I had the opportunity today to interview State Treasurer Cary Kennedy. She is easily the most personable elected official I have met to date (and that is a very high standard). She does an amazing job of connecting with people. She also clearly loves her job and feels very good about how well she is performing - and deservedly so.
Shortly after I arrived she started a tour of her office before our interview and I was allowed to tag along. It was an 8th grade class, from the middle school she went to. She talked to them about the job and what was fascinating was over half the kids were clearly paying attention and following what she said. That's impressive for a class of kids dragged down to the capitol.
In that tour we got to see the most secure kitchen in the state. Yes, the treasurer's office kitchen is well protected - it's in the original vault. No one will be stealing their lunches. It's a sensible use of the space - but it sure is humorous to see what's behind the old vault door.
She also introduced all of us to Bucky Buckley. When Mike Coffman became treasurer he brought a golden retriever puppy to work with him. Buckley grew up there for the 8 years Mike Coffman was in office. When Cary took over, the staff asked her if Buckley could still come in and she happily agreed. So Mike Coffman's wife drops Buckley off each morning and he spends the day at the office. Now that's bipartisanship.
And then at the final Q&A for the class she was asked if she will be running for governor. Very non-committal answer followed up with she has a job to do in the treasurer's office and will be running for re-election to that in 2 years. So, as everyone already knows, she's clearly considering it.
So then we dived in to the interview which was me asking a question and then listening, and listening, and listening. Cary gives detailed answers. And those answers will then continue on to associated topics. It's all on-topic and good points, but it's like drinking from a fire-hose. What's interesting is it not her talking herself up (she is quick to give credit to others) nor is it selling a point of view. Rather it comes across as a desire to answer a question in full - give the big picture. Cary is definitely a policy nerd (I mean that as a compliment).
So what's the job of the treasurer? The initial discussion and we kept returning to it was to carefully guard the people's money. And that the priorities are security, liquidity, and finally definitely last - yield. She does not view her job as turning the money into more money but rather to make sure it is there as the state needs to pay it out.
How's she doing? None of the principal the state has invested has been lost. None. Not only that but because they went for very secure investments, Colorado is presently seeing a rate of return well above the market average due to everything else tanking. I think the best measure of how good a job she is doing is the dog that didn't bark - there's no stories in the press, no complaints from Republicans, nothing - about problems or mistakes in her office's investing.
One interesting point on the investments. When she took office about 1/3 of the funds were in a single investment with one of the major banks. She was uncomfortable about that level of concentration and had it split out, even though that meant a smaller return on investment. And when the economy tanked - Colorado avoided what would have been a major financial problem.
She also talked a lot about getting the state's finances on-line. A large part of it is already on-line with the "state's checkbook" being the final part they are working on. I asked her if they received many inquiries from having the budget, etc. on-line and she said they get very few questions. Her office is the perfect place to run this because they don't set the budget, they don't spend the money, they just track it. So they have no dog in the fight over what is supposed to be going on.
They are also working on a Show Me The Money program. This will let you enter some general information about how much you make, where you live, the value of your house, etc. and it will then dive in showing you how much you are paying in taxes and where it goes. I think this is great because it lets you show the "no taxes" crowd how much they are receiving in return for their taxes. People see N billions for program X and think that is way too much. But if you see it as $26.53 that you pay and in return what you get - it puts it in perspective.
She also talked about the program that pools capital expenditures and uses that to fund school improvements - especially for smaller districts that cannot afford to rebuild their one decrepit school building because they don't have the tax base to cover it. Her job is to run the program but she put in a lot of effort to get it approved and clearly sees the benefits it brings to school districts that desperately need it.
The other thing that was fascinating about Cary Kennedy was that she is quick to share credit and reticent to cast blame. And hand in hand with that she comes across as a-partisan (I blame the dog). She is all about what needs to be done. This manifested itself in a couple of ways.
Several times she talked about changes she had made, and why. And the clear take-away from that was that Mike Coffman did not do that as well. But she would then immediately follow up with a comment along the lines of the old approach made sense before.
She also talked about legislative efforts on bills that impact her office. The first was the BEST bill where she had fulsome praise for Andrew Romanoff getting it passed. the second was the state checkbook work where she had equal praise for Don Marostica's efforts to move this forward. Nothing about party in either case, just the work they did to make these efforts happen.
So what do we get with Cary Kennedy? Quiet competence. And with that a focus on what programs & policies are needed to improve the state. I think that makes for a very effective leader. I do worry that her focus on governing well hurts her when it comes to running for office - but then I remember that she won a contested election to a statewide office.
