Who Will Lead Human Capital at Justice?

President-elect Obama added to his Justice Department today, tapping David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General, Elena Kagan as Solicitor General, Tom Perrelli as Associate Attorney General, and Dawn Johnsen as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. I know many bloggers are very interested in these high-level positions, but to my mind, and this is not just because I'm a government operations nerd, one of the most important Justice Department appointees will be the Chief Human Capital Officer.

Obviously it's unlikely that Justice is going to start using the same political litmus tests for appointees that got Monica Goodling, et. al., in trouble during the Bush administration. But in addition to politicizing appointments, those tests have the fallout effect of raising questions about the integrity of the Justice Department's hiring and personnel practices period. Establishing simply that the Justice Department will reward merit, and that its hiring and promotion practices will be fair should be high on Eric Holder's to-do list when he takes over as Attorney General. And to that end, he and Obama should be looking hard for a smart, qualified Chief Human Capital Officer.

It would be good practice for other agencies. We've written here repeatedly that human capital issues are going to be a major challenge for Obama's administration, and as such, deserve better attention. The Office of Personnel Management shouldn't be treated as a backwater. And CHCO positions shouldn't be doled out like candy to supporters for whom any administration job is an enticement, or left to gather dust.