LANSING – The Flint water crisis continues to roil the administration of Governor Rick Snyder with a stunning shake-up Thursday in his communications staff as he reassigned Communications Director Meegan Holland and Press Secretary Dave Murray, who were less than three months into their jobs, and named Ari Adler as his new communications director.
One constant in the reaction from several interviewed was that if Holland and Murray were ill-suited for those jobs, then that reflects less on them – their lack of experience in government public relations at a high level, especially crisis communications, was obvious – and more on whoever made the decision to hire them. A new press secretary was not announced.
Adler, a veteran of several top public relations jobs at the Capitol, said Snyder and Chief of Staff Jarrod Agen made the moves to initiate a change in direction. He said Agen was unavailable to be interviewed.
“The communications office needs to be more aggressive and more determined in its efforts,” Adler said of Snyder’s and Agen’s rationale for the change. “There is often a lot of information and misinformation that a governor’s office must deal with. It is our responsibility to sift through that and to ensure correct information is being released and shared appropriately.”
Asked who hired Holland and Murray – Agen had been the communications director prior to Holland and was in the middle of a transition to chief of staff when she and Murray were hired in November – Adler noted that Dennis Muchmore was still the chief of staff in November.
Holland was named special projects manager in the governor’s office focusing on veterans matters. In a Facebook post, she said she thought the new job would be a better fit for her and wished Adler well.
Murray will go to the Department of Talent and Economic Development and serve as communications director there.
Both had spent the bulk of their careers in journalism, with Holland having had a recent stint at the Department of State’s communications shop and Murray having been the deputy press secretary for Snyder.
The change comes as Snyder has been under heavy criticism for how his office has responded to the Flint water crisis. He already had brought on public relations professional Bill Nowling and another firm through his nonprofit to assist with communications.
Adler has served as communications chief for legislative leaders, most recently as communications director for former House Speaker Jase Bolger. He joined the Executive Office in 2015 working on long-term strategy. Snyder said he will serve as the governor’s primary spokesperson.
“Ari has a long history of service to the people of Michigan as a journalist, teacher and media relations professional,” Snyder said in a statement. “His experience in state government, the Legislature and the private sector have made him a trusted resource for journalists seeking to share information with the public.”
The news sent shockwaves through the Capitol community.
The action is “a continuation of shoot the messenger rather than deal with the central problem, which is clearly in the front office,” said Kelly Rossman-McKinney of Truscott Rossman, a top communications firm in the state.
There were clearly failures in the overall administration when dealing with the Flint water crisis and the Legionnaire’s Disease, Rossman-McKinney said, and one could ask why top staffers, such as John Walsh, Beth Clement, Harvey Hollins or Agen aren’t being held accountable.
“Meegan wasn’t even there” during the development of the decisions that lead up to the crisis, she said, which made her removal “most puzzling.”
Rossman acknowledged that both Holland and Murray had a more journalistic outlook and “it may be time to get a strategist.”
As communications director, the administration needs someone who can speak “truth to power” and can be objective. “I’m not sure keeping it in the family is the best,” she said.
There were at least two widely criticized situations recently. Snyder and his staff took major heat for his signing of a bill with funds for Flint in Grand Rapids before the Michigan Press Association annual conference instead of having the event in Flint.
And Michigan Radio, a key early reporter on the Flint water crisis, recently revealed that the administration had limited its contact with the organization in protest to how it had covered some aspects of the story.
Matt Marsden of the RevSix voter data firm, a former longtime spokesperson for elected officials, said the moves mean little without a more fundamental change in approach.
“From my experience in communications and politics, you can’t just do the same thing again and again and again and expect a different outcome,” he said. “Until they start shooting straight and not putting up this that and the other as an excuse for something, be direct, I don’t know that it’s going to be a big changer for this administration.”
T.J. Bucholz of the Vanguard Public Affairs communications firm, a former deputy press secretary during the administration of Governor Jennifer Granholm, said some of the blame for the administration’s communications woes has to come back on Agen.
“As long as the person who was communications director is still calling the shots, it will be difficult to completely change the tone and direction of the administration,” he said.
A former reporter himself, Bucholz said sometimes reporters can smoothly transition into public relations but sometimes they cannot. And the Flint water crisis presented an extremely difficult challenge.
“To work in a governor’s office with that kind of pace, you can’t go in there with next to no previous public relations experience. You just can’t,” he said. “Crisis is one thing, but to have a long-term crisis and be in crisis mode is challenging for communications professionals.”
One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Adler as Snyder’s new director and primary spokesperson could make sense because of his background dealing with scandal. He was Bolger’s spokesperson when the scandal over former Rep. Roy Schmidt’s party change and attempt to prevent Democrats from nominating a legitimate challenger occurred.
The shake-up doesn’t necessarily land on Agen, either, this source said, because Murray was close with the governor and was the clear successor to Snyder’s former press secretary, Sara Wurfel. This source didn’t think Holland and Murray were necessarily Agen’s hires.
This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com
