President's Corner

Alan J. Bojorquez

As an adjunct professor for Southwest Texas, I have helped my students wrangle with the same question throughout the semester: who governs? Depending on the circumstances, presidents have varying influence over congress and executive agencies. Our congressional system creates extremely long incubation periods for legislation. In Texas, we have a legislative system that is arguably designed to kill bills rather than pass them. Couple that with the fact that regardless of who occupies the position, we have one of the weakest governors in the nation.

So who governs? To a large extent, bureaucrats. Government employees create and implement policy every day. They develop rules, administer them, and fashion exceptions. Although this troubles some, most accept it as a natural and legitimate part of our system. This is not to say that elected officials have no role. Depending on the office and the office holder, elected officials can have a great deal of influence over agency policies and staff. For example, at the local level, city councils are actively involved in day to day governing.

The next question is who will govern tomorrow? Who will run for office? Who will become administrators? When Mary Hamilton, Executive Director of ASPA, visited Texas in September, she mentioned that recent surveys indicate a declining interest in government service among young people. When asked to rank career choices, even the most dedicated community volunteers rank government employment low on their lists. High school students indicate that the corporate and nonprofit sectors are the best places to make a difference.

CenTex ASPA joins the national organization in its efforts to recruit and train the next generation. As members of the public administration prof ession, we share the obligation to provide for the future leadership of our governing institutions. We recognize the need to have our nation's best and brightest young minds contribute their talents to our agencies. We commend the rewards that stem from public service.

Consequently, CenTex sponsored the Student Leadership Forum last month. Public servants, both elected and appointed, spent the day teaching area high school students leadership and communications skills; discussing community problems from the students' points of view; and channeling the students' enthusiasm into action plans. Aside from our concern for the specific issues targeted by the students, our overarching goal was to inspire these young people to seek careers and/or volunteer opportunities in the public sector. The event itself was very successful, but the long-term results will manifest in time. I hope that CenTex and other ASPA chapters will continue to make the development of tomorrow's public service corps a top priority.