McKernan staff reshuffling jobs

AUGUSTA — The temporary departure of Gov. John R. McKernan’s chief of staff to head up his re-election campaign is triggering an informal reshuffling of duties in the governor’s office.

Sharon Y. Miller, McKernan’s top aide whose leave of absence began this week, said Wednesday that McKernan’s legal counsel, Alan D. MacEwan, will serve as “acting” staff chief while she works as the governor’s campaign manager in Portland.

Miller said her move and the resultant staff reshuffling parallels changes in other state offices at a time when workers are being encouraged to take leaves or reduce their working hours to help meet a $210-million biennial revenue shortfall.

“Just like in every other branch of state government, there are people who are going to have to work harder” to make up for reduced staffing, Miller said. “People are going to be expected to be doing more.”

McKernan also may “perhaps” hire an additional staff aide in Miller’s absence, she said. But she declined to provide further details.

The key elements of her job that will fall on other shoulders, said Miller, are “basically trouble-shooting …,” that is, dealing with complaints, emergencies and surprises, “… and just overseeing the workload … and setting the priorities for what needs to get done.”

MacEwan described the staff reshuffling as “informal” but referred further questions to McKernan spokesman Willis Lyford.

Lyford joked that Miller’s absence from her regular office “gives us a place to have meetings,” and that MacEwan, in comparison with Miller, “is taller.”

Lyford went on to say that Miller has “been the governor’s right arm, … so it’s obviously difficult to fill a void like that.”

Noting that MacEwan, too, “has been here from the outset,” Lyford described him as “someone the governor has a lot of confidence in.”

Miller, who headed McKernan’s first gubernatorial campaign in 1986 and second congressional campaign in 1984, said the staff changes come at a time when traffic flow through the governor’s office eases somewhat, allowing more time for longer range initiatives.