COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft yesterday named a longtime aide who serves as his liaison to state and federal lawmakers to be his new chief of staff.
Jonathan Allison, 36, currently a deputy chief of staff for intergovernmental affairs, will begin his new job Aug. 1, Taft said.
His salary has not been set. He makes $104,000 in his present position. Departing chief of staff Brian Hicks earns $118,000 yearly.
Taft cited Allison's experience in the public and private sector and his background working on legislation and communications.
Allison previously worked for Taft as legislative and communications director during most of Taft's second term as secretary of state, which ended in 1998.
Allison also ran a government and public affairs consulting firm and worked for a Columbus-based Internet company specializing in products for government.
Hicks said Tuesday he decided to resign at the end of the month now that the state's 2004-05 budget is in place. He regularly worked 12-hour days and rarely saw his two young children, he said.
Hicks said he will form a public affairs consulting company in Columbus and work on political campaigns, including the November ballot initiative to allow Ohio to borrow $500 million for high-tech research and job development. The money would be part of Taft's $1.6 billion Third Frontier initiative.
As chief of staff, Hicks was involved in all areas of Taft's administration, advising the governor on top policy, political and legislative issues.
Taft, a Republican, often consulted with Hicks through the day and into the night, calling him with questions from the governor's residence.
Hicks, a former Ohio State University student body president, worked for U.S. Rep. Mike Oxley in Washington before Taft hired him when Hicks was 26.
Hicks had an unusually close relationship with Taft and a broader range of responsibilities than chiefs of staff often have, said political analyst John Green.
Under many governors, a chief of staff is more a clerk than a top administrator, and even those who are administrators are not political advisers, said Green, director of the University of Akron's Ray C. Bliss Institute for Applied Politics.
"Brian really combined all of those things," Green said. "That made him unusually powerful."
Hicks downplayed his influence, saying he was one of a number of advisers whom the governor consulted. He said the final decision always rested with Taft.
"One of the roles of a chief of staff is to give good solid information, advice, recommendations to the governor," Hicks said. "Sometimes the governor takes them, sometimes the governor doesn't. At the end of the day the governor's the governor."
He acknowledged he owed his current job and status to Taft and his decision to hire him 12 years ago.
"He gave me opportunities that I couldn't have dreamed to have had," Hicks said. "I owe a great deal to this governor."
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