Bush appoints first chief human capital officer

President Bush plans to appoint an Ohio lawyer to be the federal government's first chief human capital officer.

Bush on May 5 announced plans to appoint Ronald James as the Homeland Security Department's top personnel executive. James is the first announced chief human capital officer, a new position that every major agency head must fill under a provision included under the 2002 Homeland Security Act.

James will oversee the human resources policies and strategies that govern how the Homeland Security Department's 170,000 employees are managed. The act creating the department gave the agency's leaders freedom from standard civil service rules governing pay, performance management, labor relations and hiring. Last month, Janet Hale, the department's undersecretary for management, began a process to develop a new personnel system, which James would oversee.

Traditionally, federal agencies' human resources directors have mostly concerned themselves with procedural duties, such as processing employment and benefits paperwork, running training programs and setting workplace policies. Under the Homeland Security Act, agencies' chief human capital officers will spend most of their time looking strategically at workforce issues, leaving day-to-day administrative issues to their subordinates.

The Office of Personnel Management is developing guidance for agencies to hire and evaluate chief human capital officers. The law does not set a deadline for hiring the new executives.

James is a partner in the Cleveland law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. He represents management in labor and employment matters, according to a brief biography posted on the firm's Web site. Prior to joining the law firm, James was an official at the Labor Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

According to Federal Election Commission records, James contributed $250 to the Ohio Republican Party in 1999. Other employees of his law firm have contributed more than $10,000 to the campaign funds of Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, as well as thousands of dollars to other Republican, Democratic and other candidates and political action committees since 1997.

Voinovich is chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia and was a key supporter of the creation of chief human capital officer positions.