( – promoted by odum)

The exodus continues, per the AP…

Another official from the administration of Gov. Jim Douglas is going to work for the Vermont operations of FairPoint Communications.

Sabina Haskell is currently deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.

On Feb. 8 she will become FairPoint’s new director of public relations.

She’s gonna need a whole lot of lipstick for that pig. But I’m sure she’ll be very well compensated. Certainly it’ll be more lucrative than editing the Brattleboro Reformer. Career advice for aspiring journalists: your soul is your most marketable asset.  

Adding another thought here, and perhaps stating the obvious. Haskell went from journalism to government PR, to a top executive position at a major state agency, and is now going back to PR. Now, journalism and PR are two sides of the same coin — or the yin and yang of the communications trade. Management (and specifically environmental management) is a completely different field that requires completely different skills and experience.

I take this as additional evidence that she was unqualified to be deputy secretary of the ANR. No executive experience (or environmental experience, natch) before that, and no executive posting afterward.

If that’s not bad enough, she only served a little over six months as deputy secretary. Hardly enough time to get a handle on the job, even if she were qualified for it. Y’know, if our state government doesn’t work as effectively as it could, maybe we should look at the revolving-door policy and rampant cronyism among Douglas’ top executives, rather than at the supposed laziness of the (unionized) state workforce.