal Celeski, a longtime political consultant, says Hawkins is best at inspiring his troops.

“When you are a motivator and you surround yourself with good people, good things happen,” he said.

Hawkins said one of the biggest challenges of the job is responding to almost daily requests from businesses with problems they contend could force them out of Idaho.

“They need it done now, not tomorrow. That’s the tough one,” he said.

Batt will have to find someone used to dealing with CEOs and other corporate leaders. The governor’s office says there has been plenty of interest in the job, but one problem seems to be that those best-qualified command much higher salaries than the state can pay.

Hawkins’ Jan. 1 salary was $68,827.

One possible successor is Ron McMurray of Lewiston, the state Republican Party chairman. But McMurray announced this week that he isn’t interested - at least for now.

Besides, Batt would hardly want to pull the state chairman of his party out of that job in the middle of an election year.

Boise Cascade Vice President Kirk Sullivan, who made the list of finalists for president of the University of Idaho, also meets the qualifications but would have to take a big pay cut to take the state job.

A long-shot possibility is Lt. Gov. Butch Otter. There has been talk in the past of giving the lieutenant governor, who has no official duties when the Legislature is not in session, the job of shepherding international trade.

Otter could be good at that. He was president of the international division of J.R. Simplot Co. for years.

Also mentioned has been Boise businessman Chuck Winder. He has solid business credentials and was appointed by Batt as chairman of the Idaho Transportation Board.

Winder lost the GOP nomination for governor to Batt two years ago.