Personnel is policy — and Boliek is testing the system’s limits
A staffing dust-up in the state auditor’s office is really a test of whether North Carolina’s personnel rules let elected leaders govern.
There are a few so-called “Reagan rules” still floating around the political ether, but one of the most apt is this: Personnel is policy.
The phrase is generally credited to Scot Faulkner, who managed staffing for President Ronald Reagan’s team after the 1980 election. His point was that a president may hold a title, but the levers of change really run through the people who actually move paper, manage teams, and decide what gets prioritized. An agenda means nothing without implementation.
The same holds true in North Carolina. That’s why the recent dust-up around State Auditor Dave Boliek’s staffing moves matters more than the usual partisan reflexes suggest. Boliek’s office says it paid $747,000 in settlements and attorney fees tied to staffing changes.
It’s fair to ask whether the process was handled cleanly. But the larger question isn’t whether “personnel” has gotten too political. It’s whether our personnel rules are structured in a way that lets elected leaders actually lead.
